A website launch is an exciting and anxious event. It\u2019s the culmination of weeks, months, or years worth of hard work. And a website launch checklist helps you keep that event on the rails.<\/p>\n
Why do we need a website launch checklist?\u00a0<\/h2>\n
No matter how experienced you are, mistakes can happen. In this article, we\u2019ve created a comprehensive checklist of tasks that web designers and developers should consider when launching a new site.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By following this checklist\u2014or better yet, customizing it to create your own\u2014you\u2019ll have a documented process to guide you through every website launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Make every launch a smooth one\u00a0<\/h2>\n
For web designers and developers, a smooth website launch builds client confidence and demonstrates your expertise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/figure>\nGo from idea to online in minutes with GoDaddy Airo\u2122<\/h5>\n
Get started now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n However, if a launch doesn\u2019t go as planned, it can quickly erode trust and damage your professional reputation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Generally, a website launch consists of three phases:\u00a0<\/p>\n In most professional web development environments, this work occurs across three servers:\u00a0<\/p>\n For smaller operations, the Development and Staging environments might be one and the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n On our WordPress Hosting<\/a> plans, for example, we see users doing design and development and testing on the built-in staging site. If everything looks good, they\u2019ll push the staging site to their live site.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, if you\u2019re ready to launch a website, we\u2019ll assume that you\u2019re using some kind of development or staging server to safely build and test the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n You can never be too safe when preparing for a website launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Because every environment is different, we\u2019re going to list things to remember and things to be aware of, rather than giving step-by-step instructions. We\u2019ll also be platform and host-agnostic in our descriptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n In order to be as thorough as possible, let\u2019s take a closer look at what the website launch checklist should include.<\/p>\n Keep your client informed about timelines and deliverables. Clearly communicate what to expect and when\u2014including potential delays during the launch process.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to set realistic expectations without causing unnecessary concern. For instance, DNS propagation might delay the site going live for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reassure your client that they\u2019re in capable hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n With the necessary credentials and access, you can troubleshoot any issues that arise smoothly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Collect all the credentials needed to launch the site and address any potential issues. Inform the client not to change these credentials until the site is live. You\u2019ll need usernames and passwords for the following:\u00a0<\/p>\n Test these credentials the day before and the day of the launch to avoid being locked out during the process.<\/p>\n Airline pilots use checklists to ensure they never miss a step, contributing to the safety and smooth operation of flights.\u00a0<\/p>\n While launching a website isn\u2019t as critical, following a defined procedure similarly reduces the likelihood of overlooking important tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check for design consistency<\/strong>. The site header and footer, typography, color scheme, spacing and other standard site elements should be consistent across all pages.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check all the text, images, media and links<\/strong>. Is everything working? Are the links pointing to the right destinations? Any typos or grammar issues? Consider using a spreadsheet or project management tool to keep track of any problems you encounter while reviewing the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check for potential legal issues<\/strong>. The website belongs to your client, not to you. Legal issues \u2014 privacy policies, user agreements, image licensing terms, et al \u2014 are your client\u2019s responsibility. Have them double-check that everything is OK before you go live.\u00a0<\/p>\n When in doubt, your client should refer to their legal counsel, not to you. You\u2019re a web professional, not a lawyer. (Unless you are, in fact, a lawyer.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Optimize the site to load quickly<\/strong>. This includes optimizing images<\/a>, caching static assets, and using a CDN. Page speed continues to rise in importance for user satisfaction, site performance and SEO rankings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Test that the site works across all major browsers and devices.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Test on Mac, PC, iOS and Android. You can run a test with physical devices; with software, like the browser\u2019s Dev Tools; or with a service like BrowserStack<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Test the site for accessibility issues<\/strong>. An accessible website<\/a> is better for everyone. For some organizations, an accessible website may even be required by law.\u00a0<\/p>\n WebAIM\u2019s WCAG 2 checklist<\/a>, and the website accessibility checklist<\/a> from The A11y Project are good starting points.\u00a0<\/p>\n Enhance your website security against spammers and common security threats<\/strong>. Consider using reputable security plugins to enhance protection against common malware and brute force attacks on WordPress sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also want to protect the site from spammers using a plugin like Akismet, Clean Talk or Antispam Bee.\u00a0<\/p>\n If your client doesn\u2019t want to deal with comments, you can disable them entirely with the Disable Comments plugin. You can also choose to disable comments on a per-post or per-page basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the site isn\u2019t built with WordPress, you can still use a security monitoring service like GoDaddy Website Security<\/a> to keep an eye on the site. Who manages and pays for the service will depend on your arrangement with your client.\u00a0<\/p>\n Replacing an existing site? Check for corresponding content<\/strong>. The most important and most popular pages of the existing site should have corresponding pages and content on the new site.\u00a0<\/p>\n This helps prevent the site from losing search traffic when Google spots missing content. Setting up URL redirects helps with the switch. (More on that below.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Ensure the site is optimized for search engines<\/strong>. Meta titles, meta descriptions and page headings should include the keywords\/topic the page is trying to rank for.\u00a0<\/p>\n All meta titles and descriptions should be unique.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Page headings should be wrapped in <\/p>\n Pro tip: For large sites, you can use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl the site and check for duplicate meta titles, broken links and other potential site errors.\u00a0<\/p>\n What should you use to handle SEO? The Yoast SEO plugin is our go-to recommendation for most WordPress sites. (It\u2019s what we use on the GoDaddy blog.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Not using WordPress? Your SEO options will vary depending on the platform you\u2019re using to build the site. If the under-construction site isn\u2019t locked down, you can use a tool like Neil Patel\u2019s SEO Analyzer <\/a>to get an SEO score.\u00a0<\/p>\n Connect the site to Google Search Console<\/strong>. Connect the new site to Search Console once it\u2019s live. Search Console is how Google communicates with website owners, and it\u2019s absolutely necessary for troubleshooting SEO issues on Google.\u00a0<\/p>\n Enhance the site\u2019s SEO with advanced technical practices like schema markup, canonicalization, and structured data.\u00a0<\/p>\n These improvements help search engines better understand your content and avoid duplicate content issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n Schema markup<\/strong>: Implement schema markup to help search engines comprehend the content and context of the website, enabling rich results in search listings. Use structured data types relevant to your website\u2019s content.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canonicalization<\/strong>: Set canonical URLs to indicate the preferred version of a webpage. This ensures that duplicate content across different URLs is attributed to a single, canonical version, preventing duplicate content issues and consolidating ranking signals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Structured data<\/strong>: Utilize structured data to clearly define information on the website, allowing search engines to interpret your content more effectively and enhance your site\u2019s visibility in search results.\u00a0<\/p>\n Optimize website crawlability by configuring and verifying the robots.txt file to control how search engines crawl the\u00a0 site. This ensures that search engines can efficiently crawl and index website pages.\u00a0<\/p>\n Steps to configure your robots.txt file:\u00a0<\/p>\n Ensure the site is optimized for social sharing<\/strong>. What shows up when someone shares a link from the site on Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere?\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to configure the Facebook and Twitter preview settings for the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are a variety of plugins that\u2019ll handle this for you on WordPress.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Otherwise, you\u2019ll need to check the configuration options for whatever platform you\u2019re using.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check out our guide to social media image sizes<\/a> to know how big those preview images should be.\u00a0<\/p>\n Add social sharing buttons<\/strong>. Make it easy for the site\u2019s visitors to share the site on social networks and elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n Again, there are a variety of WordPress plugins that\u2019ll handle this, like Ultimate Social<\/a>, Scriptless Social<\/a> and Hustle<\/a>. Otherwise, you\u2019ll need to rely on whatever platform you\u2019re using.\u00a0<\/p>\n Add a favicon<\/strong>. The favicon \u2014 or \u201csite icon\u201d \u2014 appears in the browser tab and makes the site easy to identify at a glance when a bunch of tabs are open.\u00a0<\/p>\n In WordPress, you can add a favicon under \u201cSite Identity<\/a>.” Otherwise, the favicon configuration will depend on the site platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n Set up a web analytics tool<\/strong>. You won\u2019t know if the site is working if you\u2019re not tracking how it\u2019s used. That\u2019s where web analytics come in. Google Analytics<\/a> is the de-facto standard because it\u2019s powerful, free, and integrates with Google Ads. Here\u2019s how to get started with it<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Google Analytics isn\u2019t your only option for web analytics, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n If you\u2019re looking for a simple, privacy-minded alternative, check out Fathom<\/a> or Simple Analytics<\/a>. If you\u2019re looking for an open-source alternative to Google Analytics, check out Matomo<\/a> or Open Web Analytics<\/a>. There\u2019s also AWStats<\/a>, which comes bundled with many shared hosting plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n While these latter tools may not be as powerful as Google Analytics, they may be the right fit for the website you\u2019re about to launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n Weight their features and benefits against what you or your client needs for the website\u00a0<\/p>\n Review the products<\/strong>. Check images, descriptions, attributes, reviews and other information. Look out for test products that might still be listed on the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n Test transactions<\/strong>. Test all payment methods. Make sure the transactions are completed, receipts are sent, etc. … as expected. Also, check your back-end reporting for any issues. <\/p>\n Review system emails<\/strong>. System emails \u2014 also called transactional emails or informational emails \u2014 are usually triggered by some kind of customer interaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alerts, confirmations, receipts, refunds, etc., are all common in an online store. Ensure the emails are sent as expected, and that their content is accurate and appropriate. (Look out for placeholder text!)\u00a0<\/p>\n Test customer functionality<\/strong>. Go through the motions as a customer. Create an account, add items to the cart, make a purchase, cancel a purchase. You get the idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019re looking for gaps and oversights in the experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Do any steps feel broken or like a poor experience? It\u2019s better to catch these now than for a customer to catch them and complain, or worse, say nothing at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Review support content.<\/strong> Ecommerce websites will usually have a \u201cHelp,\u201d \u201cSupport\u201d or \u201cCustomer Service\u201d section. Review the content. Is anything missing? Is there any placeholder content that should be updated or removed?\u00a0<\/p>\n Configure funnels and goals in Google Analytics<\/strong>. Enable Ecommerce in Google Analytics, then set up your goals and funnels<\/a> to report on purchases and other transactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Heads up: Don\u2019t forget to reconfigure your payment gateway<\/strong>. Check that your payment gateways aren\u2019t in Test mode or using staging URLs. Depending on your approach, you might want to change these before or after deploying the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n Likewise: Pushing an exact copy of the Staging site to Production might break the connection with the credit card processor. Have a $1 product you can purchase just to test a transaction after the site goes live\u00a0<\/p>\n Encrypt traffic with an SSL certificate<\/strong>. All websites should be secured with an SSL certificate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Use the right type of SSL certificate<\/strong>. Basic SSL certificates verify that a user has a secure connection to the website.\u00a0<\/p>\n Advanced certificates (Organization Validation and Extended Validation) go further, verifying the ownership and identity of the website. These are good for ecommerce websites and any type of site handling sensitive data.\u00a0<\/p>\n Purchase the SSL certificate <\/strong><\/a>ahead of time<\/strong>. OV and EV certificates take longer to verify, so make sure they\u2019re ready to go well in advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related:\u00a0<\/p>\n Changing the URL of an existing site? Plan ahead.<\/strong> For example, if moving from OldDomain.com to NewDomain.com, improper handling can significantly impact the site\u2019s performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Google\u2019s Change of Address Tool <\/a>can assist with moving websites from one domain to another, but it only applies to the website content. A domain change affects more than just the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n At a high level, you\u2019ll need to prepare for:\u00a0<\/p>\n Changing page URLs? Implement 301 redirects<\/strong>. For instance, if you\u2019re redesigning an ecommerce site and changing page URLs (e.g., from \u201c\/store\/old-product\/\u201d to \u201c\/shop\/new-product\/\u201d), you don\u2019t want to lose traffic to the old product pages.\u00a0<\/p>\n By setting up URL redirects, you direct traffic to the new pages and protect the site\u2019s SEO.<\/p>\n Before going live, create a list of old and new page URLs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n On the new site, implement URL redirects that point old URLs to the corresponding new ones. On a cPanel hosting plan, use the .htaccess file to create redirects. If using WordPress, plugins like Redirection or Yoast SEO can manage redirects.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Configure web font services, 3rd party tools and APIs. Services like Adobe TypeKit and Google Fonts are popular solutions for handling web fonts. Google Fonts works everywhere, but paid services\u2014 like Adobe TypeKit \u2014 will only load on sites associated with a TypeKit account.\u00a0<\/p>\n The same goes for other third-party tools and APIs, like Google Analytics or the Facebook tracking pixel.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the website domain doesn\u2019t match what\u2019s in their system, the tool\/service won\u2019t work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n To avoid this, make sure to configure the services for both the staging site (for development and testing) and the live site.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, you should have separate Google Analytics properties for the staging site and live site.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check that the site\u2019s emails are being sent and received<\/strong>. Depending on where the live site is hosted, the emails it generates may get blocked by email service providers like Gmail and Outlook. Or it may be that the web host won\u2019t let the site send emails at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n This means that, if you\u2019re using WordPress, the system emails \u2014 like new account notifications or admin alerts \u2014 won\u2019t get through, or won\u2019t be sent in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s happening there?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Email service providers may blocklist servers that have a history of sending spam. This means that emails sent from large web hosts may get filtered or blocked by the recipient.\u00a0<\/p>\n To avoid having their servers abused by spammers, some web hosts disable sending emails altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n If emails are getting flagged as spam: Update the site\u2019s DNS records with an SPF record<\/a> allowlisting the web host. Here\u2019s how to do it with domains hosted at GoDaddy.\u00a0<\/p>\n If emails aren\u2019t being sent: Configure the site to send emails through a separate service. If you\u2019re using WordPress, the WP Mail SMTP plugin<\/a> can connect the site to an SMTP service like SendGrid, Mailgun or Gmail.\u00a0<\/p>\n Never go live on a Friday<\/strong>. No one wants to work on the weekend and clients don\u2019t want to be called on a Friday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aim for earlier in the week, like Monday or Tuesday. You have more runway if issues arise, and it\u2019s easier to get a hold of people during the week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let your client know when the deployment begins<\/strong>. This ties back to our first point around setting expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n You want to be transparent but reassuring.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Give them an idea of what\u2019s happening and how long you expect it to take. Clear communication can put a lot of worries to rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n Back everything up<\/strong>. Run a final backup of the new site and, if applicable, the existing site that you\u2019re about to replace.\u00a0<\/p>\n Worst-case scenario, if something goes wrong during the deployment, you\u2019ll be able to restore the backups and try again.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pointing an existing domain to a new IP? Wait for DNS propagation<\/strong>. A common approach to website redesigns is to deploy the new site to a new server, then point the existing domain to the new server\u2019s IP address.\u00a0<\/p>\n It may take a while (24 to 48 hours) for the DNS update to propagate across the internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Remove unnecessary bloat after the deployment ends<\/strong>. Any content, code or plugins you needed for the deployment, but don\u2019t need for the live site, should be removed. This limits the amount of data you need to migrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check everything again<\/strong>. Review all the pages, images, media, links and forms. Test the site\u2019s performance with Google PageSpeed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nFirst things first: What\u2019s included in a website launch?\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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What does the website launch checklist include?\u00a0<\/h2>\n
1. Set client expectations\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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2. Gather the credentials\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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3. Follow procedures\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nReview everything\u00a0<\/h3>\n
Speed, performance, and accessibility\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Spam and security\u00a0<\/h3>\n
SEO and Google Search Console\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Implement advanced technical SEO practices\u00a0<\/h4>\n
Configure and verify robots.txt file\u00a0<\/h4>\n
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Social media\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Favicon\u00a0<\/h3>\n
Web analytics\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Ecommerce considerations\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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SSL certificates\u00a0<\/h3>\n
URL changes and redirects\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Email deliverability\u00a0<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/website-launch-checklist-woman-typing-on-laptop.jpg?size=3840x0\"\/)
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4. Deploy the site\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/website-launch-checklist-coworkers-looking-at-laptop.jpg?size=3840x0\"\/)
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