By Alisdair Blackman
The final hours before a website launch can be intense. To help project managers stay focused and avoid last-minute surprises, here’s a comprehensive checklist covering technical, functional, and strategic essentials.
Standards & Validation
Ensure your site meets web standards and passes validation checks:
- HTML, CSS, and JavaScript validation
- Accessibility compliance (WCAG)
- Semantic markup for content structure
SEO, Search Visibility & Analytics
Set your site up for discoverability and performance tracking:
- Clear, keyword-rich page titles
- Metadata descriptions for key pages
- Canonical domain consistency (e.g. resolve www vs non-www)
- Keyword usage in body content
- SEO-friendly URL structure
- XML sitemap creation
- Google Search Console & Bing Webmaster Tools setup
- Analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics, FeedBurner) configured
Functional Testing
Verify that all core functionality works across environments:
- Custom features and integrations
- Site search accuracy and relevance
- Browser compatibility (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, IE)
- Platform testing (Windows, macOS, Linux)
- Screen resolution responsiveness
- Form testing (contact forms, comment forms, spam filters, confirmation messages)
- Graceful degradation without JavaScript, Flash, or plug-ins
- External link validation
Security & Risk Management
Protect your site and prepare for contingencies:
- Backup schedule configured and tested
- Admin areas secured
- robots.txt configured appropriately
- Penetration/security testing completed
- Verbose error reporting disabled
- Disk space and server capacity checked
- Monitoring alerts (email/SMS) set up for errors and warnings
- Internal and external uptime monitoring tools in place
Performance Optimization
Ensure your site loads quickly and scales effectively:
- Load testing completed
- Image optimization
- Caching configured
- Minification/compression of static files (CSS, JS, HTML)
- Efficient CSS structure and image paths
- Database indexing verified
- Server and CMS configuration reviewed
- Logging tools activated (web server, database)
Final Touches
Polish the user experience:
- Custom 404 and error pages
- Favicon added
- Branding and tone-of-voice consistency across pages
Final Thought
A successful launch isn’t just about going live – it’s about going live with confidence.
This checklist helps ensure your site is secure, performant, discoverable, and ready to deliver value from day one.
