Website launch checklist — 25 things to do before you go live

Search engines are often the single largest source of traffic for a website, but they can only send you traffic if they can find, understand, and trust your pages. Our SEO basics guide covers these fundamentals in detail. These six items make sure you are not invisible on launch day.

1. Title tags on every page. The title tag is the single most important on-page SEO element. It appears in browser tabs, search results, and social shares. Every page on your site needs a unique, descriptive title tag — ideally under 60 characters so it does not get truncated in search results. A homepage title might be "Your Brand — What You Do" while a product page title should include the product name and a key benefit. To check this, open every page on your site and look at the browser tab. If any page says "Untitled" or has a generic title, fix it before launch. You can also use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your entire site and flag pages with missing or duplicate titles.

2. Meta descriptions on every page. Meta descriptionsdo not directly affect rankings, but they massively affect click-through rates. A well-written meta description is your ad copy in search results — it convinces someone to click your link instead of the one above or below it. Keep them between 120 and 155 characters. Each page should have a unique description that summarizes the page content and includes a reason to click. To verify, view the page source and search for <meta name="description">. If it is missing or says something generic, write a real one. Google will sometimes override your description, but having a good one gives you the best chance of controlling what appears.

3. Sitemap.xml generated and submitted to Google Search Console. A sitemap tells search engines which pages exist on your site and how they relate to each other. Without one, search engines have to discover your pages by following links — which means deeper pages might never get indexed. Most CMS platforms and frameworks generate sitemaps automatically. Check by visiting yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml in your browser. If it loads an XML file listing your pages, you are good. Then go to Google Search Console, navigate to Sitemaps, and submit the URL. This does not guarantee instant indexing, but it tells Google exactly where to look.

4. Robots.txt configured correctly. The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which parts of your site they are allowed to access. A misconfigured robots.txt can accidentally block your entire site from being indexed — this happens more often than you would think, especially when a development environment's "Disallow: /" rule gets carried over to production. Check by visiting yourdomain.com/robots.txt. You should see rules that allow access to your public pages and block only things that should not be indexed (admin panels, staging areas, internal search results). Make sure your sitemap URL is referenced in the robots.txt file as well.

5. Canonical URLs set. Canonical tags tell search engines which version of a page is the "official" one. This matters because the same content can often be reached through multiple URLs — with or without www, with or without a trailing slash, with query parameters for tracking or sorting. Without canonical tags, search engines might split your ranking power across multiple URLs or index the wrong version. Every page should have a self-referencing canonical tag in the head: <link rel="canonical" href="https://yourdomain.com/page">. Check your key pages by viewing the source and searching for "canonical". If you use a CMS, there is usually a setting or plugin for this. If you built a custom site, add canonical tags to your template.

6. Open Graph tags for social sharing. When someone shares your page on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Slack, Open Graph tags control what appears — the title, description, and image. Without them, social platforms pull whatever they can find, which is usually wrong or ugly. At minimum, set og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:url on every page. The og:image should be at least 1200 x 630 pixels. Test your tags by pasting your URL into the Facebook Sharing Debugger or Twitter Card Validator. Fix any warnings before launch, because first impressions on social media are hard to undo — people share your link once, and the preview image gets cached.

A website that loads slowly loses visitors before they see a single word of your content. Google uses page speed as a ranking factor, and our guide on how to speed up your website covers every technique in detail. Users expect pages to load in two seconds or less. These four items ensure your site is fast enough to compete.

7. Page speed test — target green on Core Web Vitals. Core Web Vitals are Google's official metrics for user experience: Largest Contentful Paint (how fast the main content loads), Interaction to Next Paint (how responsive the page is to clicks), and Cumulative Layout Shift (how much the layout jumps around while loading). Run your homepage and your most important landing pages through Google PageSpeed Insights. You want green scores — that means LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds, and CLS under 0.1. If any metric is red or orange, fix it before launch. PageSpeed Insights tells you exactly what is slowing things down and what to fix first. Do not obsess over the overall score number — focus on passing the three Core Web Vitals.

8. Images optimized — WebP, compressed, lazy loaded. Images are the heaviest assets on most websites. An unoptimized hero image can be 3-5 MB — larger than the rest of the page combined. Before launch, convert your images to WebP format (25-35% smaller than JPEG at the same quality), compress them using a tool like Squoosh or TinyPNG, and add loading="lazy" to every image that is not visible in the initial viewport. Also make sure you are serving images at the size they are displayed, not at their original camera resolution. A 400-pixel-wide thumbnail does not need a 4000-pixel source file. Check your Network tab in browser DevTools and sort by size — if any image is over 200 KB, it probably needs attention.

9. Mobile responsive on real devices. Browser DevTools can simulate mobile screens, but they do not catch everything. Touch targets that are too small, text that is unreadable without zooming, horizontal scrolling caused by an element that is too wide — these issues are easier to spot on a real phone. Before launch, open your site on an actual iPhone and an actual Android device. Tap through every page. Fill out a form. Read an entire blog post. If anything feels awkward or broken, fix it. Over half of web traffic is mobile, so this is not optional. Google also uses mobile-first indexing, meaning the mobile version of your site is what gets evaluated for search rankings.

10. HTTPS enabled. If your site does not use HTTPS, browsers will show a "Not Secure" warning to every visitor. That alone is reason enough to fix it — but HTTPS is also a Google ranking factor, and it is required for many modern browser features. Most hosting platforms provide free SSL certificates through Let's Encrypt. Check by visiting your site and looking at the address bar. You should see a lock icon. Also verify that HTTP URLs redirect to HTTPS — type http://yourdomain.com into your browser and confirm it redirects to the https version. If it does not, set up a redirect. Every page, not just the homepage, should be served over HTTPS.

Your launch is one of the most interesting moments in your website's life. People visit for the first time, they form opinions, they either convert or leave. If you are not measuring what happens, you are flying blind. These four items ensure you capture the data you need from day one.

11. Analytics installed and collecting data. This sounds obvious, but it is one of the most commonly missed items. If you are new to analytics, our website analytics for beginners guide can help you get started. Install your analytics tool before launch and verify it is actually recording visits. Open your site in an incognito window, click through a few pages, and then check your analytics dashboard to confirm those visits appear. If you are using a tool like sourcebeam, this takes about two minutes — add the tracking snippet to your site, visit a page, and check the dashboard. If you are using Google Analytics, the setup is more involved, but the verification step is the same. Do not wait until a week after launch to discover your tracking code was only on the homepage or was blocked by an ad blocker you forgot to account for.

12. Goals and conversions configured. Raw pageview data is useful, but it does not tell you whether your website is actually working. Before launch, define what a "conversion" means for your site — it might be a form submission, a purchase, a signup, or a download — and configure your analytics tool to track it. Most analytics platforms let you set up goal tracking based on URL destinations (like a thank-you page), events (like a button click), or revenue. Set these up before launch so you have conversion data from day one. Going back and trying to figure out your conversion rate retroactively is messy and unreliable.

13. UTM parameter strategy ready. If you are going to promote your launch through email, social media, paid ads, or partnerships, you need UTM parameters on your links so you can tell where your traffic is coming from. Decide on a naming convention before launch and stick to it. Use utm_source for the platform (twitter, newsletter, google), utm_medium for the type of traffic (social, email, cpc), and utm_campaign for the specific campaign (launch, spring-sale). Create a simple spreadsheet or document with your UTM conventions so everyone on your team uses the same format. Inconsistent UTM parameters — like using "Twitter" in one link and "twitter" in another — split your data and make it harder to analyze.

14. 404 error page set up. People will mistype URLs. Old links from other sites will break. Pages will get moved or renamed. When any of this happens, visitors land on a 404 page. The default 404 page on most servers is ugly and unhelpful — it offers no navigation, no search, and no reason to stay. Create a custom 404 page that matches your site's design, includes your main navigation, suggests popular pages, and has a search bar if your site supports search. Also set up monitoring so you know which 404 URLs are getting hit most often — this tells you which broken links to fix first. Check your 404 page by visiting a URL that does not exist on your site, like yourdomain.com/this-page-does-not-exist.

A technically perfect website still fails if the content is broken, the links go nowhere, or the forms do not work. These six items cover the things that real visitors will notice immediately.

15. All links work — no broken links. Broken links erode trust instantly. A visitor clicks a link expecting to find something useful and instead gets an error page. They leave. Search engines penalize sites with excessive broken links too. Before launch, run your site through a link checker like Screaming Frog, Broken Link Checker, or the W3C Link Checker. These tools crawl every page and report links that return 404 errors or other problems. Pay special attention to links in your navigation, footer, and any calls to action — those are the highest-traffic links. Also check external links, because a resource you linked to three months ago during development might have moved or disappeared since then.

16. Forms tested — contact, signup, checkout. If your website has forms, test every single one. Fill them out with real data and submit them. Verify that the data arrives where it is supposed to — in your email inbox, your CRM, your database, or whatever system receives it. Test form validation: what happens when someone leaves a required field empty? What happens when they enter an invalid email address? Check the confirmation message or redirect after submission. Test on mobile, because mobile form experiences are often worse than desktop. If you have a checkout flow, complete an actual test purchase from start to finish. Use your payment processor's test mode or test card numbers — do not skip this step. A broken checkout on launch day is lost revenue.

17. Favicon and social share image set. The favicon is the small icon that appears in browser tabs, bookmarks, and mobile home screens. Without one, your site looks unfinished. Create a favicon in multiple sizes (at minimum 32x32 and 180x180 for Apple touch icons) and add the appropriate link tags to your HTML head. For your social share image (the og:image from item 6), create a clean, branded image at 1200 x 630 pixels that looks good when shared on any platform. This is often the first visual impression of your brand — a blurry, cropped, or missing share image makes your site look amateur.

18. Privacy policy and terms pages. If your website collects any data — and it almost certainly does, even if it is just analytics — you need a privacy policy. This is not just good practice; it is legally required in many jurisdictions (GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and many others). Your privacy policy should explain what data you collect, why you collect it, how you store it, and how visitors can request deletion. If you sell products or services, you also need terms of service that cover liability, refunds, and usage rules. You can use generators like Termly or iubenda to create these, but have a lawyer review them if your business handles sensitive data. Link to both pages from your footer — that is where visitors and regulators expect to find them.

19. Contact information accessible. Visitors should be able to find your contact information within one or two clicks from any page. This means having a contact page linked from your main navigation or footer, and ideally displaying your email address or a contact form on that page. For local businesses, include your phone number and physical address. This is also an SEO signal — Google's quality guidelines mention that legitimate businesses provide clear contact information. Check that any email addresses listed on your site are real, working, and monitored. Send a test email to each one and confirm it arrives.

20. Copy proofread — typos, grammar, consistency. Typos and grammatical errors make your site look careless. They undermine trust, especially on pages where you are asking someone to pay money or share personal information. Before launch, read every page on your site out loud — this catches errors that your eyes skip over when reading silently. Run your text through a tool like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor. Have someone who was not involved in writing the copy read through it with fresh eyes. Pay particular attention to your homepage, pricing page, and checkout flow — these are the highest-stakes pages. Also check for consistency: are you spelling your brand name the same way everywhere? Are your calls to action consistent ("Sign up" vs. "Sign Up" vs. "Register")?

These five items are the behind-the-scenes infrastructure that keeps your site running reliably. They are easy to ignore during development, but they are the first things you wish you had when something goes wrong.

21. Backup system in place. Before you launch is the best time to set up backups, because after launch you will be too busy to think about it — until you need one. Your backup system should cover your website files, your database (if applicable), and your configuration. Backups should be automatic, frequent (daily for most sites), and stored somewhere separate from your hosting — a different server, cloud storage like S3, or a backup service. Test your backup by actually restoring it to a staging environment. A backup you have never tested is not a backup; it is a hope. Many hosting providers include automatic backups, but verify the frequency and retention period. If your host only keeps backups for 7 days and you discover a problem on day 8, you are out of luck.

22. Domain and DNS configured. This seems basic, but DNS issues are one of the most common causes of launch-day problems. Verify that your domain points to the correct server. Check that both the www and non-www versions of your domain work, and that one redirects to the other (pick one and be consistent). If you are using a CDN like Cloudflare, make sure your DNS records are proxied correctly. Check your DNS propagation using a tool like whatsmydns.net — DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate worldwide, so make DNS changes well before your public launch. Also verify that your domain registration will not expire soon — an expired domain takes your entire site offline and can be registered by someone else.

23. Email deliverability tested. If your website sends emails — transactional emails like order confirmations, password resets, or contact form notifications — you need to verify they actually arrive. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your domain. These DNS records tell email providers that your server is authorized to send email on behalf of your domain, which dramatically improves deliverability. Without them, your emails are more likely to land in spam folders. Test by sending emails to accounts on Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo and verifying they arrive in the inbox, not the spam folder. Use a tool like mail-tester.com to check your email configuration and get a deliverability score. If you are using a transactional email service like Postmark, SendGrid, or Resend, follow their domain verification steps.

24. Browser testing — Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge. Your site needs to work correctly in every major browser. Chrome dominates market share, but Safari is the default on every iPhone and Mac, making it the second most important browser for most sites. Firefox and Edge have smaller but meaningful shares. Open your site in each browser and go through the main user journeys: browse the homepage, read a content page, complete a form, go through the checkout. Look for layout differences, broken functionality, and font rendering issues. If you do not have access to all browsers, services like BrowserStack let you test remotely. At minimum, test in Chrome and Safari — those two cover roughly 85% of users. Pay attention to CSS features: what works in Chrome does not always work in Safari, especially newer features like container queries or certain flexbox behaviors.

25. Error monitoring set up. Once your site is live, things will break — and you want to know about it before your visitors tell you (or, more likely, before they leave without telling you). Error monitoring tools like Sentry, Bugsnag, or LogRocket capture JavaScript errors, failed API calls, and other runtime issues automatically and alert you when they happen. Set this up before launch so you catch errors from your very first visitors. At minimum, configure alerts for server errors (500 status codes) and JavaScript exceptions. Check that your error monitoring actually works by intentionally triggering an error on a staging environment and confirming the alert fires. Pair this with your analytics — if sourcebeam shows a sudden drop in traffic or conversions, your error monitoring can help you figure out why.

Do not try to do all 25 items in a single afternoon. Instead, work through them in the order they appear: SEO first, then performance, then analytics, then content, then technical. Each category builds on the previous one. SEO settings need to be in place before search engines crawl your site. Performance needs to be solid before you start measuring it. Analytics needs to be working before you drive traffic. Content needs to be polished before visitors see it. And your technical infrastructure needs to be reliable before everything else depends on it.

Some items take two minutes. Others take an hour. A few — like browser testing or form testing — might take half a day if you are thorough. The total time for a small site is usually one to two days. For a larger site with many pages and complex functionality, plan for three to five days.

Copy this list into whatever project management tool you use — Notion, Linear, a spreadsheet, even a paper checklist — and assign each item to someone with a deadline. Do not launch until every item is checked off or explicitly marked as not applicable.

And after launch, come back to this checklist periodically. Many of these items need ongoing attention. Broken links accumulate over time. Performance degrades as you add content and features. New pages need title tags and meta descriptions. Analytics goals need to be updated as your business evolves. A launch checklist is not a one-time event — it is a recurring audit that keeps your site healthy long after the initial excitement fades.