Website launch checklist, without the 2 a.m. surprises.

1. 1

   Pick a template

   Start from the website, Shopify, migration, campaign or another of the 15 templates.

2. 2

   Tick and edit

   Mark checks done, and rename, add, delete or reorder them to fit your project.

3. 3

   Export and share

   Export the list to Markdown for your team or client.

Pick a template, tick items off as you go, and edit anything: rename, add, delete and reorder checks. Progress saves in your browser. Use “Must-haves only” to cut the list down to the checks that break a launch if you skip them.

What’s inside

• 15 templates: marketing website, Shopify and ecommerce, multi-market, migration, WordPress and CMS, campaign landing page, web app, marketing campaign, product launch, event, email, social, rebrand, vendor handover and a blank list.
• Every check has a short note that says what to look at.
• Checks are marked must-have or should-have.
• Your progress and edits stay on your device.

Website launch checklist: all 58 checks

This is the full Marketing website list, grouped by area. Open the tool above to tick items off and edit them.

Content & QA

• Remove placeholder copy must-have Search the CMS and codebase for “lorem”, “TBD” and “TODO”.
• Test every form end to end must-have Submit each one on production and confirm the notification and autoresponder emails arrive.
• Check all links must-have No 404s, no links pointing at staging, and external links open where intended.
• Swap staging keys for production must-have API keys, payment gateways out of sandbox, SMTP, maps and reCAPTCHA.
• Cross-browser test must-have Latest Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge on desktop.
• Test on real phones must-have iOS Safari and Android Chrome, portrait and landscape.
• Favicon, app icons and 404 page A branded 404 with a way back home and a search or key links.

SEO

• Remove noindex from production must-have Check meta robots, X-Robots-Tag headers and CMS “discourage search engines” settings.
• robots.txt allows crawling must-have And points to the sitemap.
• 301 redirects mapped from old URLs must-have Every indexed old URL goes to its closest new page. No redirect chains.
• Unique title and meta description per page must-have Titles under ~60 characters, descriptions under ~155.
• Canonical tags point to the live URL must-have Not staging, not a parameterised version.
• XML sitemap generated must-have Only indexable, 200-status URLs.
• One H1 per page, logical heading order H2s and H3s follow the content structure.
• hreflang set for every market Reciprocal tags plus x-default for multi-language or multi-market sites.
• Open Graph and social images 1200×630 images and titles for link previews.
• Structured data validates Organization, Product, Article or FAQ schema passes the Rich Results Test.
• llms.txt published A short guide to the site for AI search engines.

Analytics & tracking

• GA4 on every page must-have One property, correct measurement ID, no duplicate tags.
• Key events tested in DebugView must-have Form submits, purchases, sign-ups and outbound clicks fire once each.
• Consent banner blocks tags until consent must-have Consent Mode v2 where GDPR or similar applies.
• Search Console and Bing Webmaster verified must-have For the canonical host and protocol.
• Tag Manager container published With a version note for the launch.
• Internal and staging traffic filtered So the baseline isn’t polluted by the team.

Performance

• Core Web Vitals pass must-have LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1 on mobile.
• Images compressed and sized must-have WebP or AVIF, correct dimensions, width and height attributes set.
• Lazy-load below-the-fold media Images, iframes and video embeds.
• CSS and JS minified Unused plugins and scripts removed.
• CDN and cache headers configured Long cache for hashed assets, short for HTML.
• Fonts optimised Subset, preloaded, font-display: swap.

Security & infrastructure

• SSL valid, HTTP redirects to HTTPS must-have Add HSTS once you’re confident.
• One canonical host must-have www and non-www resolve to one version with a 301.
• Backups scheduled and a restore tested must-have Database and media, stored off the server.
• Admin access reviewed must-have Remove agency test users and default passwords. Turn on 2FA.
• Uptime monitoring and alerts on must-have Someone named receives the alert.
• DNS TTL lowered before cutover Drop to 300 seconds 24 to 48 hours ahead.
• Security headers set CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy.
• Error logging in place Sentry or similar for front-end and server errors.

Accessibility

• Keyboard navigation works must-have Every control reachable with Tab, with a visible focus state.
• Alt text on meaningful images must-have Decorative images get empty alt.
• Colour contrast meets WCAG AA must-have 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text.
• Form fields have labels and clear errors must-have Errors say what went wrong and how to fix it.
• Automated scan clean No critical issues in axe or Lighthouse.

Legal & compliance

• Privacy and cookie policy published must-have Linked from the footer and the consent banner.
• Terms, shipping and returns pages For ecommerce and anything with accounts.
• Accessibility statement Required for public sector and some markets.
• Company details and copyright year Registered name, address and tax IDs where required.

Launch day

• Go / no-go call with sign-offs must-have Record who approved and when.
• Deploy, then purge the CDN must-have Clear application caches too.
• Smoke test critical journeys on production must-have Home, key landing pages, forms, checkout and login.
• Content freeze in place No CMS edits during the window.
• Submit the sitemap and request indexing For the homepage and top landing pages.
• Hand over support contacts Client knows who to call and the hypercare hours.

First two weeks

• Watch Search Console daily must-have Crawl errors, coverage drops and manual actions.
• Compare traffic and conversions to baseline must-have Flag any market or page that drops more than 20%.
• Check the 404 log must-have Add redirects for anything real that’s missing.
• Daily hypercare stand-up for week one Triage issues by severity with the client.
• Retro and handover to BAU Document what changed, open issues and owners.

Shopify and ecommerce: what to add

The Shopify / ecommerce template is the website checklist above plus a Store & checkout section.

Store & checkout

• Real test orders on every payment method must-have Cards, wallets, COD or BNPL. Then refund them and check the refund emails.
• Taxes and duties configured per region must-have Tax-inclusive vs exclusive pricing matches each market.
• Shipping zones and rates checked must-have Including free-shipping thresholds and remote postcodes.
• Order, shipping and refund emails branded must-have Sent from your domain, with correct links and support contacts.
• Inventory sync verified must-have ERP or 3PL connected; overselling rules set.
• Product feed approved in Merchant Center Titles, GTINs, prices and availability match the site.
• Abandoned-cart flow live Tested with a real address and a discount if you use one.
• Discount codes tested Test codes deleted before launch.
• Ecommerce events in GA4 view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout and purchase with value and currency.