Is Your Website Ready to Launch? A Pre-Launch Checklist

There’s a moment, right before making a new website public, when you just want to hit publish. After weeks of hard work, it’s normal to feel eager to see it live. But a launch checklist helps you avoid small oversights you’d only notice once your site is already visible to everyone.

You don’t need a complicated technical review. A few quiet minutes are enough, maybe even during these calmer late-summer days, before September brings its usual pace back.

Why it’s worth pausing before going live

A new website is often the first thing someone sees of you. A broken link or a silent contact form can lose you a client right when they were about to reach out. A launch checklist exists for exactly this: to check, with some order, the things that are easy to miss until someone else notices them first.

The launch checklist, step by step

1. Check it from your phone.
Most people will find you on a smartphone, not a computer. Open every page and check that text and images look right, with nothing cut off or too small to tap.

2. Click every link.
Menu, buttons, text links: open them all. A broken link is small, but it says “this wasn’t checked”, and that’s not the impression you want to leave.

3. Actually test your forms.
Don’t just assume your contact or signup form works: fill it out yourself and confirm the email arrives. Same goes for your newsletter form.

4. Check every page’s title and description.
These are the few lines people read on Google before they even click. Every page should have its own title and description, written for the person searching, not just for you.

5. Add alt text to your images.
It helps people using screen readers, and it helps Google understand what’s in the picture. A short, clear description is enough.

6. Check your privacy and cookie page.
Even a simple site collects data, whether it’s a contact form or Google Analytics. An up-to-date privacy and cookie page isn’t something to leave for later.

7. See how fast it loads.
A slow site discourages visitors before they even read a word. Google PageSpeed Insights is a free way to get a general idea.

8. Connect Google Search Console.
It tells you whether Google is actually finding and reading your site. If you haven’t set it up yet, now’s the right time.

9. Ask someone else to look with fresh eyes.
After weeks on the same project, your own eyes stop noticing certain things. Someone outside the project, even without any web experience, often spots what you can’t.

One check now, fewer worries later

This launch checklist doesn’t need to be finished in one afternoon. It’s fine to work through it a little at a time. What matters is reaching launch day knowing you’ve looked closely at every corner, before someone else does it for you.

If you’ve already written your About page or homepage, this is also a good moment to reread them with that same attention: sometimes the 6 second test is all it takes to know whether they’re actually working.