Everything to check before launching a website, from functionality testing and SEO setup to performance, security, and analytics configuration.
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Content and Functionality Review
Proofread all page content and headings
Read every page out loud — this catches awkward phrasing that visual reading misses. Check for placeholder text like 'Lorem ipsum' by searching the codebase. A single typo on the homepage can reduce credibility by 40% according to user trust studies.
Check spelling and grammar on every page
Verify all headings use the correct hierarchy (H1, H2, H3)
Test every link on the site
Use a broken link checker tool to crawl the entire site. Run it against both internal and external links. The average new website has 3-8 broken links. Fix all 404 errors before launch — broken links hurt both user experience and search ranking.
Verify all images load and have alt text
Check that every image loads correctly and has descriptive alt text for accessibility. Alt text should describe the image content in 5-15 words. Missing alt text affects screen reader users and means search engines can't index your images.
Test all forms and their submission flow
Fill out every form on the site with test data and verify submissions arrive correctly. Check validation messages for empty fields and invalid inputs. Test the confirmation page or email that users see after submitting. About 60% of post-launch bugs involve forms.
Verify the 404 error page works and is helpful
Visit a non-existent URL like /thispageisfake to trigger the 404 page. It should display your site's branding, a friendly message, and links back to the homepage or sitemap. A branded 404 page keeps 10-15% of users who would otherwise leave entirely.
SEO and Metadata
Verify title tags and meta descriptions on every page
Each page needs a unique title tag under 60 characters and a meta description under 155 characters. Duplicate title tags confuse search engines. Check the homepage, about page, and your 5 most important landing pages first.
Submit your sitemap to search engines
Create an XML sitemap at /sitemap.xml listing all pages. Submit it through your search engine's webmaster console. For a site with under 500 pages, a single sitemap file works fine. Search engines typically crawl and index submitted sitemaps within 2-7 days.
Set up and verify robots.txt
Place a robots.txt file at the root of your domain. Verify it's accessible at yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Make sure it's not accidentally blocking your entire site — 'Disallow: /' blocks all crawling. Test it with a robots.txt tester tool before going live.
Add Open Graph and social sharing tags
Add og:title, og:description, and og:image tags to every page. These control how your pages look when shared on social media. Without them, platforms pull random text and images. Test with a social media debugger tool — shared links with images get 2-3 times more clicks.
Verify canonical URLs are set correctly
Each page should have a canonical tag pointing to its preferred URL. Without canonicals, search engines may index both www and non-www versions as separate pages, splitting your ranking power between duplicate entries.
Performance and Speed
Run a page speed test on key pages
Test your homepage, a content page, and a landing page. Aim for a load time under 3 seconds on mobile. Each additional second of load time increases bounce rate by 10-20%. Focus on the 3 Core Web Vitals: LCP under 2.5s, FID under 100ms, CLS under 0.1.
Compress and properly size all images
Images are the heaviest assets on most websites, accounting for 50-80% of page weight. Use modern formats like WebP or AVIF — they're 25-50% smaller than JPEG at the same quality. Serve images at the exact dimensions displayed, not larger.
Enable browser caching and compression
Set Cache-Control headers to cache static assets for at least 1 year. Enable gzip or Brotli compression on your server — Brotli compresses 15-20% better than gzip. These two changes alone can reduce page load time by 40-60% for returning visitors.
Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
Minification removes whitespace, comments, and shortens variable names. For CSS and JS files, this typically reduces file size by 20-30%. Most build tools and hosting platforms handle this automatically — verify it's enabled in your deployment configuration.
Security
Verify SSL certificate is installed and working
Visit your site with https:// and check for the padlock icon. Also verify that http:// redirects to https:// automatically. An SSL certificate is free from most hosting providers. Sites without SSL show 'Not Secure' warnings that scare away 85% of visitors.
Set up proper HTTP security headers
Add headers like Strict-Transport-Security, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options. These prevent common attacks like clickjacking and protocol downgrade. Test your headers with a security header scanner — aim for at least a B+ grade.
Remove any development files or exposed credentials
Check that .env files, .git directories, database backups, and debug tools aren't accessible publicly. Try visiting yourdomain.com/.env and yourdomain.com/.git — both should return a 403 or 404. Exposed environment files are one of the top 10 website vulnerabilities.
Analytics and Monitoring
Install and verify web analytics tracking
Add your analytics tracking code to every page. Verify it's firing by visiting your site and checking real-time analytics data. Filter out your own IP address from analytics to avoid inflating numbers — your own visits can account for 20-50% of early traffic.
Set up uptime monitoring
Configure a monitoring service to check your site every 1-5 minutes. Set up email and SMS alerts for downtime. The average website experiences 3-5 hours of unplanned downtime per year. Without monitoring, you might not know your site is down until customers tell you.
Configure error tracking and logging
Set up server-side error logging and optionally a frontend error tracking service. JavaScript errors affect 3-5% of page views on the average site. Without error tracking, you're blind to bugs your users experience but never report.
Cross-Browser and Device Testing
Test on all major browsers
Test on the latest versions of the top 4 browsers which together cover 95%+ of web traffic. Pay special attention to layout differences and form behavior. If you can only test 2, pick the most popular browser and Safari, as Safari has the most rendering quirks.
Test on mobile devices and tablets
Check the site on at least one iOS and one Android device. More than 60% of web traffic is mobile. Test with your thumb — can you reach all interactive elements? Buttons should be at least 44x44 pixels (about 7mm) for comfortable tapping.
Verify responsive layout at all breakpoints
Resize the browser window from 320px to 1920px wide and check for layout issues. The most common problems appear between 768-1024px where tablet and desktop layouts overlap. Check that no horizontal scrollbar appears at any width.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far in advance should I start preparing to launch a website?
Begin your pre-launch testing 2-3 weeks before the target go-live date. Content review and proofreading take 3-5 days for a 10-20 page site. SEO setup, performance testing, and cross-browser QA each need 2-3 days. Building in buffer time for fixes discovered during testing avoids a rushed launch. Most teams underestimate the time needed by 40-50%.
What page load speed should I aim for before launching?
Google recommends a Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds and a total page weight under 1.5 MB. Pages loading in 1-2 seconds have a 9% bounce rate; pages taking 5+ seconds see bounce rates jump to 38%. Run Google PageSpeed Insights and aim for a score above 90 on mobile. Compress images, enable caching, and defer non-critical JavaScript to hit these targets.
Do I need an SSL certificate before launching my website?
Yes, and there is no reason to skip it. Google Chrome marks all HTTP sites as 'Not Secure' in the address bar, which immediately erodes visitor trust. SSL also provides a minor SEO ranking boost. Free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt work identically to paid ones for standard websites. Most hosting providers include free SSL and can activate it in under 5 minutes.
What analytics should I set up before launch day?
At minimum, install Google Analytics 4 (free) for traffic and behavior data, Google Search Console (free) for SEO monitoring, and an uptime monitor like UptimeRobot (free for 50 monitors). Add error tracking via Sentry or LogRocket if your site has forms or interactive features. Set up all analytics 2-3 days before launch and verify they record data correctly before the real traffic arrives.
How do I test my website on browsers I do not have installed?
BrowserStack ($29/month) and LambdaTest ($15/month) provide real browser testing across 3,000+ browser and device combinations. For quick free testing, use Chrome DevTools device emulation for mobile sizes and install Firefox, Safari (Mac only), and Edge alongside Chrome. At minimum, test on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and one mobile device. These four cover roughly 95% of global web traffic.