Website Launch Pre-Go-Live Checklist: 30 Essential Points

Why You Need a Pre-Launch Checklist

Every website launch carries risk. A broken contact form, a missing meta tag, or a forgotten 301 redirect can cost you rankings, leads, or revenue. This checklist covers every critical area — technical SEO, performance, security, content, and analytics — so you go live with confidence.

Content & Copy

• All placeholder text (Lorem Ipsum) replaced with real content
• All pages spell-checked in every language
• Contact information correct on all pages
• Privacy policy and legal notices up to date
• 404 error page customized with navigation links

Technical SEO

• Unique meta title and meta description on every page (50-60 chars / 150-160 chars)
• Canonical tags correctly set, no self-referencing issues
• XML sitemap generated and validated at /sitemap.xml
• Robots.txt configured correctly — no important pages blocked
• Hreflang tags correct for multilingual sites
• Structured data (JSON-LD) validated with Google Rich Results Test
• No broken internal links (use Screaming Frog or Ahrefs)
• 301 redirects configured from old URLs to new ones

Performance

• Google PageSpeed Insights score above 80 (mobile and desktop)
• All images compressed and served as WebP
• CSS and JavaScript minified and combined where possible
• Browser caching headers configured (Cache-Control)
• CDN enabled if traffic is international
• LCP under 2.5 seconds, CLS under 0.1, FID/INP under 200ms

Security

• SSL certificate installed and all pages load over HTTPS
• HTTP to HTTPS redirect configured (301)
• Admin passwords changed from defaults
• CMS and all plugins updated to latest version
• Backup system configured and tested
• Security headers set: Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, HSTS

Analytics & Tracking

• Google Analytics 4 installed and receiving data
• Google Search Console property verified and sitemap submitted
• Conversion events tracking correctly (form submissions, calls, purchases)
• Cookie consent banner working and compliant with GDPR

Cross-Browser & Device Testing

• Tested on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
• Tested on iOS Safari and Android Chrome
• All forms submit correctly and send notification emails
• All payment gateways tested in production mode (small test transaction)

Need Help With Your Website Launch?

Amine Aziz offers professional website audit and pre-launch review services for businesses in Morocco and internationally. Contact us for a complete technical review before you go live.

The 30 Essential Pre-Launch Checks — Categorized

Content & Copy (1-6)

1. No Lorem Ipsum anywhere (search entire site)
2. All product/service descriptions complete and proofread
3. Contact information consistent site-wide (NAP)
4. Legal pages present : Privacy Policy, Terms, Cookie Policy
5. 404 page custom (not default server error)
6. Thank-you pages after form submissions

SEO (7-13)

7. Title tags unique + under 60 chars
8. Meta descriptions unique + 120-155 chars
9. H1 present and unique on each page
10. Alt text on every image
11. robots.txt not blocking production pages
12. sitemap.xml generated and accessible
13. Canonical tags correct

Performance (14-19)

14. Images optimized (WebP, <200KB each)
15. Fonts subset + font-display:swap
16. CSS/JS minified
17. Gzip/Brotli enabled
18. PageSpeed Insights > 80 mobile
19. Core Web Vitals green (LCP < 2.5s, CLS < 0.1, INP < 200ms)

Functionality (20-25)

20. All forms tested (including email delivery)
21. All links clicked (internal + external)
22. Newsletter signup verified end-to-end
23. Payment flow tested with test cards
24. Search function returns relevant results
25. Mobile menu works on 3+ devices

Analytics & Tracking (26-28)

26. GA4 installed and receiving events
27. Search Console verified and sitemap submitted
28. Conversion events configured

Security (29-30)

29. HTTPS forced site-wide (HSTS header)
30. Admin passwords strong + 2FA enabled

Post-Launch — First 48 Hours

• Monitor GSC for crawl errors hourly
• Submit homepage via URL Inspection "Request indexing"
• Check GA4 real-time for traffic
• Test all forms again with real (non-test) addresses
• Scan Sentry/log for JS errors

First Week — Monitor Weekly

• GSC Pages report : all priority URLs indexed?
• Core Web Vitals field data collecting?
• Any 404s on inbound links (GSC Links report)?

FAQ

Should I launch with a blog post?

Launch with 6-10 pillar articles minimum. Single-page launches signal "new site" to Google and delay ranking.

Soft launch vs hard launch?

Soft launch (staging → beta users → public) reduces risk. Only skip if project is small and tested thoroughly.

Contact me if you want a hands-on launch review before going live.