Website Go-Live Checklist: What to Check Before You Publish
Everything worth verifying — technically, legally, and for search and conversions — before you flip a new or redesigned website live.
Launch day is when small mistakes turn into real ones: a broken contact form, a missing redirect, a robots.txt still blocking Google from the old staging site. Most of these problems are invisible until a customer — or Google — hits them.
This checklist is built for owners and managers who are about to publish a new site or a redesign, and want a concrete list to work through with their web team (or on their own), rather than a general article about "website best practices." Go section by section; each point is something you can actually check, click, or test yourself.
Technical foundations
- Confirm the SSL certificate is active and the padlock shows on every page, with no mixed-content warnings in the browser console.
- Redirect old URLs to their new equivalents with 301 (not 302) redirects — start with your top pages by traffic or backlinks.
- Force a single canonical version of the domain: non-www to www (or the reverse) and http to https.
- Generate and submit an updated XML sitemap listing only real, indexable pages.
- Check robots.txt isn't blocking pages you want indexed — a leftover "Disallow: /" from the staging site is the most common launch-day disaster.
- Remove any "noindex" meta tag left over from the test environment.
- Set up a custom 404 page that links back to the homepage and main menu.
- Confirm you have a recent backup of the site and database, and know how to restore it if something breaks after launch.
SEO and on-page basics
- Give every page a unique title tag and meta description — no two pages should share the same one.
- Check heading order is logical: one H1 per page, no skipped levels.
- Add descriptive alt text to key images, not just decorative ones.
- Set a canonical tag on every page, especially if your CMS can generate duplicate URLs (tracking parameters, filters, etc.).
- Verify internal links point to real live URLs, not staging or localhost addresses.
- Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console (and Bing Webmaster Tools if relevant).
- Request indexing for your most important pages — homepage, key service pages — inside Search Console.
Analytics and tracking
- Install GA4 (or your analytics tool) and verify it's firing in the real-time report before launch, not after.
- Set up the conversion events you actually care about — form submit, phone click, WhatsApp click, quote request — not just pageviews.
- If you use Google Tag Manager, publish the live container version; testing only in preview mode is a common miss.
- Add a cookie consent banner that actually blocks tracking scripts until consent is given, not one that just displays without doing anything.
- Verify Google Search Console is verified for the live domain, not only the staging one.
- Check tracking codes appear once per page — duplicate GA4 tags will inflate your numbers.
Legal and compliance pages
This is general practical guidance, not legal advice — confirm requirements for your market with a professional.
- Publish an up-to-date privacy policy that reflects the tools you actually use: analytics, forms, email marketing, hosting.
- Add a cookie policy and banner with a real way to accept, reject, and later change preferences.
- Include the company details required in your jurisdiction (e.g. VAT number, registered address) where applicable.
- Make sure any newsletter or contact form has a clear, unticked consent checkbox.
- Link the privacy and cookie policy from the footer of every page, not just the homepage.
Forms and conversion paths
- Submit every form on the site yourself, from a real device, and confirm the email actually arrives — check the spam folder too.
- Test the confirmation message or thank-you page after a submission; a broken one leaves visitors unsure whether it worked.
- Tap every phone number on mobile and confirm it opens the dialer (tel: links).
- Tap every email address and confirm it opens a mail client with the right address prefilled (mailto: links).
- If you use WhatsApp or live chat, test it from a phone, not only from a desktop browser.
- Check that any autoresponder email sends correctly and doesn't land in spam.
Mobile, speed and final pass
- Open the site on an actual phone, not just a resized browser window, and check nothing overlaps or gets cut off.
- Run a speed test (e.g. PageSpeed Insights) on the homepage and your top 2-3 pages, and note any easy fixes — oversized images are the usual culprit.
- Compress and resize images before upload rather than relying on the CMS to do it for you.
- Click through every menu item and footer link looking for 404s or dead ends.
- Check spelling and remove any leftover placeholder text ("Lorem ipsum", "Your text here").
- Preview how the homepage looks when shared on WhatsApp, Facebook or LinkedIn — a broken title or image on that first share looks unprofessional.
- Confirm the favicon shows correctly in the browser tab.
Want to apply it to your case?
If working through this list raises questions, Gamerbit offers a free 48-hour website check-up as a second pair of eyes before or after launch. You can also see how we approach website projects on our <a href="gamerbit-en-websites.html">Websites page</a>.