Website Launch Checklist: 47 Things Before Going Live

You've been building for weeks. The site looks good. The client is excited. You're ready to flip the switch and go live.

Then three days later: the contact form doesn't send emails, Google can't find half the pages, the site loads in 8 seconds on mobile, and someone screenshots your staging URL in the footer.

Every one of those is a real mistake from a real launch. This checklist exists because we've made them — and because checking 47 boxes takes an hour, while fixing a botched launch takes a week.

Copy this list. Check every box. Launch clean.

Content & Copy

• 1. All placeholder text removed. Search for "Lorem ipsum," "TODO," "PLACEHOLDER," "TBD," and "asdf" across the entire codebase. Yes, really.
• 2. All pages have real content. No empty pages, no "coming soon" sections unless intentional.
• 3. Spelling and grammar checked. Run the copy through Grammarly or Hemingway. Read every page out loud — you'll catch things a spell checker won't.
• 4. Contact information is correct. Phone number, email address, physical address (if applicable). Call the number. Send a test email.
• 5. Legal pages published. Privacy Policy and Terms of Service — both required. Cookie consent banner if you serve EU users (GDPR).
• 6. Copyright year is current. Check the footer. If it says 2024, fix it.
• 7. All links work. Click every single one. Internal links, external links, email links, social links. Use a crawler (Screaming Frog, broken-link-checker) for sites with 20+ pages.
• 8. Images have alt text. Every <img> needs descriptive alt text. Not "image1.jpg" — describe what's in the image. This is accessibility and SEO.
• 9. Social media links point to correct profiles. Not your personal account. Not a competitor's. Click each one.
• 10. 404 page exists and is helpful. Navigate to /this-page-does-not-exist. Does the 404 page load? Does it help the user get back to the site? Or does it show a Vercel/Netlify default error?

Design & Responsiveness

• 11. Tested on mobile (real device). Not just Chrome DevTools. Open the site on an actual iPhone and Android phone. Tap every button. Fill out every form.
• 12. Tested on tablet. iPad and Android tablet. Check that layouts don't break at 768px–1024px widths.
• 13. Tested on desktop (multiple browsers). Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge. At minimum Chrome + Safari — they render differently.
• 14. Favicon loads correctly. Check the browser tab. Is it your logo or a generic icon? Check on iOS too (Add to Home Screen uses apple-touch-icon).
• 15. Open Graph images configured. Share your URL on Slack, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Does a proper preview card appear with the right title, description, and image? Use opengraph.xyz to test.
• 16. No horizontal scroll on mobile. Tilt your phone to portrait. Scroll down the entire page. If you can scroll sideways at any point, something is overflowing.
• 17. Font loading doesn't cause layout shift. Watch the page load on a throttled connection (Chrome DevTools → Network → Slow 3G). Do headings and body text jump when fonts load?
• 18. Dark mode works (if supported). Switch your OS to dark mode. Does the site respond correctly? Are there any unreadable text/background combinations?

SEO

• 19. Every page has a unique <title>. Not "Home | My Site" on every page. Each page needs a descriptive, keyword-relevant title under 60 characters.
• 20. Every page has a meta description. 150–160 characters. Describes the page content. Includes the primary keyword naturally.
• 21. Heading hierarchy is correct. One <h1> per page. <h2>s for sections. <h3>s for subsections. Don't skip levels (no <h1> → <h4>).
• 22. Sitemap exists and is correct. Navigate to /sitemap.xml. Verify it lists all public pages. Verify it does NOT list staging pages, admin routes, or auth pages.
• 23. robots.txt allows indexing. Navigate to /robots.txt. It should say Allow: / and link to your sitemap. Make sure it doesn't accidentally Disallow: / (this blocks your entire site).
• 24. Canonical URLs are set. Each page should have a <link rel="canonical" href="..."> pointing to itself. Check with View Source or your SEO tool.
• 25. Structured data (JSON-LD) is valid. Run your homepage through Google's Rich Results Test. Fix any errors. Check service pages, blog posts, and FAQs.
• 26. Google Search Console connected. Verify domain ownership. Submit your sitemap. You need this to monitor indexing.
• 27. Google Analytics (or alternative) installed. Verify it's tracking page views. Check that it fires on navigation (SPA routing can break this).

Performance

• 28. Lighthouse score above 90. Run Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools (Incognito mode) on your homepage and 2–3 key pages. Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, SEO — all above 90.
• 29. Images are optimised. Use WebP or AVIF format. Use next/image (or equivalent) for automatic resizing. No 4MB hero images loading on mobile.
• 30. No render-blocking resources. Fonts, CSS, and scripts should not block the first paint. Check Lighthouse for "Eliminate render-blocking resources."
• 31. Core Web Vitals pass. LCP under 2.5s, FID/INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1. Check with PageSpeed Insights or web-vitals library.
• 32. Lazy loading enabled for below-fold images. Images not visible on initial load should use loading="lazy". Don't lazy-load the hero image.
• 33. API responses are fast. If your site fetches data, check response times. Anything over 500ms will feel slow to users. Check under realistic conditions, not localhost.

Security

• 34. HTTPS everywhere. Navigate to http:// — it should redirect to https://. No mixed content warnings. Check with browser DevTools → Security tab.
• 35. Environment variables are not exposed. View page source. Search for API keys, database URLs, secret tokens. Check the JavaScript bundle too — NEXT_PUBLIC_ variables are client-visible by design, but private variables should never appear.
• 36. Security headers configured. Check with securityheaders.com. You need at minimum: X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security.
• 37. Forms have CSRF protection. If you have forms that submit to your own API, verify CSRF tokens are in place (Next.js Server Actions handle this automatically).
• 38. Rate limiting on sensitive endpoints. Login, contact forms, and API routes should have rate limiting to prevent abuse. If someone can submit your contact form 10,000 times in a minute, you have a problem.
• 39. Admin/staging routes are not publicly accessible. Check /admin, /staging, /test, /_debug. If any of these resolve to a page, either protect them or remove them.

Forms & Functionality

• 40. Contact form sends emails. Fill out the form with a real email address. Does the confirmation email arrive? Does the submission appear in your inbox or CRM? Check spam folders.
• 41. Form validation works. Submit empty forms. Submit invalid emails. Submit extremely long text. Does the validation catch it? Does the error message make sense?
• 42. Success and error states are handled. What does the user see after submitting a form? A success message? A redirect? What happens if the API is down? Test both paths.
• 43. Third-party integrations work. CRM, email marketing, analytics events, payment forms, chat widgets — test each one in production. Staging API keys won't work in production.

Infrastructure & Monitoring

• 44. Domain and DNS configured. The production domain resolves correctly. WWW redirects to non-WWW (or vice versa) — pick one and redirect the other.
• 45. Error monitoring active. Sentry (or equivalent) is installed and capturing errors. Trigger a test error in production to confirm it appears in your dashboard.
• 46. Uptime monitoring active. Use a free service (UptimeRobot, Better Stack) to ping your site every 5 minutes. Get alerted if it goes down.
• 47. Backup and rollback plan exists. If the launch goes wrong, can you roll back to the previous version? On Vercel, every deploy is versioned — you can instant-rollback. On other platforms, know your process.

The 15-Minute Quick Check

Don't have time for all 47? These 10 catch 80% of launch issues:

1. Contact form sends emails
2. No broken links (run a crawler)
3. Mobile responsive (check on real phone)
4. HTTPS works (no mixed content)
5. Sitemap exists at /sitemap.xml
6. robots.txt allows indexing
7. Lighthouse performance > 90
8. Meta titles and descriptions on all pages
9. Google Analytics tracking
10. 404 page works

Use This Checklist With LSD Dev Studio

Every project we deliver goes through this checklist before launch — no exceptions. When you work with us, you get:

• Pre-launch QA built into the project timeline
• Performance optimisation targeting 95+ Lighthouse scores
• SEO setup with structured data, sitemaps, and Search Console
• Post-launch monitoring during the support period

We don't ship and disappear. We ship and make sure it works.

Ready to launch your project? Get in touch — we'll scope it, build it, and launch it right.

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More resources from LSD Dev Studio:

• How to write a project brief — get accurate quotes from any studio
• How much does a website cost in 2026? — real pricing breakdown
• How much does a website cost in 2026? — full pricing breakdown
• How to hire a web developer — complete hiring guide

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