The 20-Point Checklist Before Your Website Goes Live

Most website problems we get called in to fix were visible before launch. A contact form that silently drops messages. A site that never appears on Google because indexing was blocked. A checkout that works on desktop and dies on a phone.

None of these need an expert to catch. They need a checklist and one honest afternoon. Here it is — 20 checks, grouped in five blocks, each with a one-line how-to. Print it, forward it to whoever built your site, and don't launch until every box is ticked.

Block 1 — Foundations (checks 1–4)

1. Domain ownership is yours. Confirm the domain is registered in your name or your company's — not your developer's or agency's. How: look up your domain on a WHOIS service (e.g. whois.com) and check the registrant. If it's not you, fix it before launch, not after a dispute.

2. SSL certificate is active and forced. Your site must load over https:// and redirect any http:// visit automatically. How: type your address with http:// in a private browser window and confirm it lands on https:// with a padlock, no warnings.

3. One canonical address. www.yoursite.com and yoursite.com should not be two separate sites — one must redirect to the other. How: type both versions and confirm they end at the same URL.

4. Domain auto-renewal is on. Expired domains take sites — and email — down overnight, and recovering one can cost far more than the €10–20/year renewal. How: log in to your registrar and enable auto-renew with a valid payment card.

Block 2 — Does it actually work? (checks 5–9)

5. Mobile pass, page by page. Over 60% of web traffic is mobile. How: open every page on a real phone (not just a resized browser window) and check that text is readable, buttons are tappable, and nothing overflows sideways.

6. Every form, tested end-to-end. Not "the form displays" — the message arrives. How: submit each form yourself with a real email address and confirm the message lands in the inbox that will actually be monitored, not a developer's test account.

7. Every link and button clicked once. How: click through the whole site — menus, footer, in-text links, social icons. Ten minutes of clicking beats months of visitors hitting dead ends.

8. A real 404 page exists. Visitors will mistype URLs; a branded 404 with a link home keeps them on the site. How: type yoursite.com/this-does-not-exist and check what appears.

9. Speed check under 3 seconds. Slow sites lose visitors before the first word loads. How: run your homepage through PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) — aim for a mobile performance score above 80, and compress any image over ~300 KB.

Block 3 — Can people find you? (checks 10–13)

10. Search engines are not blocked. Staging sites are often set to "noindex" — and that setting sometimes ships to production. How: view your homepage source and confirm there is no <meta name="robots" content="noindex">; check that yoursite.com/robots.txt doesn't say Disallow: /.

11. Google Search Console is set up. It's free, and it's how Google tells you about indexing problems. How: verify your site at search.google.com/search-console and submit your sitemap (usually yoursite.com/sitemap.xml).

12. Google Business Profile claimed. For any business serving a local area, this listing often outranks the website itself. How: claim or create your profile at google.com/business with correct hours, address and phone.

13. Titles and descriptions written for humans. Each page needs a unique title (under 60 characters) and description (under 155) — that's your ad in the search results. How: search site:yoursite.com on Google after indexing and read what shows up.

Block 4 — Trust and legal (checks 14–16)

14. Privacy policy and cookie handling in place. If you collect any personal data — even just a contact form — GDPR applies. How: publish a privacy policy that names what you collect and why, and only load analytics/marketing cookies after consent. If in doubt, get advice; rules and enforcement evolve, so verify current requirements for your country.

15. Legal identity on the site. Company name, registered address, and a working contact method — required in most EU countries and basic trust-building everywhere. How: check your footer and contact page carry them.

16. Real contact details, tested. How: call the phone number and email the address listed on the site. You'd be surprised how often one of them is wrong.

Block 5 — Measurement and safety net (checks 17–20)

17. Analytics installed and firing. You can't improve what you don't measure. How: install Google Analytics 4 or a privacy-friendly alternative (Plausible, Fathom), then visit your own site and confirm the visit appears in the real-time report.

18. Social sharing cards (Open Graph) set. When someone shares your link on WhatsApp or LinkedIn, it should show a title, description and image — not a blank grey box. How: paste your URL into a sharing debugger (e.g. opengraph.xyz) and check the preview.

19. Favicon in place. The little icon in the browser tab. Small detail, instantly visible when missing. How: open your site and look at the tab; a generic globe icon means it's missing.

20. Backups exist and someone owns them. Not "the host probably does it" — a named person, a schedule, and a tested restore. How: ask your developer or host three questions: how often is the site backed up, where is the copy stored, and when was a restore last tested? If any answer is vague, that's your first post-launch task.

The 60-second summary table

Block	Checks	Time needed
Foundations	Domain, SSL, redirects, renewal	~20 min
Functionality	Mobile, forms, links, 404, speed	~60 min
Findability	Indexing, Search Console, Business Profile, meta	~45 min
Trust & legal	Privacy, legal identity, contacts	~30 min
Safety net	Analytics, OG cards, favicon, backups	~30 min

Roughly three hours, total. That's the honest cost of a clean launch — against days or weeks of quietly lost enquiries if any single check fails.

Who should run this?

Ideally, two people: whoever built the site runs it first, then you run it yourself with fresh eyes. If you're paying a professional, this list is also a fair way to judge the work — a well-built site passes all 20 without drama. At Feitura, this checklist (and a longer internal one) is part of every delivery, from Essential sites upward, because a site that launches broken isn't finished, whatever the invoice says.

Planning a launch and want a site that passes all 20 checks on day one? Get a free estimate in minutes.