17-Step Website Checklist: Launch Your Site with Confidence

You’re about to hit the “Publish” button on your new website, but suddenly, a whirlwind of what-ifs starts swirling. Will everything run smoothly? What if the site crashes or faces a cyber attack? You sense you’ve overlooked something but can’t pinpoint what. 

To turn your site launch into a success story, we’ve put together a comprehensive website checklist to ensure your site is search engine-friendly and visitor-ready.

Website Pre-Launch Checklist

Perfecting everything from cybersecurity to design can feel overwhelming, especially when learning how to launch a website. But don’t worry—by following these steps, you’ll be able to handle it all:

1. Review Your Site Look, Feel and Architecture

Building a website is a complex journey filled with countless moving parts, often making it hard to know when your website is fully ready to set sail in the digital space. 

That’s why, as a first step, we recommend going through the following list to ensure that your website’s appearance, functionality, and structure are all ironed out:

• Have You Defined Your Goals and Objectives?
• Have You Identified Your Audience?
• Have You Established Your Branding?
• Have You Chosen a Website Building Method?
• Have You Selected Hosting and a Domain Name?
• Have You Shaped Your Web Design?
• Have You Created a Sitemap? 
• Have You Gathered Your Content Planning Assets?

2. Back Up Your Site

Now, let’s check off site backups—a crucial part of maintenance and something to consider before launch. Think of it as your site’s safety net! Whether it’s a cyber attack, server crash, or just an oops moment, a reliable backup system means you can restore your site to its former glory without losing all your hard work.

It’s wise to think ahead and opt for a web host that offers daily and on-demand backups, giving you the flexibility to dance through your day with peace of mind. Some hosts even take care of plugin updates automatically, freeing up your time and keeping your site secure. 

For instance, SiteGround provides daily backups stored securely for 30 days. And if you’re looking for that extra dash of  assurance, our Premium Backup Service includes even more advanced features so that you’ll always have a recent, secure copy of your website to rely on.

3. Fine-Tune Your Pages

Up next in the website building checklist: take a deep dive into every page, section, and heading of your website. Even the smallest slip-ups can detract from your site’s shine and professionalism. So, keep your eyes peeled for typos, broken links, and any lingering placeholder text like lorem ipsum.

It’s a good idea to copy and paste all your text into a proofreading tool like Grammarly to make sure nothing’s been missed. Better yet, consider sharing it with a friend, as another pair of eyes is always a bonus!

Additionally, if you’ve leaned on stock videos or photos for your site’s creative flair, double-check that you have the rights to use all images and assets. You can verify this by using tools like Google Reverse Image Search or by reviewing the licensing terms on your stock image website.

4. Optimize On-Page SEO

Let’s tackle the next rather big box: on-page SEO (search engine optimization), which is the key to improve your website’s visibility on search engines like Google and Bing. Whether you’re a blogger, freelancer, or business owner, mastering the following steps will elevate your online presence:

• Start With the Basics

While your logo is important, also ensure you have a site title under 60 characters, as it’s the first thing browsers will see. Similarly, include a site description between 50-300 characters to give a preview of what your site is about. Additionally, adding SEO descriptions to each page, within the same character range as the site description, can improve your site’s SEO ranking in comparison to your competitors.

• Master Keyword Use

Keyword research is crucial, especially for bloggers, but it’s a game-changer for any website aiming for a first-page search engine spot. Sprinkle keywords into title tags, headings, and URLs for maximum impact. Consider using free tools like Google Keyword Planner or paid ones like SEMrush and Ahrefs. For WordPress sites, you can leverage an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO to help select and position keywords effectively,

• Enhance User Experience

Make your pages easy to navigate by using headings and bullet points to create scannable, reader-friendly content. Incorporating high-quality images is essential, as they not only make your site visually appealing but also help convey your message more effectively. Additionally, don’t fear adding clear calls to action (CTAs) whenever needed—whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, exploring more content, or making a purchase.

• Optimize Structure and Navigation

If you skipped the sitemap in the first step of this checklist, now’s the time to prioritize it. Think of it as your website’s treasure map, guiding users and search engines through your pages. Begin by pinpointing core pages like the homepage, about, contact, and any business-specific sections, such as services or products. Organize related pages into intuitive categories like “Services” or “Blog.” We’ll cover sitemap submission in a later step!

• Perform Ongoing Maintenance

Keep your keywords in tune with what users are searching for—be it information, products, or solutions. Dive into content gap analyses to uncover topics your competitors cover that you might be missing. This detective work can help you craft content that not only fills those gaps but also attracts new clients like a magnet.

5. Test All Forms 

Your website is your digital handshake, and forms are a great way to connect with visitors and gather valuable data. Whether it’s an email signup, contact form, or payment form, the type will depend on your business needs—but having at least one is essential.

Now is the perfect time to make sure all your forms function properly and that the data is stored correctly. Here’s what to look for when doing so:

• Optimized number of fields: As a rule of thumb, the more fields you have, the less likely people are to complete them—so keep it simple and essential.
• Field validation: Make sure that the data entered meets specific criteria before submission. This process might involve checking for the correct data type (like numbers only in a phone number field) or verifying the proper format (such as a valid email address structure).
• Notifications: Check that any emails or notifications triggered by form submissions are being sent and received as expected.

If you’re using WordPress, plugins like WPForms give you the ability to test the functionality of your form before going live. That said, if you’ve used another site building method, check what other apps or plugins are available. 

6. Polish Your Design 

Whether you’re rocking a pre-made template or have gone the custom-built route for your site, it never hurts to give those design elements a second look. Check your typography, color schemes, and overall styling to ensure they align with your brand’s established guidelines for consistency. 

Good design effectively communicates your brand message and shapes visitors’ perceptions of your business. With that in mind, aim for an inviting homepage with captivating content and easy-to-follow navigation. Try to extend this approach to all your pages, making sure that:

• Headers use the same font
• Subheadings are consistently presented
• Paragraph text is legible and easy to read
• Fonts and background colors offer high contrast
• Web pages look good on all screen sizes and web browsers.

7. Scan for Accessibility

And while talking about design and responsiveness, next up on the checklist for launching a website is accessibility—an important aspect of any website, as it allows everyone, including people with disabilities, to use your site effectively. This isn’t just good practice; it’s often a legal requirement and a vital component of creating an inclusive online experience.

So, what does accessibility mean in practice? It involves designing your site so that all users can navigate and interact with it easily. This includes:

• Providing text alternatives for images
• Making your site keyboard accessible
• Choosing a high-contrast color scheme
• Providing transcripts or closed captions for files with audio
• Opting for on-page content rather than PDFs

To ensure your site meets all of the standards, we recommend consulting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and making any necessary changes accordingly.

8. Ensure Legal Compliance

Though it may not be the most exciting task, legal compliance is essential for protecting both you and your visitors, especially if you are running any kind of retail activity. Fortunately, many tools and AI solutions can assist you in creating these documents.

To check this off your website launch checklist, consider the following:

• Implement a cookie consent banner: This informs visitors about your data collection practices and obtains their consent, as required by many privacy laws like GDPR.
• Have a privacy policy in place: This text informs your users about what data you collect, how it’s used, and how you protect it. It’s not just good practice, it’s a legal requirement in many jurisdictions.
• Include legal notices and terms of service: These outline the rules and guidelines for using your website and help limit your liability. They should clearly explain what users can and cannot do on your site.

While the cookie consent typically appears as a pop-up window on a visitor’s first visit, other legal documents should also be easily accessible. These are usually found in your website’s footer and often linked at the bottom of email newsletters. 

9. Fortify Against Cyber Threats

Now that you’ve locked down the legal side of things, let’s turn our attention to locking down your website’s security. After all, you want to make sure your site is not just functional but also safe for your users, right? 

Starting with installing an SSL certificate to encrypt data between your site and its visitors—it’s like locking your website’s front door. Also, many hosting providers, such as SiteGround, offer these certificates for free with their hosting plans.

Now, if you’re using WordPress, there are a couple extra steps you can take to beef up security such as:

• Changing your default login URL from “wp-admin” to something unique.
• Installing a security plugin like SiteGround’s Security Optimizer, which offers two-factor authentication and limits login attempts. Plus, it’s completely free. 
• Keeping everything up-to-date from your WordPress version to themes and plugins, as outdated software can be an open invitation for trouble.

10. Optimize For Speed and Performance

Slow-loading pages are like potholes on the information highway—they can cause high bounce rates, frustrated users, and missed opportunities. Speeding up your website ensures a smooth ride for visitors, increasing engagement and retention. So, how do we hit the gas?

By fine-tuning key elements of your website like:

• Compressing images: Reduce file sizes while maintaining quality and improving loading time.
• Leveraging browser caching: Decrease data transfer by storing files locally on users’ browsers.
• Minifying CSS, JavaScript, and HTML: Strip unnecessary characters and spaces to improve loading times.
• Using a content delivery network (CDN): Distribute content across global servers to enhance load times and help mitigate DDoS attacks.

These optimizations might sound small, but they add up to a big difference when it comes to your site performance. Luckily, SiteGround’s Speed Optimizer allows you to optimize your website in a few clicks, and it’s free for all WordPress users!  

11. Ensure Your Domain Directs to Your Actual Site

Now let’s talk about your cool and unique domain name, which you should have already purchased by now. 

Whether you’ve chosen to use a web-hosted sitebuilder, or to buy your own hosting and create a site with a content management system (CMS), you’ll need to make sure that your domain directs to your actual website. This step is a crucial part of your website requirements checklist.

If you’ve purchased your domain and hosting from the same provider, this might already be set up for you. However, if you’ve bought your domain from one provider and your hosting from another, you’ll need to point your domain to your hosting provider. To do this, you will need to consult your domain and hosting providers for exact instructions, but the process is generally straightforward. 

12. Conduct Usability Testing

We’re on the home stretch of our website checklist, conducting what’s known as usability testing. This involves real users interacting with your site, helping you spot and fix issues that might frustrate visitors or disrupt their journey.

You can do it in two ways:

• By sharing your website with friends, family, and potential users, and asking for their candid overall experience—frustrations they’ve experienced, ideas you might not have considered. 
• By using paid platforms like UserTesting or Trymata to observe users as they navigate your site and complete tasks. 

In any case, testing your user experience can reveal usability hiccups or bottlenecks, allowing you to address them before the big day.

13. Use Social Media to Build Anticipation

While not exactly the next step on our checklist, building anticipation through social media is an ongoing process to weave into your website launch preparations. It’s an effective way to engage potential visitors and drive traffic once your site goes live, especially if you already have engaged followers.

Here’s how to make it happen:

• Share sneak peeks, countdowns, and behind-the-scenes content to spark interest and excitement.
• Use hashtags relevant to your niche to broaden your reach.
• Encourage followers to share your content and join the conversation.

And there you have it! It’s time to hit that much-anticipated “Publish” button and watch the magic unfold as the results start rolling in.

14. Crawl Your Website

After launching your website, it’s time to roll out the red carpet for search engines! Ensuring they can crawl and index your pages is key to increasing your site’s visibility in search results. This process also helps you spot any pesky crawlability issues, like broken links or missing metadata, that might be hiding in the shadows.

Here’s how to make your site visible to search engines:

• Submit an XML sitemap: This is a document of all the links on your website and how they relate to one another. Once it’s ready, you can submit it via Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Create a robots.txt file: Consider this as your site’s bouncer, guiding Google’s search engine crawlers on which pages to bypass. While smaller sites may not necessarily need it, larger sites can benefit significantly from this to manage server resources effectively. You can use Google Search Console’s tester to ensure it’s properly configured and not blocking essential pages.

15. Integrate Analytics Tools 

To better serve your users and grow your business, analytics tools are critical. They act as your website’s secret agents, offering insights into visitor interactions and helping optimize your site for search engines. Based on these insights, you can adjust your content, expand or refine your offerings, and make other strategic improvements.

The three most important tools that you’ll need are:

• Google Search Console: Helps you understand your site’s performance on Google Search and get insights to improve visibility with the right keywords.

• Google Analytics: Helps you track website traffic and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by identifying visitor sources such as organic search, social media, and paid ads.
• Bing Analytics: Offers similar functionalities, optimized for the Bing search engine.

16. Check Site Speed 

Now, let’s tick off the speed box on our website checklist. Tools like PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix are fantastic for getting a snapshot of your site’s performance. They’ll show you website metrics like load time, time to first byte, and even give you a performance score. It’s like having a performance dashboard for your website.

Once you have the data, what’s next? One of the biggest factors is your hosting provider. A reliable host with fast server response times can make a world of difference. Look for one that offers solid uptime guarantees and good customer support – because when things go wrong, you’ll want help, and you’ll want it fast.

17. Map Out a Maintenance Plan

To ensure your site continues to be up-to-date, working at full capacity and performing well, a website maintenance plan is critical. Be sure to schedule regular reviews for tasks such as:

• Updating plugins 
• Checking security 
• Renewing content 
• Refreshing design

These should be part of your routine and addressed whenever issues pop up.

Final Thoughts on Your Website Checklist

Launching a website is exciting, but ensuring its success requires careful preparation and ongoing maintenance. By following a comprehensive website checklist that details the steps to launching a website, you can confidently address key areas such as SEO, security, speed, design, and usability. This proactive approach not only helps you avoid common pitfalls but also ensures that your site performs optimally from day one. 

Remember, the launch is just the beginning—post-launch efforts like monitoring site performance, integrating analytics, and maintaining regular backups are crucial for long-term success. With the right tools and strategies in place, your website will not only meet expectations but exceed them, providing a seamless experience for your visitors and supporting your business goals.