20 Things to Check Before Your Website Goes Live

You've built the site. The copy's written, the pages are up, and you're one click from making it public. This is the part people rush.

For the reasoning behind each category here, 12 things that matter most when creating a website covers the why. This is the shorter version: what to actually check before you launch, grouped so you can run through it in one sitting.

Purpose and audience

• Your homepage names the problem you solve in the first sentence someone reads, not the third paragraph.
• There's one primary action per page, and it's obvious without scrolling.
• You could describe your ideal visitor in one sentence. If you can't, neither can your site.

Speed and hosting

• Every hero image is compressed and saved as WebP or AVIF.
• Anything below the fold is set to lazy-load.
• Your hosting plan isn't the cheapest one you found. Cheap hosting shows up in load times.
• You've run the site through Google's Core Web Vitals tool and LCP comes in under 2.5 seconds.

Mobile

• You've tested on an actual phone, not just your browser's resized window.
• Tap targets are big enough for a thumb, not a cursor.
• Body text is readable without pinching to zoom.
• No form on the site asks for more than it needs.

SEO basics

• Every page has a unique title tag and meta description, not the defaults your platform generated.
• URLs are readable words, not query strings.
• Each page links to at least one other relevant page on your site.
• If this is a new domain, google can't find your pages until crawling and indexing are set up correctly — worth checking before you announce the launch, not after.

Security

• HTTPS is active on every page, not just checkout.
• Your CMS and any plugins are on their current versions.
• Admin accounts use strong passwords and two-factor authentication.
• If you collect any personal data, your privacy policy actually says what you do with it.

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Content and testing

• Every form on the site has been submitted and actually arrives somewhere.
• Every link has been clicked, including the ones in the footer nobody thinks about.
• Headings describe what the section says, even to someone skimming.
• Analytics is installed and firing before launch day, not after you notice traffic looks wrong.
• Alt text is on every image that carries meaning, and color contrast passes the WCAG guidelines.

If any of this checklist turns up more than a couple of misses, that's a sign the site needs more than a pre-launch pass. Is your website outdated? Here are 10 signs to check walks through what to look for beyond launch day, and what website management actually costs if you're weighing whether to keep maintaining it yourself.

FAQ

How often should I run this checklist again?

Any time you launch a new page template, switch hosts, or do a redesign. A quick pass before every major change catches most regressions before visitors do.

What if I don't have time to check all 20?

Prioritize speed and mobile first. Those two categories cost you the most visitors the fastest, and they're the two most people skip under a deadline.

Does this apply to an existing site, not just a new one?

Yes. Run it the same way before any redesign or major content push. An old site with new problems fails the same checks a new site does.

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Ready to see where you stand? Run a free audit at lookelo.com and get the fix list before your visitors find the problems for you.