A proper WordPress website launch checklist is what separates a launch where nothing breaks from one where a client finds the first problem before you do. Every professional studio runs through one methodically before touching DNS. Here are the 25 specific items we check on every single site before it goes live.
Why a WordPress Website Launch Checklist Matters
The discipline isn’t really about any single item on this list. It’s about running through all 25 in order, every time, rather than relying on memory or assuming “it’s probably fine” because the last launch went smoothly. The problems this catches are rarely dramatic. They’re the kind that quietly cost rankings, enquiries, or trust for weeks before anyone notices.
Section 1: Technical
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1. SSL certificate active and auto-renewal configured. Visit the site at https:// and confirm the padlock appears, then check your hosting control panel to confirm auto-renewal is enabled. An expired SSL gives visitors a browser security warning that destroys trust instantly.
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2. All HTTP traffic redirects to HTTPS. Visit at http:// and confirm it redirects automatically. This redirect should be a 301 (permanent), not a 302 (temporary).
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3. www and non-www resolve to one canonical version. Both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com should land on the same address. Both being independently accessible creates duplicate content.
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4. PageSpeed mobile score is 80 or above. Run the homepage through pagespeed.web.dev. Address any red or orange items before going live, not after.
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5. Core Web Vitals all green. LCP below 2.5s, CLS below 0.1, TBT below 200ms. These are Google’s actual ranking signals. Launching with any orange or red here means you’re already behind before day one.
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6. robots.txt is correct. Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt and confirm it exists and doesn’t block search engines. A common mistake: a “noindex” directive left active from the staging environment.
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7. Sitemap generated and submitted to Search Console. Your XML sitemap, usually at /sitemap.xml with Yoast or Rank Math, should be submitted on launch day itself, not weeks later.
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8. All pages are indexable. Check in Yoast or Rank Math that no page has “noindex” set unintentionally, and confirm Settings > Reading has “Discourage search engines” unchecked.
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9. Favicon set and displaying correctly. Check the browser tab, and on mobile, add the site to a home screen to verify the app icon is correct too.
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10. Custom 404 page is genuinely helpful. Visit a deliberately broken URL and confirm a custom 404 loads, one that helps a visitor find what they actually need rather than a bare “Page Not Found.”
Section 2: Content and Design
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11. All pages reviewed for typos. Read every page aloud, not just a quick skim. Reading aloud catches errors a skim consistently misses.
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12. All images have descriptive alt text. Containing relevant keywords where it reads naturally, not forced in awkwardly.
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13. All internal and external links work. Run the full site through a broken link checker rather than spot-checking a handful of pages.
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14. Mobile layout reviewed on a real device. Not just a browser simulator, which can mask issues that only show up on actual hardware.
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15. All forms tested end-to-end. Submit every form on the site and confirm the notification email arrives within 60 seconds, the confirmation email reaches the submitter’s inbox, and neither lands in spam.
Section 3: SEO
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16. Every page has a unique, manually written meta title and description. Not an auto-generated default left unchanged across the entire site.
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17. Every page has exactly one H1 containing the primary keyword. More than one H1, or none at all, is a structural error worth catching before launch.
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18. Schema markup validates with no errors. Check it through both validator.schema.org for general Schema.org compliance and Google’s Rich Results Test for Google-specific rich result eligibility. The two catch different things.
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19. Open Graph tags display correctly. Test via Facebook’s Sharing Debugger to confirm the right title, description, and image appear when the site is shared.
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20. Google Analytics is connected and recording real-time data. Confirm this with an actual test visit before launch day, not after, so a tracking issue doesn’t go unnoticed for weeks.
Section 4: Business Operations
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21. Contact form notifications go to your active business inbox. Not a development address left over from the build phase, which is one of the most common post-launch enquiry losses we see.
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22. Business email is active and sends from your domain. Not a personal Gmail account standing in temporarily.
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23. Google Business Profile website URL updated to the new live site. Easy to forget, and it leaves visitors landing on a placeholder or the old site if missed.
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24. Backup system active, off-site, and first backup confirmed complete. Confirmed, not just assumed to be running.
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25. Uptime monitoring active. A free tool like UptimeRobot checking every five minutes is enough to catch an outage quickly rather than hearing about it from a client first.
Key Takeaway
None of these 25 items are individually dramatic. What makes a WordPress website launch checklist worth running every time is that skipping even two or three of them is usually how a launch ends up with a quiet problem nobody catches for weeks.
FAQs
How long does it actually take to get through all 25 items?
For a standard service business site, 2 to 3 hours for a thorough first pass. It’s faster on subsequent launches once the process is familiar, but worth resisting the urge to rush it regardless.
Which items on this list matter most if I’m short on time?
SSL and redirects (1-3), PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals (4-5), form testing (15), and contact form notifications going to the right inbox (21) cover the issues most likely to directly cost you enquiries if missed.
Should this checklist be run again after the site has been live for a while?
Worth repeating after any major update, redesign, or hosting migration. Several items, particularly SSL renewal and form delivery, can quietly fail well after launch without anyone noticing immediately.
Is it worth hiring someone just to run this checklist, or is it fine to do it myself?
It’s genuinely doable yourself if you work through it methodically rather than skimming. Where it’s worth getting help is interpreting what a failed item, like an orange Core Web Vitals score, actually means and how to fix it.
Want This Checklist Run Properly Before Your Launch?
We run all 25 of these checks, plus a few additional ones specific to your setup, as a standard part of every WordPress build. Book a free call if your launch is coming up and you want it handled properly.
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