Most website launches don’t fail in a dramatic way. They fail quietly. The contact form looks fine but the emails never arrive. The site goes live with search engines still blocked. The old URLs that brought in half the traffic now show a 404. Nobody notices for weeks.
This WordPress website launch checklist is the list I run through before every site goes live. It’s grouped into the order I actually work: content, functionality, devices, SEO, speed, security, launch day, and the first 30 days after. There are 31 checks in total, and every one is there because I’ve seen what happens when it’s skipped.
Use it for a brand new site, a redesign or a migration to a new host. The steps are the same; a redesign just has more redirects.
Short version
- Test every form by actually submitting it, and confirm the email arrives.
- Untick “Discourage search engines” on launch day. It’s the most common launch mistake there is.
- On a redesign, redirect every old URL that gets traffic or links.
- Check the site on real phones, not just a resized desktop browser.
- Take a backup and test that you can restore it before you need to.
- Keep watching for 30 days. Many launch problems only show up later.
Who this WordPress website launch checklist is for
It’s written for three kinds of people. Business owners who want to check their developer’s work before signing off. Agencies that want a shared standard across projects. And developers like me who’ve learned that memory is not a launch process.
You don’t need to do every check yourself. A good developer should already cover most of them. But if you’re paying for a website, it’s fair to ask which of these 31 they’ve done, and a professional will be able to answer quickly.
If you’re launching a store, the functionality and security steps matter even more, and my Shopify store design service follows the same list for Shopify launches.
Step 1: Content and design
1. Search for placeholder content
Search the whole site for “lorem”, “ipsum”, “example.com”, “your text here” and “test”. Placeholder text is easy to miss in a footer, a popup or a form confirmation message. Check page titles and image file names too.
2. Proofread every page, out loud if you can
Have someone who didn’t write the content read it. Check names, phone numbers, prices, opening hours and addresses especially. A wrong phone number on a local business site costs real calls.
3. Optimise images and add alt text
Every image should be compressed, sized for how it’s displayed and have descriptive alt text. Alt text helps visually impaired visitors and helps search engines understand the image.
4. Set the favicon and site identity
Upload a favicon (Site Icon) and set the site title and tagline in Settings > General. The default tagline “Just another WordPress site”, or a theme’s own default, shows up in more places than you’d expect, including search results.
5. Add the legal pages your site needs
At minimum a privacy policy, linked from the footer and from any form that collects personal data. Depending on where you and your visitors are, and what tracking you use, you may also need a cookie notice and terms. If you’re unsure what applies, check with a legal adviser.
6. Design a helpful 404 page
Visitors will hit broken links eventually. A 404 page with a search box and links to your key pages keeps them on the site instead of sending them back to Google.
Step 2: Functionality
7. Submit every form and confirm the email arrives
Don’t just check that the form says “thank you”. Submit it and confirm the email lands in the right inbox, not in spam. Then reply to it and check the reply goes to the visitor, not to your own server address.
Shared hosting is unreliable at sending email, so I set up proper SMTP with a plugin such as WP Mail SMTP on every site.
From a real project: on my own portfolio, the contact form stopped sending because of a one-letter typo. The mail account was created as “no-replay” and the SMTP settings said “no-reply”. The form looked perfect. Only an actual test submission revealed it.
8. Crawl the site for broken links
Run a crawler, such as Screaming Frog’s free version, across the site. It lists every broken internal link, missing image and redirect chain in minutes. Fix them all before launch.
9. Place real test orders on a store
For WooCommerce or Shopify, put the payment gateway in test mode and place orders with each payment method. Check the order emails, the tax, the shipping costs for different regions and a coupon. Then switch the gateway back to live mode, which is its own item on the launch day list.
10. Test every integration
Booking systems, CRMs, newsletter signups, chat widgets and analytics. Each one should be tested end to end: submit on the site, confirm it arrives in the other tool.
Step 3: Devices, browsers and accessibility
11. Test on real phones
Most visits to most sites come from phones. Resizing a desktop browser is useful while building, but it isn’t the same as a real phone with a real keyboard, notch and slow connection. Test the menu, forms and buttons with your thumb.
12. Check the main browsers
At minimum Chrome, Safari (including iPhone) and Firefox. Safari is where most of the layout surprises I find come from.
13. Cover the accessibility basics
- Text has enough contrast against its background
- Every image has alt text, and decorative ones have empty alt
- Headings go in order: one H1, then H2, then H3
- The whole site can be used with a keyboard, and focus is visible
- Form fields have labels, not just placeholder text
Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools flags most of these automatically. A two-minute keyboard-only test catches the rest.
Step 4: SEO
14. Plan to untick “Discourage search engines”
While you build, Settings > Reading > “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” should be on. At launch it must be off. Leaving it on is the single most common launch mistake I see, and the site simply never appears in Google. I put it on the launch day list so it can’t be forgotten.
15. Write unique titles and meta descriptions
Every page needs its own SEO title and meta description, written for the search it should appear in. Titles around 50 to 60 characters and descriptions around 150 to 160 usually display in full.
16. Set clean permalinks
Settings > Permalinks > Post name, so URLs read /services/ instead of /?p=123. Do this before launch; changing it later means redirects for every page.
17. Map redirects from every old URL
On a redesign or migration, list every URL on the old site that gets traffic or has links pointing to it, and redirect each one to its closest new page with a 301 redirect. Search Console’s Performance report and your old sitemap are good sources for the list. Google’s guide to moving a site with URL changes covers the details.
| Old URL | New URL | Type |
|---|---|---|
| /our-services/web-design | /wordpress-website-design-development/ | 301 |
| /blog/2019/speed-tips | /wordpress-speed-optimization-checklist/ | 301 |
| /contact-us | /contact/ | 301 |
Watch out: redirecting every old URL to the homepage is not a redirect plan. Google often treats that like a missing page, and visitors land somewhere they didn’t expect. Match each one to the closest relevant page.
18. Add schema and social images
Your SEO plugin adds basic schema automatically. Check the important ones, such as Organization or Person, LocalBusiness and FAQ, with Google’s Rich Results Test. Then set an Open Graph image for every key page, so links shared on LinkedIn, Facebook or WhatsApp show a proper preview instead of a random image.
19. Set up analytics and conversion tracking
Install Google Analytics 4, or your chosen tool, and track the actions that matter: form submissions, calls, WhatsApp clicks, purchases. Without this, you’ll never know which pages bring in business.
Step 5: Speed
20. Set up caching and image optimisation
One page caching solution that matches your server, plus image compression and modern formats. The full process is in my WordPress speed optimization checklist.
21. Record a speed baseline
Run PageSpeed Insights on your key templates and save the results. After launch, Search Console starts collecting real-user data, and you’ll want something to compare it with.
Step 6: Security and backups
22. Update everything and clean up users
Update WordPress, plugins and themes. Delete anything unused. Remove test accounts and give every person the lowest role they need. Every admin account should have a strong, unique password and two-factor login.
23. Set up backups and test a restore
Schedule automatic backups stored off the server, then restore one to a staging site to prove it works. A backup you’ve never restored is only a hope. If the worst happens later, my guide on removing malware from WordPress starts with exactly this backup.
24. Force HTTPS and fix mixed content
Install the SSL certificate, make sure every http:// address redirects to https://, and check that no images or scripts still load over plain HTTP. Browsers show warnings for mixed content, and visitors notice.
Launching soon? I build and launch WordPress sites with this checklist built in.
Step 7: Launch day
25. Move the site and replace URLs
Move the site from staging to the live server with a migration plugin or WP-CLI. Then replace the staging domain with the live one everywhere in the database. With WP-CLI, preview first:
wp search-replace 'staging.example.com' 'example.com' --dry-run
wp search-replace 'staging.example.com' 'example.com'A plain find-and-replace in a SQL file can break serialised data. WP-CLI’s search-replace and good migration plugins handle it correctly.
26. Point the domain and wait for DNS
Update the DNS records at your registrar. Lowering the record’s TTL a day before makes the switch faster. Keep the old site running until the change has spread, so nobody lands on an empty server.
27. Switch everything to live mode
- Untick “Discourage search engines” in Settings > Reading
- Switch payment gateways from test to live mode
- Clear every cache: plugin, server and CDN
- Submit the XML sitemap in Google Search Console
28. Run a smoke test on the live domain
Open the live site in a private window and on your phone. Load the homepage and key pages, submit a form, place a real low-value order on a store and refund it, and click the main menu links. Ten minutes here catches the problems that only appear on the real domain.
Step 8: The first 30 days
29. Watch Search Console
Check the Pages report for indexing errors, 404s and pages Google chose not to index. On a redesign, compare traffic to key pages against the old site. A sudden drop on one page usually means a missing redirect.
30. Monitor uptime, forms and emails
Set up uptime alerts, and send a test form submission once a week for the first month. Hosting changes, plugin updates and email settings can all break things after launch day.
31. Train the team that will run the site
Show the client’s team how to edit pages, add posts and update the parts they’ll change most. If the site is built on Elementor, the way it’s built makes a big difference here; my guide on Elementor global templates explains how to make a site the client can safely edit.
The WordPress website launch checklist on one page
| Step | Checks |
|---|---|
| Content and design | 1. No placeholders · 2. Proofread · 3. Images and alt text · 4. Favicon and identity · 5. Legal pages · 6. 404 page |
| Functionality | 7. Forms deliver · 8. No broken links · 9. Test orders · 10. Integrations |
| Devices | 11. Real phones · 12. Main browsers · 13. Accessibility basics |
| SEO | 14. Indexing plan · 15. Titles and descriptions · 16. Permalinks · 17. Redirects · 18. Schema and social images · 19. Analytics |
| Speed | 20. Caching and images · 21. Baseline |
| Security | 22. Updates and users · 23. Tested backups · 24. HTTPS |
| Launch day | 25. Migrate and replace URLs · 26. DNS · 27. Live mode · 28. Smoke test |
| First 30 days | 29. Search Console · 30. Uptime and forms · 31. Team training |
Print it, copy it into your project tool, or hand it to your developer. Every site I build goes through this WordPress website launch checklist before it goes live, and you can see the results across my live portfolio. Planning a launch and want a second pair of eyes? Get in touch.
Keep reading
Frequently asked questions
What should I check before launching a WordPress site?
Content and placeholders, every form and integration, real phones and browsers, SEO settings and redirects, speed, security and backups. The 31 checks in this guide cover each area in order.
Why is my new WordPress site not showing on Google?
The most common reason is that “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is still ticked in Settings > Reading. Untick it, submit your sitemap in Search Console and give Google time to crawl.
Do I need redirects when I redesign my website?
Yes, if any URLs change. Redirect every old URL that gets traffic or links to its closest new page with a 301, otherwise you lose the rankings and visitors those pages had.
Why are my WordPress contact form emails not arriving?
Shared hosting is unreliable at sending email. Set up SMTP with a plugin such as WP Mail SMTP, use an address on your own domain, and send a real test submission to confirm it lands in the inbox.
How long does it take to launch a WordPress site?
Launch day itself usually takes a few hours plus DNS time. The checks before it take longer, which is why I spread them over the final days of a project instead of doing everything at once.
What should I do after launching a website?
For the first 30 days, watch Search Console for errors and missing redirects, monitor uptime, test the forms weekly and train the team that will run the site.
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