The pre-launch checklist worth twenty minutes

Launch problems are remarkably consistent. This list is what we run before anything goes live, and it has caught every item on it at least once.

Indexing

• WordPress's "discourage search engines" setting is off. This one alone has cost businesses months.
• No stray noindex left on any template.
• robots.txt is not blocking the site.
• Sitemap generated, accurate, submitted in Search Console.

Redirects

• Every old URL maps to a new one, directly, with a 301.
• www and non-www resolve to one canonical version.
• http redirects to https everywhere.
• Crawl the new site and fix every 404 before launch, not after.

The things people actually use

• Send a test through every form and confirm the email arrives — not that the success message appears.
• Complete a real purchase if there is a shop, with a real card, then refund it.
• Every phone number and email address is a working link and goes to the right place.
• Check the site on a real phone, not an emulator.

Legal and trust

• Impressum and privacy policy present, complete and reachable in two clicks.
• Cookie banner blocks scripts before consent, and reject is as easy as accept.
• SSL valid, with auto-renewal confirmed.
• The year in the footer is this year.

Afterwards

• Analytics recording, and someone has actually looked at real-time data.
• Backups running and one restore tested.
• Uptime monitoring alerting a human.
• Someone other than the developer has the hosting and domain credentials.

The one everybody skips

Ask someone who has never seen the site to complete the main task while you watch and say nothing. Ten minutes. It finds more than the rest of the list combined, and it is the only item here that no tool can do for you.