SiteFixPlan field guide
Website launch quality-assurance checklist
Verify redirects, forms, analytics, accessibility, search controls, performance, and ownership before launch.
Check the launch homepageProtect the journeys that matter
Launch review should follow real tasks from arrival to completion: finding a service, submitting an inquiry, making a purchase, booking, signing in, or reaching support. A page-by-page visual check can miss failures between systems.
Test before and immediately after release
Use a staging environment for controlled review, then repeat critical checks in production because domains, caching, consent, analytics, redirects, email delivery, and third-party integrations can behave differently after release.
- Crawl internal links and validate the redirect map.
- Confirm canonical URLs, robots directives, sitemap, metadata, and structured data.
- Test forms, confirmations, notifications, CRM, payments, and error recovery.
- Review keyboard access, focus, labels, contrast, zoom, and responsive behavior.
- Check performance, security headers, backups, monitoring, and rollback ownership.
Assign the launch watch
Name who monitors errors, analytics, search indexing, form delivery, payments, and customer reports during the first days after launch. Record baseline metrics and avoid making several untraceable changes at once when an issue appears.
Common questions
When should search engines receive the new sitemap?
Make the production sitemap available at launch, reference it in robots.txt where appropriate, and submit or verify it in the relevant search tools.
Should staging be indexable?
Usually no. Use appropriate access controls and search directives, then verify that production does not inherit staging restrictions.