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By Ramesh Gautam Workflow

My pre-launch checklist for WordPress sites

My pre-launch checklist for WordPress sites, a Workflow article by Ramesh Gautam

Most launch-day problems aren’t difficult. They’re forgotten. A site that stays hidden from Google for a month because one box was ticked. A contact form that sends to a developer’s test inbox. Old URLs that now return 404 and lose years of search traffic. This WordPress launch checklist is what I work through before a site goes live.

Search visibility

  • Settings → Reading: untick “Discourage search engines”. Development sites should have it ticked; live sites must not.
  • HTTPS everywhere: http:// and www. variants should 301 to one canonical address.
  • XML sitemap generated and reachable. robots.txt doesn’t block CSS, JS or content.
  • Redirects from the old site. Crawl the old site or export its URLs from Search Console, and map every page with traffic or links to its new address.
  • Each page has a unique title and meta description. Thin or placeholder pages are noindexed or removed.
  • Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Content

  • No placeholder text, test posts or “Sample Page”. Search the database for “lorem”.
  • Favicon and site icon set. Default social sharing image set, 1200 × 630.
  • Privacy policy published and linked, especially if you add analytics.
  • A useful 404 page that links to the main sections, returning a real 404 status.

Forms and email

  • Submit every form and confirm the email arrives, at the client’s real address.
  • Configure SMTP or a transactional mail service. PHP mail from shared hosting often lands in spam.
  • Spam protection on forms and, if comments are open, on comments.

Performance

  • Page caching on. Images sized and served as WebP. Theme assets versioned so caches refresh.
  • Run Lighthouse on the homepage and one of each template. I care most about real-visitor Core Web Vitals, so I recheck them in Search Console a month after launch.

Accessibility

  • Keyboard through the main pages: visible focus, a working skip link, a menu that opens and closes with Escape.
  • Colour contrast in every colour mode. Alt text on meaningful images.
  • My accessibility checklist has the full version.

Security and recovery

  • Admin usernames and passwords changed from anything used during development. Two-factor login on.
  • Development and staging copies removed from the live server, or password protected.
  • Automatic backups running and stored off the server. Do one manual backup right before launch.
  • The rest of my security checklist.

Tracking

  • Analytics installed, excluding logged-in users so your own visits don’t count.
  • Search Console verified for the domain.
  • An uptime monitor that emails or messages you if the site goes down.

After launch

Check the site again the next day and a week later: error logs, Search Console coverage, form submissions and the 404 log. Launch is when real visitors start finding the things testing missed.

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