Launching Phase

At long last, it’s finally time to launch the website!

Since there are so many steps involved in launching a website, it’s a good idea to use a checklist to make sure no step is missed.

Make sure to utilize the checklists in these articles to make sure your website launch goes smoothly:

The Essential WordPress Website Launch Checklist (see more below)
The Complete WordPress Launch Checklist for Developers (see more below)
The Ultimate WordPress Checklist: 80+ Tasks for Every WordPress Website Owner (see more below)

They will definitely make the process of launching your website much more efficient.

There’s nothing quite like the day you launch a new website. All the weeks and months you’ve spent planning, coordinating, organizing, designing and developing are finally finished and it’s time to unveil your website—your work, even if it’s for a client—to the world. A launch day should be full of celebration and excitement and the feeling of accomplishment, right? Unfortunately, launch day can also be frantic and hectic—what if you missed something?

Essential WP Site Launch Checklist

The excitement is building and the new WordPress website is about ready to go live. The WordPress site about to be launched could be personal, for a client or a friend, and it is crucial not to make a mistake and forget something. With this complete WordPress launch checklist, we should be able to avoid and prepare for any number of scenarios.

Important points to be addressed:

1. Is the default content that came with WordPress during install removed? (Hello World! post, Sample Page, etc.)
2. Any placeholder or lorem ipsum text created during the development process while waiting for the content to be added needs to be removed.
3. In the same manner, it is important to make sure any placeholder images have also been properly replaced with the correct images.
4. Proofread till your eyes fall out (or until you pay a professional).  Making sure the grammar, spelling, punctuation and capitalization are correct BEFORE going live.
5. Checking on EVERY link on the site. Every major link on the site has to be clicked on and then use a plugin like Broken Link Checker to verify the integrity of ALL the links on the site.  Also, checking to see that downloads work, embedded videos play and forms correctly submit.
6. The new WordPress site has to contain a useful 404 Error page that is helpful in getting site visitors back on track.
7. Checking to see if someone comes to the website and wants to get in contact with you (or your client) … is it easy to do? Is there an easy to find contact page?
8. Checking that the autoresponders and funnel email steps are all working and sending correctly. There’s nothing worse than working hard to build email list only to find out three months later that nobody was receiving any of the auto-generated emails.
9. Setting up an email collection system to build the email list for the site. If there is no method in which visitors to your site can request updates or to be informed of what is happening, this funnel needs to be built out immediately before launching.
10. EVERY social sharing link has to be checked to make sure it works correctly and places the appropriate placeholder content.
11. Every social account profile linked from the website has to be visited and verified in order to make sure it is  professional and ready to receive inbound visitors from the site.
12. If the new site is going to replace an older website redirections for links that existed on the old site need to be set up. Using the Redirection plugin can be a big help in this area.
13. Making sure a Welcome to the new site! type of content (a blog post, a header notification, a sidebar description, etc.) needs to be in place.  It is especially important to have this type of content for a site that is relaunching so that repeat visitors won’t be so disoriented when they visit the site after the change.
14. It is important to remember and include a print.css stylesheet that customizes the look of the site when visitors go to print off a blog post or article.
15. Validate ALL THE THINGS!!!!! The HTML markup and the CSS styles have to be validated.
16. Testing how the WordPress site looks on different mobile devices and different browsers.
17. Checking to make sure all images are completely optimized to the lowest size without losing quality.
    Pro Tip: Using Google’s PageSpeed Insights Analysis Tool can tell you many things that can help speed up your site, but it can also show you all the images on your site that still need to be optimized.
18. Making sure a favicon for the site is created. Using Favicomatic to dynamically generate all the code and favicon versions for the site is good idea.
    Pro Tip: Many developers like to create one favicon for the front of the site and a different favicon for the WordPress admin side of things to make it easy to differentiate.
19. Checking out how does the RSS feed look in different feed readers. Is there any additional content that might need to be added through a WordPress hook for people subscribing to the site’s feed.
    Pro Tip: Check out all of these WordPress hooks that can be used to customize and filter what the RSS feed will look like and contain for subscribers.
20. Proper configured of SEO plugin for the WordPress site. Making sure the site title and tagline in the General Settings of WordPress are set up.
21. Setting up Permalinks to something other than the default settings.
22. Generate an XML Sitemap for the site as well as a human sitemap (HTML sitemap).
23. Making sure the site is compliant in the legal arena. Items to verify on the WordPress site include: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright notice, Cookie Warnings for the EU, company details for tax and other anti-spam requirements and any licensing information (like fonts and images).
24. Checking out if there’s anything else that can be done to speed up the site. Websites like Google PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom and GTMetrix can be used to quality the speed of the website as well as provide recommendations for how to improve the loading speed of the site.
25. Once the site is moved to the live server, it is important to make sure tasks like relicensing of any plugins (and/or themes) are completed, the site’s caching plugin ability is turn on, the analytics tracking is set up and any CDN or WordPress firewall system that will be used for the site is activated.
26. All the security settings (iThemes’ Security Pro for example) have to be turned on to protect the site against WordPress brute force attacks, enforce strong passwords for WordPress password security and other recommended ways to lock down WordPress.
27. The checklist is almost done. By getting this far, it’s time to make sure that automatic WordPress backup schedules are set up.
28. Launch the site!

At this point, it may be necessary to schedule follow-up appointments with the client to make sure everything is running smoothly and the site meets/exceeds expectations.

Building and running a WordPress website includes many tasks, so this WordPress checklist helps in not forgetting a thing. From setup to launch to maintenance, this checklist is a handy reference for existing website or the next WordPress website project.

WordPress Setup Checklist

First things first. This first WordPress checklist will help you start out on the right foot when you start to create a WordPress website.

Purchase a domain name.
Purchase a hosting plan from a reputable hosting company that specializes in WordPress hosting.
Install the latest version of the WordPress software on your server.

Basic WordPress Development Checklist

The following developer WordPress checklist is a brief starting point. While there are a number of specific tasks that have to be done, everyone has their own way of doing things. Add to this list as you develop your own workflow.

Set up new domain in cPanel
Set up new database and user in cPanel
Record new domain and database information into tracking software
Change DNS on domain to the correct name servers
Set up a WordPress staging environment
Clone WordPress if tweaking an existing site
Delete existing website files
Remove the WordPress default content like the Hello, World! post.
Delete the wp-config-sample.php file.
Install a WordPress theme.
Install necessary WordPress plugins.
Create a sitemap.
Create a 404 page.
Add any additional Admin users.
Add a favicon.
Add alt tags to all website images.
Combat Spam. (We suggest saving time using the plugin Aksimet)
Set up a contact form.
Update your user profile.
Make sure the timezone is correct.
Start tracking metrics with Google Analytics.
Old website URLs are 301 redirected to new URLs
Add blog categories and remove the “Uncategorized” category.
Test website on multiple devices and browsers.
Test Everything!

WordPress Security Checklist

WordPress sites are often targeted by hackers and bots that can exploit some common default settings. Use the following WordPress Checklist to secure your site.

Install a WordPress security plugin such as iThemes Security.
Use the WordPress Security Check feature in the iThemes Security to activate all recommended features.
Remove or rename the “admin” username.
Enforce strong passwords and good WordPress password security for all users.
Enable WordPress two-factor authentication.
Keep themes and plugins up to date.
Delete any themes or plugins that are not active.
Limit login attempts with WordPress brute force protection.

WordPress Backup Checklist

WordPress doesn’t have a built-in backup solution. You’ll need to use a WordPress backup plugin to backup your site’s database and files. This WordPress checklist is specific to BackupBuddy.

Install a WordPress backup plugin like BackupBuddy.
Run a manual backup to backup your entire WordPress installation, including the WordPress database, all files, themes, plugins, media library, etc.
Download the backup zip file of your WordPress website.
Set up remote destinations for your remote WordPress backup storage to store your WordPress backups safely off-site.
Set up automatic WordPress backup schedules so your backups run automatically.
Enable Stash Live for real-time, cloud-based WordPress backups.

Use a step by step guide for how to backup a WordPress site.

WordPress SEO Checklist

Don’t skip out on a good SEO strategy for your WordPress site. A website is only as good as its SEO strategy. Well-executed SEO is the difference between 500 and 10,000 daily visitors.

Install a WordPress SEO plugin like Yoast.
If you’re new to SEO, review this free SEO training and basics of SEO for WordPress.
Make sure all pages and posts have a unique title, fewer than 70 characters
Make sure all pages and posts have unique meta descriptions, fewer than 156 characters
Make sure all pages and posts have fewer than 10 keywords that appear in page copy
Build first sitemap and ping search engines
Connect Google Analytics
Add Google Analytics Tracking ID to iThemes Builder settings
Activate Google Analytics Dashboard for WP and add Tracking ID
Connect Google and Bing Webmaster tools
Confirm permalink settings are not Default for SEO purposes
Make sure there is only one
<h1>tag and that it contains the page keyword.
All images have alt tags with appropriate keywords.
Use external and internal links in the content.
General WordPress Checklist

This checklist is a sort of catch-all list with things you should double check and steps that may not have a specific category to fall in.

Remove all Lorem Ipsum text
Test your website on all supported browsers.
Proofread site copy for grammar and spelling errors
All links are working correctly
404 page is created or customized
Be sure all required licenses for images, fonts, plugins, etc. are on file
Confirm client Gravatars are set up for their email address
Change the site tagline
Images are correct and have been optimized for the web (resize all large images)
Responsive design tested at standard phone & tablet sizes
Website favicon is working
Header (or company logo) is linked to home page
Page load time is 3 seconds or less
All external hyperlinks open in a new tab
Social Media sharing and links are working
All forms are correct and submit to appropriate locations
Confirm admin email address is correct
Confirm time zone is correct

WordPress Launch Checklist

Making a launch checklist allows us to offload the job of remembering a ton of tiny details (all those mental “notes”) and free up mental “RAM.”

Follow the previous checklists to make sure all setup, development, backup, security, SEO and general tasks have been completed.
Turn on Site Visibility in Settings > Reading
Check for broken links on links and redirections
Make sure default/Lorem Ipsum content has been deleted
Confirm contact form is working and notifications are set up
Share your site on social media

WordPress Maintenance Checklist

It’s important to maintain your WordPress site by adding new content and keeping WordPress, plugins and themes updated to the latest version.

Use a WordPress maintenance tool like iThemes Sync if you’re managing multiple WordPress sites.
Run core WordPress updates
Update plugins
Update theme
Create website backups
Secure WordPress website
Improve SEO

WordPress Tools to Simplify Your Life

A WordPress backup plugin like BackupBuddy is a great tool that allows you to create backups and migrate your client sites from a development site to the live site, it also allows you to create scheduled, automatic WordPress backups.

A WordPress security plugin like iThemes Security simplifies security in a number of ways. With settings for things such as WordPress brute force protection, strong password enforcement, and database backups, you are able to help secure your client’s site for an extended time period with only having touched it once.

Of all the tools you can use to ease your workload, a WordPress maintenance tool like iThemes Sync is one of the most important tools in your arsenal. Instead of logging in to each site individually, you have one place to view and install available updates. Sync was made to manage multiple WordPress sites. If you’re building and maintaining sites for clients, you’ll love all the client-driven features.
Continue Building Upon This WordPress Checklist

Use this WordPress checklist as a starting point, but remember to make it your own. Build upon your checklist and write down everything you can each time you work through a process.

Check out these other WordPress checklists:

The Essential WordPress Website Launch Checklist
How to Manage WordPress Sites: 75 Tasks To Keep Your Site Running Smoothly
Summer WordPress Cleanup Checklist
The Complete WordPress Launch Checklist for Developers