Before any site goes live, I run the same checklist: performance, SEO basics, analytics, working forms, accessibility, and a final cross-device QA pass. A launch isn't "the design looks done" — it's confirming the things visitors and Google actually need are in place. Skipping it is how sites ship with broken contact forms, no analytics, and pages Google can't index. Here's the pre-launch pass I run on every build, every time.
What do you check for performance?
That the pages load fast on a real phone, not only a fast laptop. I confirm images are optimized and correctly sized, the Core Web Vitals are in range (LCP under 2.5s, CLS under 0.1), and nothing heavy blocks the first paint. Speed is the first thing a visitor feels and a real ranking factor, so it gets checked before launch, not after complaints. A slow site costs conversions and rankings from the very first day it's live. I run a real measurement here, not a guess — PageSpeed Insights on the key pages and a check on an actual phone, because a site that's fast on my laptop can still crawl on a mid-range device over mobile data.
What SEO basics belong on the list?
The essentials Google needs to find and show the site: a unique title and meta description per page, clean URLs, a sitemap, correct canonical tags, and Open Graph tags so shared links look right. I also confirm no "noindex" got left on from staging — a surprisingly common way to launch a site that's invisible to search. These checks take minutes and decide whether the site shows up at all, which is exactly why none of them are optional. I also submit the sitemap to Google Search Console on launch day, so indexing starts immediately instead of waiting for Google to find the site on its own — a small step that gets you into search results days sooner.
What about forms, analytics, and tracking?
Every form gets tested end to end — submit it, confirm the message actually arrives, check the success state the visitor sees. Then analytics goes on before launch, not weeks later, so day-one traffic is measured instead of lost forever. A contact form that silently fails and a launch with no analytics are the two mistakes I see most, and both stay invisible until you've already lost the leads or the data you can never get back. I also confirm the form's confirmation and notification emails land (and don't go to spam), because a form that "works" but quietly drops messages is worse than no form — it loses leads you don't even know you had.
What's the complete pre-launch checklist?
Here's the full pass I run before flipping any site live:
- Performance — Core Web Vitals in range, images optimized, fast on a real phone.
- SEO — unique titles and meta, clean URLs, sitemap submitted, no stray "noindex," Open Graph tags.
- Analytics — installed and recording, with the conversion event tested.
- Forms — every form submitted end to end, emails confirmed landing.
- Accessibility — color contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation.
- Content — final proofread, working links, correct contact details.
- Technical — HTTPS on, a real 404 page, correct redirects, mobile and desktop QA.
Run it top to bottom and launch day is calm, not a scramble.
What's the most common launch mistake?
Launching on "it looks done" instead of "it's verified." The site looks finished in the design tool, so it goes live — and the broken contact form, the missing analytics, or the leftover staging "noindex" surfaces weeks later, after the cost is already paid in lost leads and lost ranking. Every item on the checklist exists because skipping it has burned someone. The fix is simple discipline: a launch isn't done when it looks right, it's done when each thing visitors and Google need has been tested and confirmed working.
What's the final pre-launch pass?
A walk through the real site on a phone and a desktop: every link, every page, every form, on the devices visitors actually use. I check accessibility basics — color contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation — and proofread the copy one last time. It's the same disciplined pass behind every site I launch. Five minutes of real-device QA catches what looks perfect in the design tool and quietly breaks in the wild.
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Launching soon? Tell me what you're building — I'll run the pre-launch pass with you.
