# Website launch checklist

VERQEN — www.verqenconsulting.com
Use before any launch that changes URLs, templates or tracking.

## Crawl
- [ ] Crawl staging with rendering enabled
- [ ] Crawl production immediately after launch
- [ ] Compare the two crawls field by field on the templates that carry traffic

## Redirects
- [ ] Every scored URL has a destination
- [ ] Single hop only — no chains
- [ ] 301 where permanent is intended; document any deliberate 302
- [ ] Destination returns 200 and serves equivalent content

## Canonicals
- [ ] Self-referencing on canonical pages
- [ ] Variant and parameter URLs canonicalise to the right parent
- [ ] No template-level canonical applied more broadly than intended

## Robots and sitemap
- [ ] Staging blocked: robots disallow AND HTTP authentication
- [ ] Production robots.txt allows the crawlers you need
- [ ] No important resource (CSS, JS, images) blocked
- [ ] XML sitemap contains only canonical, indexable URLs
- [ ] Sitemap segmented by page type
- [ ] Sitemap submitted in Search Console

## Structured data
- [ ] Valid against the Rich Results Test
- [ ] Only marks up what genuinely describes the page
- [ ] FAQPage used only where the page really is a FAQ

## Forms and conversions
- [ ] Every form submitted for real, end to end
- [ ] Submission reaches the CRM with source and landing page
- [ ] Validation and error messages tested
- [ ] Spam protection active and not discarding real submissions

## Analytics
- [ ] GA4 receiving data from the new build
- [ ] Every conversion fires exactly once
- [ ] Consent granted path tested
- [ ] Consent denied path tested
- [ ] Cross-domain linking configured for every domain in one journey
- [ ] Internal traffic filtered

## Rendering and performance
- [ ] Important content present in the raw HTML response
- [ ] Rendered DOM compared against raw HTML on key templates
- [ ] Core Web Vitals measured on revenue templates
- [ ] Images optimised and correctly sized

## Links and errors
- [ ] No broken internal links
- [ ] Internal links point at new URLs, not redirects
- [ ] 404 page returns a real 404 status and offers a route onward
- [ ] Server response times acceptable under real traffic

## Mobile and accessibility
- [ ] No horizontal scrolling at 360px
- [ ] Tap targets at least 44px
- [ ] Keyboard navigation works throughout
- [ ] Focus states visible
- [ ] Reduced-motion preference respected

## Social
- [ ] Open Graph title, description and image on every important page
- [ ] Social preview tested on at least two platforms

## Decision criteria
- [ ] Launch-day pass/fail criteria written and owned before launch week
- [ ] Rollback triggers agreed in advance