Miss even one of these and you'll regret it post-launch. The complete pre-launch checklist every website owner needs.
Your website is ready. The design looks great. Content is written. You're one click away from hitting Go Live.
Wait.
Almost every client who comes to us after a bad launch experience has the same complaints — "the contact form wasn't working for a week and nobody told us" or "the site wasn't indexed on Google for three months."
This checklist exists to prevent exactly those situations.
1. Verify Domain and Hosting
Confirm that DNS propagation is complete. Go to dnschecker.org, enter your domain, and check that all regions show a green tick.
Also verify your SSL certificate — the browser should show a lock icon next to https://. Without SSL, Google has essentially stopped ranking sites.
2. Actually Test Your Contact Form
This is the most commonly skipped step. Go to your own site, fill out the form, and confirm you receive the actual email. Check your spam folder too.
If you're using Nodemailer or Resend, verify that production environment variables are correctly set — something working locally and something working on a deployed server are two very different things.
3. Open It on Mobile — Not Just Chrome
Everything looks fine on desktop. Pick up your actual phone, open it in Safari, open it in Chrome, and test on an older Android if possible.
Watch for these specifically:
- Buttons large enough to tap with a thumb
- Text readable without zooming in
- Images not cropped or broken
- Navigation working smoothly
4. Check Your Page Speed Score
Go to pagespeed.web.dev and enter your homepage URL. You want a 90+ score on mobile — this is non-negotiable.
Common culprits that drag your score down:
- Unoptimized images (switch to WebP, use
next/image) - Unused JavaScript bundles
- Missing caching headers
- Blocking third-party scripts
5. Meta Title and Description on Every Page
The title in the browser tab and the description in Google search results — set these manually. A default "Untitled Page" or component name won't cut it.
Every page needs a unique title. Descriptions should fit within 150–160 characters and include your keyword naturally.
6. Set Your Favicon
Small detail, big professional impact. Browsers, bookmarks, and tab strips all need to show your logo.
Drop a 32×32 image at /public/favicon.ico and reference it in your layout.js.
7. Design a Custom 404 Page
Someone will eventually land on a broken URL. The default 404 is ugly and causes users to bounce immediately.
Create a custom /not-found.js that includes:
- A clear, friendly message explaining the page wasn't found
- A link back to the homepage
- Some brand personality
8. Sitemap and robots.txt
Tell Google your site exists. In the Next.js App Router, create sitemap.js and robots.js files — they automatically generate /sitemap.xml and /robots.txt.
After launch, go to Google Search Console and submit your sitemap. Indexing will be significantly faster.
9. Set Up Analytics Before You Launch
Install Google Analytics 4, Plausible, or Vercel Analytics before going live. You can do it after — but you lose all first-day data.
Start tracking from Day 1, even if traffic is zero. Having a baseline matters.
10. Test Social Media Preview Cards
When someone shares your link on WhatsApp, a proper image and title should appear — not a blank box.
Add openGraph and twitter objects to your metadata. Test the preview at opengraph.xyz. Image size should be 1200×630px.
11. Check for Broken Links
Every internal link, external resource, and PDF download — click through them manually or run broken-link-checker. Even one internal 404 link signals poor quality to Google.
12. Add Legal Pages
Privacy Policy and Terms of Service — boring but essential. You'll need them to run Google Ads, get payment gateways approved, and establish professional credibility. Both should be linked in the footer.
13. Cross-Browser Testing
Test your site in all of these:
- Chrome (latest)
- Safari (Mac and iPhone)
- Firefox
- Edge
CSS grid and some modern properties behave differently across browsers. No layout shift or broken UI should make it to production.
14. Confirm Environment Variables Are Set in Production
Go to Vercel — or wherever you're deploying — and manually confirm that all .env variables are set.
Database URL, API keys, email service credentials — all of them. Working locally is not the same as working in production.
15. Have a Rollback Plan
If something breaks after launch — do you have a working version to go back to?
Commit everything to Git before launch. Vercel gives you automatic rollback — learn how to use it before you need it.
Go through these 15 points systematically. Your launch will be confident, your client will be impressed, and you won't be dealing with avoidable headaches afterward.
If you want RBM Studios to handle all of this for you — get in touch. We run this checklist on every project we ship.