Launch day problems are usually small details that were never checked. This checklist covers the items that most often cause trouble.
Forms and notifications
- Submit every form with real data and confirm it is stored and the notification arrives.
- Check validation messages for missing and invalid fields.
- Confirm spam protection does not block genuine submissions.
Search and sharing
- Every page has a unique title and description.
- The sitemap lists all public pages and robots.txt allows crawling.
- Social sharing previews show the right title and image.
- Old URLs redirect to their new equivalents with permanent redirects.
Performance and accessibility
- Test on a mid-range phone over a mobile connection.
- Navigate every page with the keyboard alone.
- Check text contrast and that images have meaningful alternative text.
Operations
- Environment variables and secrets are set in production, not in code.
- Database backups run on a schedule and a restore has been tested.
- Uptime monitoring and error alerts reach someone who can act on them.
Running through this list takes an afternoon and prevents most of the issues that would otherwise surface in front of customers.