/The 40-item pattern
Every launch we've shipped uses this checklist. It's boring on purpose. Boring means nothing goes wrong at midnight the day the DNS flips.
/Pre-launch (2 weeks out)
1) Final content and copy signed off. 2) Every page reviewed on desktop, tablet, mobile. 3) All CTAs point to the right destinations. 4) All forms tested with a real submission. 5) 404 page exists and is on-brand. 6) All external links open sensibly (new tab where useful). 7) Images optimised (WebP where possible, alt text on every non-decorative image). 8) Favicons, touch icons, OG images ready.
/Technical readiness
9) HTTPS live on the domain. 10) SSL certificate valid. 11) DNS records prepared, TTL lowered a day before switchover. 12) Redirects mapped from old URLs to new. 13) robots.txt correct. 14) sitemap.xml generated and accessible. 15) Canonical tags set. 16) Meta titles and descriptions unique on every page.
/SEO and analytics
17) Google Analytics 4 installed and tested. 18) Google Search Console verified. 19) Bing Webmaster verified. 20) Structured data validated (Rich Results Test). 21) Google Business Profile linked and updated. 22) All schema JSON-LD present (Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Product, Article as relevant). 23) Meta pixel installed if you run paid social.
/Accessibility
24) Colour contrast checked. 25) Keyboard-only navigation works. 26) Screen reader labels on every input. 27) Skip-to-content link present. 28) Focus states visible. 29) No auto-playing audio.
/Performance
30) Core Web Vitals green on mobile. 31) LCP under 2.5s. 32) CLS under 0.1. 33) Total page weight sane. 34) Font loading strategy set. 35) Caching headers correct.
/Launch day
36) DNS switchover with warned TTL. 37) SSL propagated. 38) Live smoke test across desktop and mobile. 39) Forms tested from a real device on 4G. 40) Search Console + sitemap resubmitted.
/The first 72 hours
Watch Search Console for crawl errors, watch analytics for unusual bounce patterns, watch forms and inboxes for enquiries to make sure notifications work. Fix in real time.
/The first 30 days
Review heatmaps, watch which pages actually earn traffic, refine the copy that's underperforming. Launch is the start of the campaign, not the end of it.
/The one thing most launches skip
A rollback plan. If something breaks at midnight, you need to be able to revert cleanly. Snapshot the old site, keep DNS TTL low for a week, and know exactly who does what if plan B is needed.
