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Go-Live Checklist

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Essentials

The most critical items that developers consistently forget, with direct business impact:

? Gets cached for months by search engines, and is hard to fix
? People often forget to remove "Vite" or "React App" default titles
? When moving from development/staging environments, no-index directives are often overlooked and can lead to a complete SEO disaster
? Broken contact forms can lead to direct loss of leads and business opportunities. Test them by filling out and hit submit - did that email arrive?
? Missing or incorrect analytics setup can result in loss of valuable tracking data
? HTTPS is crucial for security and SEO rankings
? Browser developer tools can miss critical issues that only appear on real devices
? Regular backups are essential to prevent catastrophic data loss
Advanced

More technical items that separate professional deployments from amateur ones:

? When migrating a server, the changes are not immediate. Sometimes DNS entries take 24 hours or longer to update across the globe.
? To guarantee email service continuity, these DNS records should be properly configured
? Modern webbrowsers guarantee safe browsing - if the right headers are set.
? A good 404 page improves user experience and can help retain visitors who land on non-existent pages
? Preserves SEO value and ensures users can find the content they are looking for
? Helps search engines discover and index your site’s pages more effectively
? Reduces security vulnerabilities and improves site performance
? Optimized images improve site load times and overall performance. Use formats like .webp and scale down big images.
? Prevents unauthorized access to sensitive files and directories
? Prevents duplicate content issues and consolidates SEO value
? Ensures that search engines can crawl and index your important pages
? Leaving debug comments can expose sensitive information and looks unprofessional
Event Log 
 
 Watermark 
 
 
 
About this checklist
 
This comprehensive Go-Live checklist is designed to ensure that your website launch goes smoothly and successfully. It covers all the essential tasks and considerations you need to address before making your site live to the public.
 
This list was curated with the help of friendly users on reddit r/webdev
 
The checklist is divided into essentials and advanced sections:
 
     
  • Essentials: Must-do before going live - these issues are hard to fix after launch
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  • Advanced: Important optimizations for performance, security, and professional deployment
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The Go-Live Checklist comes with additional convenience features:
 
     
  • Custom Task Addition: Easily add your own tasks to the checklist to tailor it to your specific project needs.
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  • Progress Tracking: A dynamic progress bar that updates as you complete tasks, giving you a clear view of your readiness.
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  • PDF Report Generation: Generate a professional PDF report of your completed checklist, perfect for sharing with stakeholders or keeping for your records.
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  • Event Logging: A detailed log of all actions taken within the checklist, providing transparency and accountability.
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  • Reset Functionality: Option to reset the checklist to its original state, allowing you to start fresh if needed.
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  • Free and anonymous: You can start immediately, no account required. All data stays within your browser. We use privacy-friendly analytics to improve the product. No content or personally identifying data is tracked.
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Use this checklist as a guide to systematically prepare for your website launch. By following these steps, you can minimize risks, enhance user experience, and set your site up for success from day one.
 
Good luck with your website launch!
 
 
Besides these Go-Live checklist items, the redditors came up with a few items that require regular attention:
 
     
  • TLS/SSL Monitoring: Have a list, or regularly check when certificates must be renewed, to prevent these 3am phone calls!
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  • Broken Link Detection: No broken links on the site - Broken links can harm SEO and frustrate users, leading to a poor experience
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  • Performance Monitoring: Caches work and serve content fast - Slow loading times can lead to high bounce rates and poor user experience.
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  • Error Log Reviews: Proactive issue detection - By inspecting logs regularly, you might find issues you weren't aware of.
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  • Backup Verification: Backups are not a one-time thing, especially for dynamic websites. Regularly check they're performed and that the restore is working.
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  • Security Updates: Vulnarability protection - Up-to-date software is the best way to protect your site and fix security vulnarabilities.
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