Launch day for a new website is full of excitement. And often of small mistakes that cost: a form that sends nothing, a website invisible to Google, old addresses leading to pages that no longer exist.

We’ve gathered them all in one list. Some take a minute, others need help from whoever built the website. All of them are worth checking before you announce the launch.

Content

  • texts are proofread, with no typos and no forgotten “Lorem ipsum” anywhere;
  • phone, email, address and opening hours are correct everywhere, including the footer;
  • every link goes where it should, including those to social networks;
  • images are optimized and have alternative text;
  • the legal pages are there: terms and conditions, privacy policy, cookie policy;
  • the small logo in the browser tab (favicon) and the image shown when someone shares a link are yours, not the defaults.

Google and SEO

  • the website is no longer blocked for search engines. It’s the most common mistake: during development the site is hidden from Google, and the setting stays on after launch;
  • every page has its own title and description;
  • there is a sitemap and a correct robots.txt file;
  • old addresses lead to the new ones. If you had a website before, every important old page must be permanently redirected (301) to its new one. Otherwise you lose your Google rankings and the visitors coming from old links;
  • the website is added to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and the sitemap is submitted.

Speed and phones

  • the main pages pass the test in PageSpeed Insights, on mobile; we explained what the results mean in our article on Core Web Vitals;
  • the website is checked on real phones, not just on a computer: the menu, forms, buttons, text that doesn’t spill off the screen;
  • it works in the main browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge.

Forms and emails

  • every form is tested end to end: fill it in, send it and check the message arrives, at the right address;
  • emails sent by the website don’t land in spam. Gmail requires every sender to authenticate their domain with SPF or DKIM, and high-volume senders with DMARC too1;
  • there is spam protection that doesn’t get in real people’s way;
  • automatic confirmations (for the customer) have the right text and details.

Cookies and analytics

  • analytics and marketing scripts load only after the visitor consents, not before;
  • the cookie banner has clear “accept” and “reject” buttons and lets people change their choice at any time;
  • if you use Google Analytics or Google Ads, the consent of visitors from the European Economic Area must also be passed on to Google (Consent Mode); otherwise some measurement and advertising features stop working for those visitors2;
  • analytics correctly record visits and conversions (a submitted form, an order).

Security and backups

  • the website works only over HTTPS, and http addresses redirect to https automatically;
  • the security certificate renews automatically;
  • admin accounts have strong passwords and, ideally, two-factor authentication; test accounts are deleted;
  • the platform, theme and plugins are up to date;
  • backups are automatic and you have checked, at least once, that a restore actually works.

Accessibility

  • text has enough contrast and can be enlarged without breaking the page;
  • the website can be used with the keyboard alone;
  • images have alternative text, and forms have clear labels.

It isn’t just common sense: since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act (transposed in Romania by Law no. 232/2022) requires e-commerce services to be accessible, except for microenterprises providing services3.

On launch day and after

  1. Plan the domain switch. If the domain moves from one server to another, the change takes a few hours to propagate. Schedule it at a low-traffic time.
  2. Check the forms again on the live website, not just on the test one.
  3. Watch Search Console for the first few weeks: pages not found (404), indexing problems.
  4. Turn on monitoring, so you find out immediately if the website stops responding.
  5. Only then announce the launch.

How we do it

Every point above is part of launching any website we build. Many we check automatically, on every page: titles and descriptions, links, redirects, speed, accessibility, display on screens from phone to large monitor. The rest we check by hand, together with you, before we press the button.

See how we build business websites

  1. Google, Email sender guidelines. ↩

  2. Google Ads Help, Updates to consent mode for traffic in European Economic Area (EEA). ↩

  3. Law no. 232/2022, transposing the European Accessibility Act. See, for example, AmCham Romania’s analysis. ↩

Cover image: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, Wikimedia Commons (public domain)