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Pre-Launch Website QA Checklist

37 checks across SEO, performance, accessibility, content, analytics, and security. Run this before your site goes live to catch what most teams miss.

37 QA Items
16 Critical Checks
6 Focus Areas
Updated for 2026
SEOPerformanceAccessibilityContent and CopyAnalytics and TrackingSecurity
Priority Levels:
Critical — must pass before launch
High — fix within first week
Medium — address in first month

SEO

SEO issues discovered after launch can take months to recover from. Catch them now.

5 critical5 high priority10 total items
Canonical tag is present and correct on every page (no duplicate content)
critical
robots.txt file is in place and does not block any pages you want indexed
critical
XML sitemap generated and submitted to Google Search Console
critical
All title tags are unique, under 60 characters, and include the target keyword
critical
All meta descriptions are unique, 150-160 characters, and compelling
high
Every page has exactly one H1 tag
high
Heading hierarchy is correct site-wide (H1 → H2 → H3, no skipped levels)
high
Schema markup (LocalBusiness, FAQ, Article) is valid in the Rich Results Test
high
All old URLs redirect correctly to new URLs (no broken redirect chains)
critical
Internal links all resolve correctly (no 404s in link paths)
high

Performance

Performance issues directly affect both search rankings and conversion rates. Test on mobile first.

2 critical4 high priority6 total items
PageSpeed Insights mobile score is 80+ (test at pagespeed.web.dev)
critical
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds on mobile
critical
All images are compressed and served in next-gen format (WebP or AVIF)
high
Favicon is set and displays correctly in all major browsers
high
Hero images use the priority attribute for LCP optimization
high
No render-blocking scripts that delay page display
high

Accessibility

Accessibility is both a legal requirement and a UX improvement. These checks cover the highest-impact items.

1 critical4 high priority6 total items
All images have descriptive alt text (not empty, not "image123.jpg")
critical
All form fields have visible labels (not placeholder-only text)
high
Color contrast ratio is at least 4.5:1 for body text (check at webaim.org/contrast)
high
Site is keyboard navigable (tab through all interactive elements)
high
No content is inaccessible to screen readers (no empty links or buttons)
high
Video content has captions if applicable
medium

Content and Copy

Content errors found by a first-time visitor erode trust immediately. Proofread on multiple devices.

4 critical3 high priority7 total items
All placeholder text ("Lorem ipsum", "[your name here]") has been replaced
critical
Phone number is correct, formatted consistently, and tap-to-call on mobile
critical
Address is correct and matches Google Business Profile exactly
critical
All external links open in new tabs and resolve to the correct URLs
high
Contact form submits correctly and triggers a confirmation message or page
critical
Privacy policy page exists and is linked from the footer
high
Terms of service page exists if the site accepts payments or user accounts
high

Analytics and Tracking

If your tracking is not set up before launch, you lose day-one data permanently.

2 critical2 high priority4 total items
GA4 property is firing on all pages (verify in real-time report)
critical
GA4 goal events configured for form submissions, phone clicks, and purchases
critical
Google Search Console property verified and sitemap submitted
high
Google Tag Manager (if used) container code present on all pages
high

Security

Security basics that protect your site and build trust with visitors.

2 critical2 high priority4 total items
SSL certificate is active and HTTPS is enforced on all pages
critical
HTTP URLs redirect to HTTPS (no mixed content warnings in browser)
critical
Admin login page (if CMS-based) is not at the default URL path
high
CMS software and plugins are on current, secure versions
high

Launch Decision: Go or No-Go?

Use this simple rule before approving any launch:

Go
  • All critical items pass
  • High-priority items are either passing or documented with a fix scheduled
  • Analytics tracking verified in real-time report
  • Contact form tested and confirmed working
No-Go
  • Any critical item is failing
  • Placeholder content remains on any page
  • GA4 events are not firing
  • Old URLs are not redirecting to new ones

Pre-Launch Questions Answered

Common questions about website launch preparation.

When should I run this checklist — before or after staging review?

Run it on your staging environment first, fix all issues, then run it again after deploying to production. Some issues only appear in production (SSL, CDN behavior, certain redirects). The critical and high items should all pass in staging before you flip DNS.

How long does a pre-launch QA review take?

For a typical 10-20 page service business site, plan 2-4 hours for a thorough review. Larger sites with more pages, integrations, and custom functionality can take 8-16 hours. Do not compress this into 30 minutes — post-launch fixes are more disruptive than pre-launch ones.

What is the most commonly missed pre-launch item?

Robots.txt configuration. It is very common for development environments to have robots.txt set to block all crawlers (to prevent Google from indexing a half-built site), and then that file gets deployed to production accidentally. Always verify robots.txt allows crawling before launch.

Do I need to test on every browser?

Priority order: Chrome (largest market share), Safari on iOS (the dominant mobile browser in many markets), Firefox, Edge. You do not need to test on every browser — focus on these four. Use your existing analytics to determine which browsers your current visitors use.

What should I do if GA4 is not firing correctly?

Check that the measurement ID is correct and present in the HTML source code. Use the GA4 real-time report to verify events are coming through as you browse the site. If using Google Tag Manager, confirm the GTM snippet is on every page (including the closing body tag version). Common cause of missing data: the tracking code is only on some pages, not all.

What happens if my old URLs change during the redesign?

Every URL that changes needs a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. Failing to set these up means you lose any search rankings the old URLs had accumulated. Map out every old URL and its new equivalent before launch, and test every redirect. Do not rely on a CMS to handle this automatically.

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