Website Launch Checklist
- The Developer checks the site and passes it to the Designer.
- The Designer checks the site and passes any changes to the Developer.
- Once the designer approves, they passes it to the lead marketer.
- Once the marketer approves, they pass it to the client.
Developer
Functionality
- Click through all links in the main navigation
- Click every link on every page - ensure all external links are opening in a new window.
- Make sure your logo links to the home page
- Audio and video files need to work properly
- Check that the Favicon is loading
- Run key pages through PingDom and make sure all images and videos are compressed. (Less than 2 second load & 4 MBs)
- Check PageSpeed Insight. Mobile 70 / Desktop 80
- Ensure the Footer has a link to the homepage. Could be a link in the footer navigation, a logo with a link or both.
- Social media links open in new tab
Responsive
- Test out the site on desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile.
- Check these breakpoints, ≥1400px, ≥1200px, ≥992px, ≥768px, ≥576px, <576px
- Test the preview via Browserstack for all major OS & Browsers as well as mobile. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Android, IOS and Edge
- Pull out your mobile device and visit each page.
- Check how modules stack on mobile, does it make sense? Is there proper spacing between sections
Blog
- Correct navigation and footer
- Subscribe to blog form
- Listing: Links to topics
- Listing: Pagination works
- Listing: Featured image display properly
- Post: Easy to read, check font size, line height
- Post: Author, date and tag is present
- Post: Every post has an offer
- Post: Inline links are obvious and readable
- Post: Comment work (Is applicable)
- Post: Related post/next post
Accessibility
- Make sure the site is keyboard accessible
- Color contrast follows international guidelines
- Aria-labels are present for screen readers
- Semantic tags are being used throughout the site (header, main, nav, footer, etc)
Next Steps
- Test the URL via Content Staging for CWV scores on Google's PageSpeedInsights. Note: This may not track Tags or resize images, so the score will likely be lower when live. Do your best to account for this.
- Ensure Google AMP is off for the blog. If it’s on, notify the marketer to inform the client that we will be turning it off.
- Check the search results page for blog, confirming layout and links are on brand.
Designer
Design
- Is color being used logically on the website? Is it breaking any color theory rules?
- Is whitespace being used logically?
- Is there clear visual hierarchy on key pages?
- Spacing. Check spacing between every section, is it consistent?
- Check that the Favicon is loading
- System pages are setup and one brand. Does the 404 page directs them to the home page or suggests other pages they may be interested in
- Link color and hover color
- Check for social share image
- Add before/after into Figma for key pages
Marketer
Functionality
- Fill out any forms on the page with a test and ensure that they have correct in-line message or redirect and that an autoresponder is delivered. Do error messages work and do they make sense?
- When testing a form, make sure to check the Form submission and the CRM to check if it's logging correctly. Also, submit the form on multiple devices and OS
Content
- Proofread all content.
- Review copy for any spelling, content or format errors
- Check for incorrect punctuation marks, particularly apostrophes, quotation marks and hyphens/dashes
- Ensure that all spelling and grammar is consistent.
- Is the website/webpage skimmable?
- Image are properly labeled and have alt text
- Is CTA language consistent
- Are important buttons setup to be HubSpot CTAs?
- Check Footer for 2023, Company Name and that Privacy Policy is present and linked to the correct page
SEO
- Check that the pages have a strong meta description & page title
- Load time for pages is optimized
- Check URLs for keywords
- Use keyword in title tag
- Make sure page title includes the name of the company & purpose of the page
Next Steps
- Set up Heat Maps and Screen recordings.
- Set up Google Analytics - find the tracking code we are migrating (on the right GA property that has historically been used). CONFIRM the correct code with the client (don't skip this!). Install the confirmed code on the new site. Never create a new code or property.
- Set up Search Console
- Check Google tags to ensure analytics isn't double firing / registering leads (Google Tag Assistant)