Site Launch Checklist

I wanted to share the checklist I created to cover (hopefully) all aspects of testing and checking my code to ensure a smooth UX and prevent potential issues. I am neurodivergent, so I think differently, this checklist helped me stay focused when launching and publishing a new website.

1. Content & Spell Check

☐ Remove any placeholder/test content and unnecessary comments ☐ Spelling and punctuation, ensure all apostrophes, hyphens, quotations are cohesive. ☐ Variable names, ids, class names, and all keywords are suitable for the content and site. ☐ All content has cohesive styling – fonts, margins, padding, colors. ☐ Condense and minimize content, code and files that are unnecessary.

2. Functionality and Optimization

☐ Ensure all images are optimized for load time. I use ( .webp ) format. Only load images when they are needed. ☐ All links and URLs are verified. ☐ Cross browser compatibility. Test your site in multiple browsers, ensuring all content is rendering proper. ☐ Responsiveness and mobile compatibility. Ensure all content is displayed proper on all pages for all screen sizes. ☐ Components. Confirm all buttons, forms etc…. Check all rendering and state changes in response to user. ☐ Test the performance, run through insights. Google analytics/tag manager. Pino for server logging. ☐ HTTPS / SSL / TLS is secured

3. Technical & SEO

☐ Links. All EXTERNAL links have rel="noopener" w/ target="_blank".

• This will help improve security by preventing reverse tab nabbing attacks and accessing the parent window content. ☐ Error Handling. Implement error messages and a 404 page to handle unexpected situations and faulty routes. ☐ Robots.txt setup. Set up a sitemap and robots.txt file. Helps search engines discover and index the site more efficiently. ☐ Tags. All Meta tag, favicon, alt and indexing setup. This improves visibility, driving more traffic. ☐ Accessibility. Test websites can be used by people with disabilities. ☐ Google console. Monitor and optimize how your website performs on Google Search