The 12-point website launch checklist

1. Back up the old site. Not a new backup of the new one — a copy of what exists now, before you change anything. This is the single thing people skip and the only thing that can’t be undone.
2. Point DNS at the new host. Lower the TTL on the records at least 24 hours in advance, or you’ll wait a day for the change to spread.
3. Check SSL actually works. Not just the padlock — load the site in a private window and on a phone. Redirect http:// to https://.
4. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console. Most people only do this after wondering why nothing appears in Google.
5. Test on a real phone, on mobile data. Not your WiFi. Not a browser preview. Your customers will not be so patient.
6. Test the contact form. Actually submit it, from a different page, and confirm the email arrives in an inbox you check. Broken forms are the most common thing we get tickets about.
7. Set up a 301 redirect for every old page that matters. Changing a page name without a redirect loses the ranking you already earned.
8. Check privacy and cookie behaviour. If you run analytics, ad pixels or embedded video, you may need a cookie banner and a real privacy notice.
9. Add analytics you’ll actually read. Plausible or Fathom over Google Analytics if you’ll only ever check traffic numbers — lighter and less intrusive.
10. Check the 404 page. Type a nonsense URL and see what visitors get. It should be a real page with a search box, not the hosting provider’s default.
11. Set up automated off-site backups. Host-level backups protect the server. They don’t protect you from someone deleting the wrong folder.
12. Write down where everything lives. Domain registrar, host, mailbox provider, DNS. The next person to touch this site — possibly you, in two years — needs to know.

If you’d rather have this done for you, a website build from SwiftNest covers launch-day checks as standard — see website builds. And if you’re moving host, free migration includes verifying each of these points.