The Website Launch Checklist: 25 Things That Need to Be in Place Before Your Site Goes Live

Most websites launch with a champagne-pop moment and a “go check it out!” email to the team.

What they don’t launch with — more often than not — is a complete marketing infrastructure underneath them.

We’ve written about why this happens and who’s responsible for asking the right questions before development starts.

Why Your Website Probably Isn’t Built for Marketing

The 15 Questions Your Web Developer Should Ask

This post is the practical companion to both of those links: a 25-point checklist of everything that should be installed, configured, and confirmed before — or immediately after — a site goes live.

Think of it less as a launch checklist and more as a “is this thing actually ready to do its job?” checklist.

A few honest caveats before we start: not every item on this list applies to every website. A five-page brochure site for a local service business has different needs than a multi-location e-commerce operation. Use your judgment. But if you’re skipping items because they seem complicated or someone said “we’ll do that later,” those items are worth a second look — because later rarely comes.

Analytics & Measurement

1. Google Analytics 4 is installed and verified.

This is more than just having the code dropped into a header — it means having GA4 actually verified. Go into GA4 and confirm live data is coming in before launch day.

2. Google Tag Manager is set up, and the GA4 tag is firing through it.

GTM is how you manage all your tracking going forward without having to call a developer every time. If GA4 is installed directly in the code instead of through GTM, you’re building in a headache for later.

3. Google Search Console is connected, and the site is verified.

Search Console is how Google communicates with you — ranking data, crawl errors, security issues, and indexing status. If it’s not connected, you’re flying blind on SEO from day one.

4. The old analytics property is linked or transitioned (if this is a redesign).

If you have a site rebuild, your historical GA data needs to be preserved and accessible. Don’t let a redesign be the reason three years of traffic data disappear.

5. A GA4 baseline report is set up.

Before launch, capture your baseline metrics — traffic, top pages, conversion events — so you have something to compare against in 30, 60, and 90 days.

SEO Foundations

6. Every page has a unique, keyword-optimized title tag.

Not “Home” and “About.” Actual descriptive, keyword-relevant titles that tell search engines — and humans — what each page is about.

7. Every page has a unique meta description.

Meta descriptions are what show up in search results. They don’t directly affect rankings, but they affect whether someone clicks. It’s worth the 30 minutes to write them properly.

8. Header structure (H1, H2, H3) is logical and consistent.

Every page should have exactly one H1. Subheadings should follow a logical hierarchy. This matters for both SEO and the AI-powered systems increasingly parsing your content for answers.

9. Image alt text is filled in.

This is good for accessibility and SEO, takes five minutes per page, and almost nobody does it at launch.

10. An XML sitemap has been submitted to Search Console.

A sitemap tells Google which pages exist and which it should index. If it hasn’t been submitted, you’re waiting for Google to find your pages on its own schedule.

11. The robots.txt file is correct.

This is the file that tells search engine crawlers what they can and can’t access. A misconfigured robots.txt can accidentally block your entire site from being indexed. It has happened—more than once.

12. Canonical tags are in place where needed.

If you have duplicate content — product pages with URL parameters, paginated archive pages, www vs. non-www versions — canonical tags tell Google which version is the real one. Without them, you’re splitting your ranking authority across versions.

13. 301 redirects are set up for any old URLs (redesigns only).

If URLs changed during a redesign and redirects aren’t in place, every link pointing to an old page becomes a dead end. That includes backlinks you may have spent years earning.

Technical Performance

14. The site loads in under three seconds on mobile.

Page speed is a ranking factor. More importantly, it’s a user experience factor. Run it through Google PageSpeed Insights before launch, not after you start wondering why your bounce rate is high.

15. The site is fully functional on mobile devices.

Not just “it looks okay” — actually functional. Forms submit. Buttons tap correctly. Navigation works. Images load. Be sure to test it on an actual phone, not just a resized browser window.

16. SSL certificate is active (the site runs on HTTPS).

If your site is still running on HTTP, browsers flag it as “not secure” for every visitor. That’s a trust problem and an SEO problem in one.

17. A security plugin or firewall is installed and configured.

WordPress sites in particular are targets for automated attacks from day one. A security layer — Wordfence, a Cloudflare integration, or equivalent — should be in place before the site is public.

18. Broken links have been checked and resolved.

Run a broken link scan before launch. Nothing says “we didn’t check this” like a 404 on the homepage.

Marketing Readiness

19. Conversion tracking is configured for all key actions.

Every form submission, phone number click, download, and purchase should trigger a GTM tracking event that reports to GA4. If it’s not tracked, it didn’t happen — at least not in any way you can prove.

20. Forms are tested, and submissions are going to the right place.

The number of websites we’ve encountered that send contact form submissions to an old email address or nowhere at all is genuinely depressing. Test every form. Confirm every destination.

21. A CRM or lead management system is connected.

Leads need to go somewhere actionable — not just to an inbox that someone checks occasionally. Whether it’s a full CRM, a simple email list, or a sales pipeline tool, the connection should be live and tested before launch.

22. Social media profiles are linked and consistent.

If the site links to social profiles, confirm that those links are current, the profiles are active, and the branding is consistent with the new site.

23. Google Business Profile is updated.

If you’re a local business, your Google Business Profile should reflect the new website, current hours, and any updated contact information. It’s often the first thing a potential customer sees — and it’s separate from your website.

Forward-Readiness

24. Schema markup is implemented.

Structured data — schema markup — helps search engines understand what your content means, not just what it says. It’s also the foundation for appearing in AI-powered search results: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) both rely heavily on well-structured, machine-readable content. If your site lacks schema, it’s already behind the curve.

25. The site has an llms.txt file or equivalent AI-readability layer.

This is the newest item on the list — and the one that’s going to matter most in the next 18 months. AI agents, agentic search systems, and large language models increasingly use structured, crawlable content to generate answers and recommendations. An llms.txt file tells those systems what your site is about and what content is available to them. It’s the robots.txt of the AI era. If your developer hasn’t heard of it, that’s a conversation worth having.

We’re dedicating an entire post to what AI-ready web infrastructure actually looks like — AEO, GEO, agentic search, and what it means for businesses in West Michigan and beyond.

One Last Thing

This list isn’t meant to be overwhelming. It’s meant to be honest.

Most of these items take minutes to implement when you know they need to happen. The problem is that nobody on a pure development team is thinking about them at launch — because that’s not the job they were hired to do.

That’s the whole thesis of this series: a website built for marketing is fundamentally different from a website built to specification. The checklist above is what the difference looks like in practice.

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2 Fish Company is a full-service marketing agency in Holland, Michigan. If your website needs a marketing infrastructure audit — or you’re planning a build and want to do it right the first time — let’s talk.

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