Before publishing the site, during the development phase:

• Update your CMS to the latest version
• Confirm that the website design has been approved by the client
• Make sure all required pages are in place
• Review the content of the entire website
• Check that the SSL certificate is valid. Verify that all HTTP pages redirect to HTTPS. Keep in mind that SSL certificates expire after one year — check the expiry date and set a reminder to renew it (you can renew one month before expiry, don’t leave it too late)
• Set up backups — verify they are being created, how often, and whether data can actually be restored from them. A backup you can’t restore from is no backup at all
• Integrate visitor analytics
• Make sure you have a 404 page (404 – Page Not Found)
• Test your site navigation and internal links
• Test the site across different browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and Opera), and across different operating systems — Windows, macOS, Linux
• Test the site on various mobile devices with different browsers
• Verify that you have created an XML sitemap and that it will be regularly updated
• Generate a robots.txt file
• Double-check that all URLs are correct and that you have no dead (broken) links
• Add metadata to all pages
• Create and use schema markup (schema.org)
• Check for SEO and technical SEO errors
• Make sure your website design is consistent throughout
• Ensure the site complies with legal requirements (cookies policy)
• Configure the permalink structure of your website
• Make sure you have relevant calls to action (CTAs)
• Create social media profiles and verify they are working
• Check that you have set an appropriate favicon — CMS platforms often leave their own default favicon, which should be replaced
• Confirm whether you can roll back to the previous website if a major issue is found on the new one
• Test the contact form to ensure visitors can successfully send messages
• Make sure you have integrated CAPTCHA on contact forms (e.g. Google reCAPTCHA)
• Double-check the client’s details, address and phone numbers

For online stores, additionally check:

• Are the correct products displayed and properly categorized
• Is the ordering and purchasing process working correctly
• Are the prices correct
• Do you have a returns and complaints policy in place
• Do you have return and refund conditions clearly stated
• Check delivery conditions and costs, and make sure they are clearly displayed

After publishing the site (when the site goes live):

• Test your site’s UX — no matter how well the site looked and functioned during development, real-world usage often reveals new insights once you get your first visitor feedback
• Verify that analytics are tracking correctly
• Submit your sitemap and request indexing in Google Search Console. Keep your sitemap regularly updated
• Remove non-existent pages from Google Search Console
• Monitor SEO elements regularly
• Make sure backups are in place and that you can restore the website if needed
• Promote your website
• For online stores, periodically verify that the ordering and purchasing system is working correctly