Website launch checklist for WordPress

Before you start

• Confirm the public or staging URL, launch scope, and pages that matter most.
• Use a signed-out context so the admin bar, cached login, or editor preview cannot mask a visitor issue.
• Agree whether a safe form, account, booking, ecommerce, or integration path is authorized.
• Check desktop and simulated phone widths, then record the browser, date, and exclusions.

1. Check a new visitor’s first path

1. Start at the homepage, campaign page, service page, or search-result route a visitor is most likely to use.
2. Confirm the title, primary message, and next action match how the visitor arrived.
3. Follow header navigation, footer links, logo, buttons, and key external links.
4. Confirm controls are keyboard reachable with a visible focus state.
5. Visit an important old URL when a safe redirect route is known; it should reach the intended page or an understandable redirect.

2. Review public routes and content state

• Open the homepage, a core service or product page, and a recent post or portfolio item where applicable.
• Check visible heading, browser title, featured image, and main content against the intended page.
• Follow in-page links, breadcrumbs, categories, author links, related-content cards, and pagination where used.
• Confirm archive or search cards open their matching item rather than an unexpected 404 page.
• Check that the 404 page gives a visitor a useful next step.

A small sample does not prove every permalink, redirect, cache, or template is correct. Name only the routes you observed.

3. Treat forms and plugin features as bounded journeys

1. Open each in-scope form from the same route a visitor would use.
2. Test required-field and invalid-format messages without real personal data.
3. Check labels, privacy language, and marketing-consent choices explain what will happen.
4. Verify a confirmation state and owner receipt only with written authorization and a safe test record.
5. Check maps, calendars, chat, video, newsletter widgets, and booking controls for a clear state or fallback.
6. For WooCommerce or any purchase path, stop before payment unless the owner supplies an approved test method and scope.

Do not disable plugins, clear caches, change plugin settings, or use administrator access as evidence of the public visitor journey.

4. Check responsive layout and release details

• The mobile menu should open, close, and not trap or cover the page.
• Text, calls to action, prices, dates, policy links, images, and embedded media should remain usable without clipping or horizontal scrolling.
• Buttons, fields, cookie choices, and navigation should remain large enough to use deliberately.
• Pop-ups, announcement bars, and consent controls should be understandable and dismissible where appropriate.
• Confirm the intended HTTPS domain, current titles and descriptions, favicon/share preview when scoped, and reachable privacy, policy, contact, and consent links.

What this checklist does not prove

This is not a security audit, performance guarantee, accessibility conformance review, plugin audit, backup check, cross-browser certification, or proof that payment, email, analytics, and third-party integrations work. Include those only when they are separately scoped and safely tested.