The key points
- Remove staging noindex and robots blocks on launch day.
- Test every form, booking and payment path end to end.
- Check redirects and metadata on a sample of real pages.
- Plan the first weeks of monitoring before you launch.
Why do launches go wrong?
Usually because something that protected the staging site was never removed: a noindex tag, a robots rule, a password. The site is live, looks perfect and is invisible to search engines. Close behind are forms that stop delivering, analytics that count nothing and old addresses that now return errors.
None of these are hard to prevent. They are easy to forget, which is what a checklist is for.
What should you test before the switch?
Everything a visitor can do. Every page on a real mid-range phone, not only a resized browser window. Every form, booking tool and payment path from start to finish, including the confirmation message and where the enquiry lands. Page speed on a slow connection, and what happens when a page does not exist.
Check the technical basics too: a valid certificate, unique titles and descriptions, a canonical address on each page and structured data that matches the visible content. Pages should deliver their main text in the first response, not only after scripts run, which we get by building on Next.js.
What should you do after launch?
Submit the sitemap, then watch. Look at indexing, crawl errors and enquiries over the following weeks, and compare with your pre-launch baseline if you recorded one. Small problems such as a missing redirect or a page with no title are common and quick to fix when caught early. Our website service includes six months of support after launch for this reason.
A website launch checklist, in order
Test everything on the staging site
Click through every page on desktop and a real phone, submit every form and run each integration end to end.
Prepare redirects and metadata
Confirm that old addresses redirect to their closest new page and that titles, descriptions and canonicals are set.
Point the domain at the new site
Switch outside your busiest hours, and check the SSL certificate is valid on the live address.
Remove staging blocks
Delete any noindex tag and robots rule that protected the staging copy, then confirm the sitemap lists the live addresses.
Verify tracking and forms live
Submit a real enquiry and confirm it arrives and is counted once in analytics.
Monitor for several weeks
Watch indexing, crawl errors, speed and enquiries, and fix anything that appears quickly.
Day-of-launch checks
- Have the staging noindex tag and robots rule been removed?
- Does the sitemap list the live addresses?
- Does a real enquiry arrive, and is it counted once?
- Do old addresses redirect to the right new pages?
- Is the SSL certificate valid on the live address?
- Who watches indexing and errors for the next few weeks?
Sources
Rules and guidance this answer relies on. Policies change, so check the current version before acting on it.