Web design · Checklist
What to check the week before, on launch day and in the month after, so leads, rankings and tracking survive the switch.
Map and test every redirect
Submit test forms on launch day
Watch Search Console for a month
Tell us what you need and we’ll get back to you. Or book a free 30-minute call. Or call 954-539-5678.
Before a new website goes live, check seven things: redirects from every old URL, every form and its delivery, analytics and conversion tracking, page speed on a phone, basic accessibility, a fresh backup of both old and new sites, and that search engines are allowed to index the new site. After launch, submit your sitemap in Google Search Console and watch it closely for a few weeks.
Most launch problems are not design problems. They are a form that emails a former employee, a forgotten setting that hides the site from Google, or old pages that now return errors. The checklist below is grouped by when to do each step. Print it, assign an owner to each line and tick them off.
Content and pages
Redirects
Backups and access
The Department of Justice’s web accessibility guidance lists these same barriers: missing alt text, poor contrast, no captions, inaccessible forms and mouse-only navigation. This is general information, not legal advice.
Book a free 30-minute call. We look at your website, search and marketing with you and tell you what we would change first, whether you hire us or not. Pick a time that works for you.
Google says a small to medium site can take a few weeks for most pages to be processed after a move, and rankings may fluctuate while it recrawls. That is normal. Watch for problems that are not:
Keep redirects in place long term. For site moves, Google recommends keeping them for at least a year.
Each of these takes minutes to prevent and days to clean up. The last one matters most: schedule a check the next morning and again a week later.
JLB USA has launched websites for growing businesses for more than 15 years, with 500+ clients and 1,000+ projects. Our custom WordPress websites usually launch in 6 to 10 weeks, and we set up redirects from your old pages so rankings carry over. Our hosting includes constant automated monitoring and malware cleanup, so the site stays healthy after go-live.
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Pick a time. We look at what you have now with you and tell you what we would change first. No obligation.
Prefer to talk now? Call 954-539-5678, or send the form and we’ll contact you.
Redirects from every old URL, every form and where it sends data, analytics and conversion tracking, mobile speed, basic accessibility, backups of the old and new sites, and that search engines are allowed to index the new site.
Check that the staging noindex setting and any robots.txt block were removed, submit your sitemap in Search Console, and give it time. Google says crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks.
Yes, whenever URLs change. Google recommends permanent 301 or 308 redirects from each old URL to its closest new page and, for site moves, keeping them for at least a year.
Rankings can fluctuate for a few weeks while Google recrawls the site, which Google describes as normal. Large or lasting drops usually point to missing redirects or indexing problems.
Assign one person to own the list and a named owner for each item: content, redirects, forms, tracking and DNS. When JLB USA builds a site, we set up redirects from your old pages so rankings carry over.
