Before you launch: a 20-point website checklist

0 of 20 doneClear ticks

The ticks are just for you on this page. Nothing is saved or sent. Items marked needs you are ones your AI can't check for you.

Looks right

• 1. Checked on a real phone. needs you Not just the preview pane. Scroll every page, open the menu and tap every button. Nothing should scroll sideways or be cut off.
• 2. No placeholder left. Search for "lorem", "ipsum", "Your Company", "example.com", "123 Main Street", made-up reviews and stock photos you didn't choose.
• 3. Facts double-checked. needs you Names, prices, opening hours, phone numbers, addresses and dates. Read every number yourself.
• 4. Images are light and described. Most photos under 300 KB, in WebP or AVIF where you can. Images that carry meaning have alt text that says what's in them. Decorative ones get empty alt text (alt="").

Found and shared

• 5. A favicon. The little icon in the browser tab. An SVG or a 32 × 32 PNG, plus a 180 × 180 apple-touch-icon for phone home screens.
• 6. A unique title on every page. About 50 to 60 characters, most important words first: "Sourdough bakery in Leeds, open from 7am", not "Home".
• 7. A description on every page. One or two sentences (about 150 characters) that make someone want to click in search results.
• 8. A share preview. Open Graph tags with a 1200 × 630 image, so your link shows a picture and title in WhatsApp, iMessage, LinkedIn and others. Test it by sending the link to yourself.
• 9. Search engines are allowed in. No leftover noindex tag from a draft. A sitemap.xml lists your pages, and robots.txt doesn't block them. Each page has one canonical address.

Works

• 10. Every link works. The menu, footer, social icons and email links too. No links to # or to files on your own computer (file:/// or C:\).
• 11. Contact actually reaches you. needs you Tap the phone number, the email link and the map link. Send a test through the form and check it arrives. A plain web page can't send email by itself, so ask your AI where form messages go.
• 12. A friendly 404 page. When someone mistypes an address, they see a page with a link home, not a blank error. Ask your AI for a 404.html.
• 13. Reasonably fast. Run PageSpeed Insights and fix the top three issues. Aim for the main content to show within 2.5 seconds. See fast and accessible.
• 14. Works with a keyboard. needs you Press Tab from the top of the page. You can see where you are at every step and reach every link, button and field.

Trust and the law

• 15. A privacy page if you collect anything. Forms, newsletters, analytics, bookings. Say what you collect, why, how long you keep it and how to contact you.
• 16. Cookies only with consent. In the UK and EU you generally need consent before setting cookies that aren't strictly needed, such as most ad and analytics cookies. Rejecting must be as easy as accepting. No such cookies means no banner.
• 17. Who you are. A real name, a contact email and, for a business, where you're based. A UK limited company must show its registered name, number and office address on its website.
• 18. No secrets in the code. API keys, passwords and .env files become public the moment you publish. Read what goes public.
• 19. Rights to what you use. needs you Photos, fonts, logos and quotes are yours, licensed or free to use. "Found on Google" is not a licence.
• 20. HTTPS and the right address. The link starts with https:// and is the address you'll print on cards and menus.

Check it all with one prompt

Paste this into the chat where you made the site. It catches most of the list. The items marked "needs you" still need you.

Before I publish, check the whole site against this list and fix what you can:
1. Mobile layout from 320 px wide: no sideways scroll, readable text, tap targets at least 44 px.
2. Placeholder content: lorem ipsum, "Your Company", example.com, fake addresses, invented reviews or numbers. List what you find. Don't replace it with new made-up content.
3. Images: compressed, sized for display, with width and height. Meaningful alt text on informative images, alt="" on decorative ones.
4. Favicon (SVG or 32 px PNG) and a 180 px apple-touch-icon.
5. A unique title (50 to 60 characters) and description (about 150 characters) for every page.
6. Open Graph and Twitter card tags with a 1200 × 630 preview image.
7. No noindex left over. Add a sitemap.xml, a robots.txt and a canonical tag on each page.
8. Every link and anchor works. No href="#" and no local file paths.
9. Phone numbers as tel: links, emails as mailto: links. Tell me where form messages go, or that they go nowhere yet.
10. A friendly 404.html page.
11. A privacy page if the site uses forms, analytics or cookies. List every third-party script and every cookie the site sets.
12. No API keys, passwords, tokens or .env files anywhere in the files.
13. Accessibility basics: one h1, headings in order, contrast 4.5:1, labels on fields, lang attribute, visible focus.
Give me a table: item, status (pass / fixed / needs me), and what you did.

Replacing an old site

If people already know an old address, don't break their bookmarks and search results.

1. List the old pages. Copy the addresses from the old site's menu, or from Google Search Console if you use it.
2. Map each old page to a new one. /about-us.html → /about. Old pages with no new home go to the closest match, not all to the home page.
3. Add permanent (301) redirects where the domain is managed, then test a few old links.
4. Move the domain last, once the new site is checked. If you send email from the domain, don't touch its mail records.

After you launch

• Send it to three people and ask one question: "What's the first thing you'd do on this site?" Watch where they get stuck.
• Tell search engines. Add the site to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and submit your sitemap. Both are free.
• Put the link everywhere you already are: social profiles, email signature, your Google Business Profile, printed menus and cards.
• Note your renewal dates. Your domain and plan renew once a year or once a month. Put them in your calendar.
• Keep a copy. On Page Lemon every change is a saved version you can roll back to, and you can download the site as a .zip at any time.