The website launch checklist, before you spend your one shot.
51 checks across 9 dimensions — messaging, conversion, trust, mobile UX, SEO, performance, accessibility and technical readiness. Work through it by hand below, or let the scanner run it for you in about two minutes.
What should be on a website launch checklist?
A website launch checklist should cover everything a first-time visitor and a search engine can see on your public page before you send traffic to it: a clear headline, one obvious next step, visible pricing or a way to talk to you, basic trust signals, a page that works on a phone, and the technical basics — HTTPS, a real 404, no console errors. The list below is the LaunchGraded Standard, the same rule-based checklist the free scanner runs automatically, published in full so you can work through it yourself first.
Messaging
Visitors can tell what you do from the first line
Write one headline that names what the product does and for whom, visible without scrolling, ideally under about 12 words.
4 pts · 15 minYour headline is backed up by a one-liner
Add one sentence beneath the headline naming the specific outcome or audience — what changes for the visitor if they use this.
3 pts · 15 minVisitors can see the product (screenshot or demo)
Add a real product screenshot, an annotated UI shot, or a short demo video above the fold or right after the headline.
3 pts · 2 hYour browser tab and search title say what you are
Set a <title> of the form "Product — what it does for whom", under about 60 characters.
1 pts · 5 minThe page has enough copy to explain what you do
Add a few sentences or sections covering what the product does, who it's for, and how it works, beyond the hero copy.
1 pts · 1 hYour copy is easy to read
Break up long sentences, cut jargon, and read the page out loud — if you stumble, a visitor will too.
1 pts · 1 h
Conversion
There's one obvious next step
Make one specific, action-worded button ("Start free", "Get my score") the most prominent element above the fold. Avoid "Submit" and "Learn more".
8 pts · 30 minVisitors can find out what it costs (or how to talk to you)
Show pricing on the page or one click away via a clearly labelled nav link — or, if pricing is custom, add a direct "Talk to sales" / "Book a call" button.
3 pts · 30 minNot-ready visitors have a low-commitment way to stay in touch
Add a simple secondary email opt-in ("Get updates") somewhere visible, separate from the main call to action.
1 pts · 30 min
Trust
Privacy policy and terms are linked
Publish a privacy policy and terms page and link both from the footer on every page.
2 pts · 30 minVisitors can reach a human
Add a contact link, a mailto: address or a support email to the footer or nav.
2 pts · 15 minYour content shows a recent date
Show a visible published or last-updated date on the page, and keep it current when you make substantive edits.
1 pts · 15 min
UX & Mobile
Your page adapts to phones
Add <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> to the page head and check the layout at phone width.
3 pts · 5 minButtons and links are tappable on a phone
Make interactive elements at least 48×48 px with about 8 px of spacing between them, especially in the nav and footer.
2 pts · 1 hText is legible on a phone
Use at least 16 px for body text on mobile and avoid fixed pixel sizes below 12 px anywhere on the page.
2 pts · 30 min
SEO
Google is allowed to index your homepage
Remove the noindex directive from the robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header, redeploy, and rescan.
3 pts · 5 minSearch results show a description you wrote
Add <meta name="description"> with one or two sentences (under about 155 characters) saying what the product does and for whom.
2 pts · 5 minSearch engines know the one true URL
Add <link rel="canonical" href="https://yourdomain.com/"> to the page head, pointing at the one URL you want indexed.
2 pts · 15 minLinks say where they go
Rewrite generic link text to describe the destination ("See pricing") and make sure every link has a real href.
1 pts · 30 minYou have a sitemap search engines can find
Generate an XML sitemap listing your public URLs, publish it at /sitemap.xml (or another path referenced from robots.txt), and make sure it parses as valid XML.
2 pts · 15 minThe URLs in your sitemap actually resolve
Remove URLs that 404 or redirect from the sitemap, or fix the pages so they resolve directly.
1 pts · 15 minrobots.txt points crawlers at your sitemap
Add a line to robots.txt: Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
1 pts · 5 min
Performance
Your page loads fast on mobile
Run the page through PageSpeed Insights and work its top opportunities in order — usually oversized images, unused JavaScript and a slow server response.
6 pts · 1 dayThe main content appears within 2.5 seconds
Preload the hero image or font, serve images in a modern format at the size they're displayed, and avoid render-blocking scripts in the head.
2 pts · 2 hThe page doesn't jump around while loading
Give images and embeds explicit width and height, reserve space for late-loading banners, and load web fonts with font-display: swap or optional.
1 pts · 1 h
Accessibility
People using assistive tech can use your site
Open the Lighthouse accessibility report and fix the failing audits in order; most are one-line fixes to labels, roles and contrast.
3 pts · 1 dayImages have text alternatives
Add a short, descriptive alt attribute to every meaningful image and alt="" to purely decorative ones.
1 pts · 30 minForm fields have labels
Give every input a visible <label> (or aria-label where a visible one truly doesn't fit).
1 pts · 15 minThe page declares its language
Add lang="en" (or your language code) to the <html> element.
1 pts · 5 minText is readable against its background
Bring text to at least 4.5:1 contrast against its background (3:1 for large text); check the muted captions and placeholder text first.
1 pts · 1 h
Technical
Your site is served securely
Serve the page and every asset — images, scripts, fonts, embeds — over HTTPS, and redirect http:// to https://.
2 pts · 30 minYour site sends baseline security headers
Set Strict-Transport-Security, X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, and either a Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options header on the final response — most hosts (Vercel, Cloudflare, Netlify) let you set these in config without touching app code.
2 pts · 1 hEvery resource loads over HTTPS
Change any hardcoded http:// resource URLs to https:// (or protocol-relative), especially in embeds and old CMS content.
1 pts · 30 minNothing is silently breaking in the browser
Open the browser console on the live page, fix each error, and remove references to scripts or assets that no longer exist.
2 pts · 1 hYou have a favicon
Add a favicon (an SVG or 32×32 PNG) and link it from the page head.
1 pts · 15 minYou have a recognizable brand mark
Add a logo image or wordmark to the header, an apple-touch-icon, or a `logo` field on your Organization/WebSite structured data — any one of the three is enough.
1 pts · 30 minThe plain http:// address redirects to https://
Add a 301 redirect from http:// to https:// at the host/CDN level (most hosts have a one-click toggle for this) and consider enabling HSTS.
1 pts · 15 minwww and the bare domain don't both serve live content
Pick one host as canonical and add a redirect from the other to it (most hosts, including Vercel and Netlify, have a "redirect to primary domain" setting).
1 pts · 15 minA wrong URL gets a proper 404
Return a real 404 status for unknown paths with a short page that links back home.
1 pts · 30 minYour headings follow a clean hierarchy
Use exactly one <h1> for the page's main heading, then nest <h2>, <h3>, etc. without skipping a level.
2 pts · 30 minNo broken links on the page
Update or remove the link, then rescan — this check is a gate, so fixing it lifts the verdict cap.
gate · 30 min
Discoverability
Your page has structured data search engines can parse
Add a <script type="application/ld+json"> block to your page's <head> describing your organization or product, and make sure it's valid JSON.
2 pts · 1 hYour structured data declares what you are
Add an Organization, Product, SoftwareApplication or WebSite block to your JSON-LD, whichever matches what the page actually is.
3 pts · 1 hYour structured data has its required fields filled in
Populate the fields required for your declared type: a Product needs name and offers; Organization, SoftwareApplication and WebSite need at least a name.
2 pts · 30 minYour structured data is clean, not malformed or conflicting
Fix any JSON syntax errors in your ld+json blocks, and remove or reconcile duplicate blocks of the same type that disagree with each other.
2 pts · 30 minAI crawlers can access your site
Remove any Disallow rules targeting GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot or PerplexityBot in robots.txt, unless you deliberately want your content excluded from AI answers.
2 pts · 15 minYou publish an llms.txt
Publish a plain-text /llms.txt summarizing what your site is and linking your most important pages, following the emerging llms.txt convention.
1 pts · 1 h