Checklist launch site

This checklist will be useful to everyone who runs the sites or follows this exciting process. Don't miss anything!

Before running

Content and Style

● Typography
◦ Valid characters. Put down the correct characters dashes, quotes and apostrophes, depending on the site language
◦ Word wrap. Put in important places inseparable spaces between the initials, a dash, before the last words
◦ For English: Ligatures. Put ligatures in the headers, if required
● Subtract texts and spell check
● Connectedness of texts
◦ Check case in important texts and headings
◦ Provide a uniform style of texts.
◦ Unity of repeating phrases (i.e. “Learn more”, “Read more”, “N comments”, etc.)
◦ Punctuation in lists (for example, if a list item ends with a period, the next item must begin with a capital letter and vice versa for a comma)
● Check whether the site has embedded links to the dev server (i.e., after launch, the links should lead to the site “in the world”)
● Check if there is any test content left on the site.
● Check printed versions of important pages.
● When redesigning or changing the information architecture, check whether redirects are worth from the old section addresses to the new ones.
● Check hidden text (eg alt / title attributes of HTML tags, texts in JavaScript functions)

Standards and validation

● Accessibility for people with disabilities (do not disturb the perception of color, sound, etc., navigate the site)
● HTML validation
● JavaScript validation
● CSS validation

Search engine availability, SEO and statistics

● Page headers are very important; make sure they are meaningful and contain important keywords
● Fill the description tag for important pages
● Bring the links to the main page to a single view (i.e., choose one of the variations of site.ru www.site.ru www.site.ru/index.html )
● Guarantee the previous item with a redirect to the selected version (eg redirect from www.site.ru * to site.ru *)
● Ensure semantically correct use of HTML tags ( <h1> , <h2> , ..., etc.)
● Check for important keywords in the content.
● Bring the format of links to a readable form (eg site.ru/blog/how-to-make-coffee , site.ru/user/vasya , etc.)
● Screw Google Analytics, FeedBurner, and / or other statistics measurement systems
● Create XML Sitemap
● Add site to Google Webmaster Tools
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Functionality testing

● Check all ordered / special / complex functionality
● Check job search (including relevance)
● Test the site in different browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome etc.), versions (6, 7, 2.2, 3.1 etc.) and platforms (Windows, OSX, Linux)
● Check the site view at different screen resolutions (1280 × 1024, 1024 × 768, 1920 × 1200, 800 × 600 ...)
● Test all forms (contacts, comments, feedback, ...), put captcha or other protection on them
● Check all e-mail templates
● Test the site with JavaScript, Flash, and other components turned off
● Check the operation of external links

Safety / Risk

● Set up scheduled backups, and check the recovery from them.
● Check if visitors have access to service / secret / closed pages.
● Close to the search engines access to the service / secret / closed sections of the site using robots.txt
● Disable error output on the screen
● Check the amount of available disk space and calculate how much is enough
● Configure email / SMS notification about the inoperability of the site / server;

Performance

● Perform load testing
● Perform image / graphics optimization
● Check and implement caching where necessary
● Check the overall size / speed of loading pages
● Minimize / compress static (javascript / html / css)
● Optimize CSS: short paths to images; use the "cascading" nature of styles, etc.
● Check availability of indexes in database tables
● Check other performance settings at all levels (Servers, DB, CMS, etc.)
● Enable error / performance logs on the server

Final touches

● Create your own 404/403 pages
● Create a site for maintenance site
● Create favicon

After launch

Marketing

● Add a site to social media: Twitter, VKontakte, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
● Add site to search engines
● Set up a PPC / Google Adwords campaign if required
● Check the formatting of the site in the results of search results

Other

● Monitor feedback (direct from the site, on Social Media, in Google issue, etc.)
● To catch in the statistics possible problems with some sections / pages of the site
● Update content

Print version can be found here - drupaldance.com/blog/website-launch-checklist