Launch is the last week, days 22 to 28. Before a site goes live it gets the same fifteen checks every time, a list we’ve refined over years of shipping. We handle deployment, domain, and final QA, and you get two weeks of support afterward. Launch day should be a verification step, and the checklist is how we keep it one.
The things that break on launch day are rarely a surprise: an uncompressed image, a form that doesn’t send, a page that falls apart on a small phone, a link to a privacy policy nobody wrote. They slip through when you’re running on memory at the end of a project, keen to ship. A written list doesn’t get tired or optimistic.
The fifteen checks
- Images & media — sized, compressed, loading only what’s needed.
- Responsive design — real devices, not just a browser resized.
- Performance & speed — fast on a mid-range phone on a normal connection.
- SEO — titles, descriptions, and sitemap correct and submitted.
- AI & answer engines — pages readable and quotable by AI tools.
- Structured data — machine-readable markup validated.
- Social sharing — link previews that look right on every platform.
- Favicons & icons — the small marks in tabs and on home screens.
- Security — headers, HTTPS, and no obvious holes.
- Error pages — a 404 that helps instead of dead-ends.
- Forms & conversion — every form tested end to end, submissions arriving.
- Accessibility — usable with a keyboard and a screen reader.
- Privacy & legal — policies present and linked.
- Analytics — tracking live, so you can see what’s working from day one.
- Final QA — a full click-through of the whole site, top to bottom.
Why a fixed list wins
Item 11, forms, is the one everyone assumes is fine and the one most likely to be broken. A form that fails silently means every enquiry from your new site vanishes, and you might not notice for weeks. It gets caught every time because it’s on the list.
Items 4, 5, and 6, SEO and answer-engine readiness, are where the work from Build gets verified. For why those matter now, the search-is-splitting-into-three note covers the three places customers actually look.
After you go live
We don’t hand over the keys and disappear. Two weeks of support are included for the small things that only surface once real people use the site. Deployment, domain setup, and the final QA are ours to handle, so going live is a step we take with you, not a problem we leave on your desk.
That’s the full website process, from discovery to here. The overview note ties it together.
Quick recall
What is the launch phase? The final week: a fifteen-point checklist, deployment, domain, and QA, then two weeks of support.
Why a checklist? It catches the predictable misses that memory lets through, especially forms.
Which check matters most? Forms. A silent failure loses every enquiry.
After go-live? Two weeks of included support for whatever surfaces in real use.
Written by 4080 Studio.
