Website launch checklist for Framer, Webflow and WordPress
Template · 8 min read · By Utkarsh Dhairya Panwar · Updated
Before a new site goes live, check redirects from every old URL, titles and meta descriptions, share images, indexing, analytics events, every form, mobile speed and layout, legal pages and consent, and DNS including email records. Below is how to test each one, then launch day and the week after.
Two weeks before: content and structure
- Every page has final copy. Search the site for 'lorem', 'TBD', 'placeholder' and your old product name.
- One H1 per page, and it says what the page is about in words a searcher would use.
- URL slugs are short and final. Changing them after launch means another round of redirects.
- Pricing, plan names and legal entity names match the app, the docs and the invoices.
- Customer logos and quotes are approved for use, in writing.
- The 404 page exists, is styled, and links to the homepage and the main product page.
The pre-launch checklist, with how to test each item
Copy this into a sheet and add a Done column and an owner for each row. Most checks take a few minutes. Skipping one can cost months.
| Area | Check | How to test it |
|---|---|---|
| Redirects | Every old URL with traffic or backlinks has a 301 to its closest new page | Export top pages from Search Console and your analytics. Paste each old URL into the browser after setup. |
| Redirects | No redirect chains or loops | Run the old sitemap through a redirect checker. Each URL should take one hop. |
| Meta | Unique title (about 60 characters) and meta description (about 155) per page | Crawl the staging site with a free SEO crawler and sort by duplicates and length. |
| Social | Open Graph title, description and a 1200 by 630 image on the main pages | Paste the URL into LinkedIn's Post Inspector and a Slack message before launch. |
| Indexing | Staging is noindex; production is indexable | Check page source for a robots noindex tag on production. Check robots.txt. |
| Indexing | Sitemap exists and lists only live, canonical pages | Open /sitemap.xml. No staging URLs, no redirected URLs. |
| Analytics | Tracking installed once, on every page | Real-time view while you click through. Look for double page views. |
| Analytics | Conversion events fire: demo request, sign-up click, newsletter | Complete each action yourself and see it arrive in the analytics tool. |
| Forms | Every form reaches its destination: CRM, inbox, Slack | Submit a real test entry per form. Check the destination, then delete it. |
| Forms | Error, success and spam-protection states work | Submit empty, submit a bad email, submit twice quickly. |
| Speed | Mobile performance is acceptable on the heaviest page | PageSpeed Insights on the homepage and the page with the most video. |
| Speed | Images are compressed and sized; videos are short loops, not full files | Check the network tab for any image over a few hundred KB. |
| Layout | Every page works at phone, tablet and small laptop widths | Resize the browser slowly. Tablet is where builders break most. |
| Accessibility | Text contrast, visible focus states, alt text on meaningful images | Tab through the homepage with no mouse. Run a contrast checker on grey text. |
| Legal | Privacy policy, terms, cookie consent where your visitors require it | Visit from a private window. Check the banner and that links in the footer work. |
| DNS | Domain, www and apex both resolve; SSL is active; email records untouched | Before changing DNS, screenshot every existing record. MX and SPF records must survive the switch. |
Builder-specific checks
| Framer | Webflow | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Add redirects in site settings before connecting the domain | Add 301s in hosting settings before publishing to the custom domain | Install or configure a redirect plugin, or use server rules |
| Check CMS page slugs and per-item meta fields | Check CMS template SEO fields pull from the right fields | Check permalink structure under Settings |
| Confirm the default Framer subdomain redirects to your domain | Publish to the custom domain, not only the webflow.io subdomain | Turn off 'discourage search engines' on production |
| Test every breakpoint you designed, plus sizes between them | Test each breakpoint and the interactions panel animations | Test with caching on, as visitors will see it |
Launch day, in order
- Freeze changes: No edits to the old site or the new one for the launch window. Launch on a quiet weekday morning so people are around to fix things, rather than a Friday evening.
- Final publish to production: Publish, then check three pages in a private window before touching DNS.
- Switch DNS: Change only the records the builder asks for. Leave MX, SPF and verification records alone.
- Test redirects live: Your top twenty old URLs, by hand. Fix any miss straight away. A full URL map and redirect rules are in the migration guide.
- Submit a form of every type: Then check the CRM, inbox and Slack channel again on production.
- Submit the sitemap: In Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Request indexing for the homepage and main product page.
The week after
- Check Search Console every couple of days: pages not indexed, 404s, redirect errors. Fix the ones with traffic first.
- Compare conversion events with the old site's baseline. A sudden drop usually means a broken form or event, not bad design.
- Read the 404 log and add redirects for URLs you missed.
- Ask two people outside the team to complete the main action on their phones and tell you where they hesitated.
If you're also moving builders, the migration guide below covers the URL map and redirects in depth. For Framer settings, see the Framer SEO guide.
Website migration SEO: How to build the URL map, set one-hop 301s and what to watch in Search Console for six weeks after a move.
Questions people ask
Do I need redirects for a brand new website?
Only if it replaces an old one. If any old URL has traffic or backlinks, give it a 301 to its closest new page before switching the domain.
How do I stop the staging site from being indexed?
Set staging to noindex or put it behind a password, and make sure production doesn't inherit that setting. Check the page source on production after launch.
How long after launch will Google index my new site?
Anywhere from days to weeks. Submitting the sitemap in Search Console and requesting indexing for your main pages helps, and fixing redirect errors quickly protects rankings you already have.
Who should own the launch checklist?
One named person, usually whoever built the site, with a second person testing forms and analytics. Split rows by owner in the sheet, but keep a single person who says go.
Sources
- Block Search Indexing with noindex, Google Search Central
- Build and Submit a Sitemap, Google Search Central
- The Open Graph protocol, Open Graph protocol
- Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum), W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
Working on this?
Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck: book a 30-minute call, email work@utkarshdesign.com or send a brief.