--- title: Production Website Launch & Pre-Flight QA Checklist url: https://www.haketi.com/labs/website-launch-checklist/ date: 2026-11-05T16:31:46+00:00 modified: 2026-11-05T16:34:05+00:00 lang: en_US --- Pre-Flight Engineering Protocol # Production Website Launch & Pre-Flight QA Checklist A comprehensive 34-point technical pre-flight verification system. Eliminate broken forms, prevent silent SEO traffic losses, catch hidden JavaScript console exceptions, and enforce WCAG 2.2 accessibility before public DNS deployment. ## Launch Readiness Status 0 of 34 checks verified (0% complete) Critical Launch Risks Pending ## 1\. Form Testing, Lead Routing & Conversion Integrity 0/6 Done End-to-End Test Submissions on All Active Forms Critical Submit test data to every live form: contact, quote calculator, careers, newsletter, and demo requests. Verify database storage and email delivery. Verify: Fill all required and optional fields with unique test strings. Transactional SMTP Email Authentication (SPF / DKIM / DMARC) Critical Ensure notifications route through dedicated transactional SMTP relays (Postmark, SendGrid, Amazon SES) rather than untrusted PHP mailer. Verify: Inspect email headers for "dkim=pass" and "spf=pass". Customer-Facing Autoresponder Email Delivery High Confirm the prospect receives an immediate branded confirmation email within 60 seconds. Verify logo display, sender address, and no leftover placeholder copy. Verify: Check inbox timestamp, sender reply-to, and mobile formatting. Conversion Event Tracking & Analytics Tag Firing Critical Verify GA4 generate_lead, Google Ads conversion tags, and LinkedIn Insight pixel events fire exactly once per successful submission. Verify: Use Google Tag Assistant or browser Network tab to observe event payloads. Field Validation, Error Messaging & Spam Protection QA Test invalid email formatting, missing required inputs, and honeypot/Turnstile captcha triggers. Verify the form never wipes user input on error. Verify: Enter invalid email (e.g. test@) and ensure inline error clearly guides correction. Click-to-Call (tel:) and Email (mailto:) Touch Targets QA Verify phone numbers in header, footer, and contact sections open the native phone dialer on iOS/Android with correct country codes. Verify: Tap phone link on mobile device and confirm phone dialer prompt. ## 2\. Console, JavaScript & Front-End Code Hygiene 0/5 Done Zero Unhandled Console JavaScript Exceptions Critical Audit primary page templates (Home, Services, Case Studies, Contact) in Chrome DevTools Console. Zero red TypeError or Uncaught ReferenceError exceptions allowed. Verify: Open Console tab; filter by "Errors only" across all template types. Zero 404 Asset Failures in Network Waterfalls High Verify no broken background images, missing font files (.woff2), or forgotten developer script tags causing 404/410 status codes in Network panel. Verify: Filter DevTools Network panel by "Status: 404". Responsive Horizontal Overflow Audit (Zero Sideways Scroll) Critical Test layout stability at 1440px, 1024px, 768px, and 390px widths. Ensure document.documentElement.scrollWidth === clientWidth with no unintended horizontal scrollbars. Verify: Run window.innerWidth === document.documentElement.scrollWidth in console. Asynchronous & Deferred Third-Party Script Loading High Ensure tag managers, analytics, heatmaps, and chat widgets use async or defer attributes so third-party latency never blocks HTML parsing. Verify: Check script tags in head have async, defer, or load via web worker. Reduced Motion Accessibility Safeguards (@media prefers-reduced-motion) QA Ensure scroll-driven animations, parallax, and infinite loops gracefully revert to static displays when visitors enable reduced motion in OS settings. Verify: Emulate prefers-reduced-motion: reduce in DevTools Rendering tab. ## 3\. Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) & Contrast Ratio Standards 0/6 Done Body & Subheading Color Contrast Ratio (Minimum 4.5:1) Critical Verify all regular text (under 18pt or 14pt bold) achieves at least 4.5:1 contrast against its immediate background container across both light and dark themes. Verify: Run Lighthouse Accessibility or inspect element with Chrome color picker. Interactive Elements & UI Component Contrast (Minimum 3.0:1) High Ensure form input borders, button outlines, custom checkboxes, and standalone navigation icons meet WCAG 2.2 non-text contrast ratio of 3.0:1. Verify: Test button borders and active input states against adjacent surface background. Full Keyboard Navigation with Visible Focus Rings (:focus-visible) Critical Navigate entire page using only Tab, Shift+Tab, and Enter. Every link, button, and form element must show a high-contrast focus indicator (never outline: none without fallback). Verify: Tab through header menu, mobile hamburger, modal dialogs, and form inputs. Heading Hierarchy & Semantic Landmarks High Verify exactly one H1 per page, sequential heading progression (no skipping from H2 to H4), and proper HTML5 structural tags (header, nav, main, footer). Verify: Use accessibility tree viewer or document outline tool to confirm H1-H4 sequence. Meaningful Image Alt Text & Decorative Icon Hiding High Informative photos and charts require descriptive alt text. Purely decorative icons and shapes must include aria-hidden="true" or empty alt="" to avoid screen reader clutter. Verify: Search HTML for img tags missing alt attribute. Check decorative icons have aria-hidden. Explicit Form Input Labels (No Placeholder Reliance) High Every input must have an explicit label element with for="\[id\]" or aria-label. Placeholders vanish during typing and cannot substitute for labels. Verify: Click form labels with mouse; the corresponding input should gain focus. ## 4\. SEO Equity, Crawlability & Indexing Protection 0/5 Done Verification of Indexing Directives (Removal of Staging noindex) Critical Confirm WordPress "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unchecked and robots.txt allows Googlebot crawl access. Leftover noindex wipes search presence. Verify: Inspect HTML source for meta name="robots" and check /robots.txt. 1:1 301 Permanent Redirect Map for All Legacy URLs Critical Map every legacy URL with existing backlinks or search impressions to its exact modern counterpart. Never bulk redirect entire sites to the homepage. Verify: Test top 20 historical URLs in browser; confirm 301 status header and target destination. Self-Referencing Canonical Tags & Title/Meta Descriptions High Ensure every published URL contains a self-referencing canonical tag and unique, keyword-calibrated title and meta description without placeholder text. Verify: Inspect link rel="canonical" in head on homepage and subpages. XML Sitemap Generation & Clean Status Codes High Generate /sitemap.xml or sitemap_index.xml. Confirm all included URLs return HTTP 200 OK with no redirected or 404 links listed. Verify: Load sitemap in browser and submit sitemap URL to Google Search Console. Open Graph & Social Share Preview Cards (1200x630) QA Verify og:image (1200x630 pixels), og:title, and og:description render with crisp brand assets when shared on LinkedIn, iMessage, and X/Twitter. Verify: Test homepage and service links in LinkedIn Post Inspector or Facebook Debugger. ## 5\. Performance, Core Web Vitals & Caching 0/4 Done Mobile Largest Contentful Paint (LCP \< 2.5s) Critical Hero banner images and videos must use modern WebP/AVIF formats, responsive srcset sizing, and fetchpriority="high" without lazy-loading above-the-fold assets. Verify: Run PageSpeed Insights on mobile profile; verify LCP under 2.5 seconds. Zero Layout Shift (CLS \< 0.1) via Explicit Aspect Ratios High All images, logos, SVGs, and iframe embeds must have explicit width and height attributes or CSS aspect-ratio rules to prevent content jumping during page render. Verify: Inspect elements; confirm no un-dimensioned img tags push content down. Byte Compression (Gzip / Brotli) & Static Asset Caching High Verify server returns content-encoding: br or gzip for text assets, and sets cache-control: max-age=31536000 for immutable fonts, images, and compiled bundles. Verify: Inspect response headers in DevTools Network tab for static .js/.css/.woff2. Interaction to Next Paint (INP \< 200ms) on Mobile Touch QA Ensure mobile hamburger menus, accordion toggles, and form inputs react instantly under 200ms without heavy JavaScript execution freezes. Verify: Test mobile drawer toggle on throttled CPU profile in Chrome DevTools. ## 6\. Domain, DNS & Zero-Downtime Infrastructure 0/4 Done DNS TTL Reduced to 300 Seconds (24 Hours in Advance) Critical Lower Time-To-Live (TTL) on A and CNAME records 24 to 48 hours prior to launch. This ensures IP propagation happens in 5 minutes rather than 24 hours. Verify: Run dig or nslookup on domain name to confirm 300s TTL before cutover. MX & Business Email DNS Record Backup & Preservation Critical Record and preserve all existing MX (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) and email TXT records. Switching DNS without copying MX causes company-wide email outages. Verify: Cross-reference live MX records with DNS zone file before pointing A records. Automated SSL/TLS Certificate Provisioning & HTTPS Forcing Critical Verify TLS certificate is provisioned for both apex (domain.com) and www (www.domain.com). Force all plain HTTP traffic to 301 redirect to secure HTTPS. Verify: Test http://domain.com in browser; confirm automatic redirect to https://. Full Database & Filesystem Pre-Cutover Backup Archive High Generate a complete standalone SQL database dump and wp-content archive stored in offsite cloud storage immediately prior to switching live DNS traffic. Verify: Confirm backup zip file exists in secure offsite cloud storage. ## 7\. Legal, Compliance & Security Baseline 0/4 Done Current Privacy Policy & Terms of Service in Global Footer Critical Ensure current legal policies are accessible in the footer, accurately identifying company legal entity name, jurisdiction, and contact address. Verify: Click footer Privacy Policy link; confirm published date and valid company entity. Cookie Consent & Script-Blocking Mechanism High If operating in or marketing to EU, California, or regulated states, confirm marketing and tracking scripts do not execute prior to explicit visitor consent. Verify: Load in incognito mode; confirm ad pixels do not fire until accept is clicked. Essential Security Headers (HSTS, nosniff, SAMEORIGIN) High Implement X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN, and Strict-Transport-Security to prevent MIME sniffing and clickjacking. Verify: Check securityheaders.com or inspect server response headers. Admin Login Hardening & Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Critical Remove default "admin" user accounts, enforce multi-factor authentication (2FA) on all administrator accounts, and enable automated brute-force rate limiting. Verify: Confirm all admin accounts require authenticator code upon login. ### Worried About Launch Day Pitfalls? Haketi provides zero-downtime DNS cutover management, Core Web Vitals calibration, and comprehensive pre-flight technical audits for business websites and web applications. [Schedule Pre-Flight Review →](https://booking.haketi.com/) [Explore Website Care Plans](/services/website-care-optimization/) ## Why Professional Engineering Teams Use Pre-Flight QA Protocols In digital procurement, the final 5% of a website project determines 95% of its post-launch business success. A website can boast stunning aesthetics, yet catastrophic revenue loss occurs if a contact form quietly fails to dispatch emails, a forgotten staging tag blocks Google search indexing, or missing email records shut down company-wide communications during a domain transfer. At Haketi, our deployment philosophy is grounded in disciplined verification rather than hopeful assumptions. We treat every website launch like an aviation pre-flight checklist: each subsystem (lead intake, client-side rendering, accessibility compliance, database integrity, and DNS propagation) must be systematically verified before traffic is switched over. ## The Three Most Costly Website Launch Mistakes - **The Disappearing SEO Equity Disaster:** When launching a redesign, developers who neglect to implement a granular 1:1 301 redirect map often cause incoming search rankings and backlink authority to plummet overnight as legacy URLs throw 404 errors. - **The DNS Email Blackout:** Amateurs frequently point a domain's A-record to a new web server without first recording existing MX (Mail Exchange), SPF, and DKIM entries, immediately cutting off company email delivery for hours. - **The Silent Form Failure:** Forms that appear to submit on the frontend but fail to route through authenticated SMTP relays lead to lost inquiries, missed client deals, and wasted advertising spend. **Protocol Authored by:** Teylor Feliz, Founder & Lead Architect at Haketi. Standard deployment baseline across Haketi Web Design, WordPress Engineering, and Custom Application deliveries.