Page Comparison

Documentation

•  Save screenshots of the home page and key internal pages
•  Save screenshots of Page Speed Insights results

General

•  Does the site have a 404 page? Does it look okay?
•  Ensure search engines are encouraged to index the site
•  Is there a Favicon?
•  Is there a sitemap?
•  Is robots.txt configured?
  •  Does it have a link to the sitemap?

Security

•  Remove any extra accounts
•  Remove Comment and Contact default functionalities if not used
•  Spam prevention technique in place

SEO

•  Google Console is setup
  
  •  Reindex the site using their tools post launch
  •  Ensure search results make sense
•  Google Analytics
  
  •  GTM Tag set up via Site Kit Plugin or manually
  •  Annotation added in Analytics to demarcate launch
•  Are meta tags appropriate on the site?
  
  •  Does the site have a tag manager applied? Should there be one like yoast?
•  Are the correct privacy declarations in place for analytic collection?

Remote

•  WPEngine Accounts are configured correctly
  
  •  Admin account in 1Password
  •  Any Employee accounts are created and assigned proper roles
  •  Any Client accounts are created and assigned proper roles

QA

•  Lighthouse test
  
  •  Ensure page speed is appropriate
  •  Ensure there are no clear Accessibility issues
  •  Optimize image loading
  •  Follow all applicable optimization advice
•  Do an Accessibility quick check if Accessibility was not built in to the project workflow: Accessibility Quick Check
•  Are the menu contents correct?
  •  On desktop
  •  On mobile?
•  Does the site adhere to responsive design principles?
  
  •  Does mobile work for every key user flow?
  •  Does tablet work for every key user flow?
  •  Does desktop work for every key user flow?
•  Ensure "cacheability"
  
  •  Does WPEngine generate reasonable caches for assets?
  •  Does the browser cache the assets?
  •  Does the site include header values for caching?
•  Are all plugins at their most recent update?
•  Are all of the Dev-only plugins such as debug bar, query monitor etc.) added to .gititgore?
•  Spellcheck the site

During Launch Checklist

•  Announce in Slack
•  Deploy via configured CI
•  Back up everything
•  Clear Caches

Post Launch Checklist

•  Ensure the site shows up in search
•  Ensure analytics data is registering
•  Ensure any old sites redirect to the new instance
•  Test emails sent from the site
  •  Regular WordPress emails
  •  Contact form emails
  •  Gravity form emails