Website launch checker

Launches rarely fail because of the design. They fail because a staging setting went live: search engines are told not to index the site, links still point to the test domain, or http:// traffic never reaches the new HTTPS site. The checker runs these checks in one pass and sorts the results into CRITICAL, WARNING and PASSED.

Search engines revisit a new or migrated site quickly. If the first crawl finds noindex, a blocked robots.txt or canonicals pointing at a staging domain, pages can drop out of results and take time to recover even after the fix. Broken redirects during a migration lose the links and rankings the old URLs had earned.

Security and trust problems are just as visible. An expired certificate or mixed content produces browser warnings; missing security headers and visible error messages make the site an easier target. For agencies, these are also the issues clients notice first.

A checklist catches them, but only if someone runs every item on every launch. Automating the repeatable checks leaves the team free to review what a tool cannot: content accuracy, forms, payments and integrations.

1. 01
   On staging, if it is publicly reachable

   Expect staging-only results such as noindex or a blocking robots.txt, and use the report as the list of settings to change at go-live. The checker cannot log in, so password-protected staging sites must be opened temporarily or checked after launch.

2. 02
   Immediately after launch

   Run it on the production homepage and one page of each template. Every CRITICAL item should be gone; fix those before announcing the launch.

3. 03
   Share the report

   Copy the report or download it as Markdown for the ticket, the client or the launch log. The optional AI action plan turns the findings into ordered tasks.

4. 04
   Check the rest by hand

   Forms, checkout, transactional email, integrations, backups and monitoring need people and test accounts. Our AI Code Health Check covers the application side.