Your website launch checklist

Use this checklist when your site is built and you are preparing to share it with customers. Work through the essentials on every site, then complete only the checks for the features you offer.

A launch is ready when a visitor can reach the right page, complete the promised action, and receive the expected result—and your team can handle what arrives.

If you are still building, start with Getting started. If you need to decide which features to configure, use Choosing which features to set up first.

Before you start

Have your intended public website address, access to the site's admin, and a phone available. For tests, use email addresses and customer accounts you control.

Choose one person to own the launch checks and one person to handle incoming requests or orders. They can be the same person. Record each check as passed, needs work, or not used, with the date and anything still to fix.

Keep the launch announcement unsent until the final visitor test passes. Some checks can happen in previews, but the last check must use the normal public address and the intended visitor permissions.

1. Confirm the address and visitor access

Open Settings → Site → Domains, if available on your site. Confirm that Cedros has the hostname you intend to share. Follow Connecting a domain you already own to complete DNS and routing, then choose your primary domain. Entering a domain name alone does not connect it.

Check the following:

• The final HTTPS address opens the correct site. Open it directly, including an important page below the homepage. There should be no certificate warning, old website, or unexpected redirect.
• Any alternate address you advertise works. For example, test both the bare domain and the www address if customers will use both. Do not assume one automatically redirects to the other.
• Website changes preserve existing email. Connecting a website does not require moving your email provider. Do not replace mail-routing records as part of a website-only launch.
• The intended visitors can enter. In Settings → Site → Access, review What visitors see and Visitor restrictions. Check age and regional restrictions against the audience you intend to serve.

For an ordinary public website, the final launch mode is Live. Waitlist, Presale, and Maintenance show different visitor experiences; Internal requires a permissioned login. A members-only launch may intentionally retain restrictions.

If you are keeping a holding page up while preparing, leave the final mode change until launch time.

Pass when: the intended address loads securely and the right audience can reach the intended experience. If DNS or HTTPS is still failing, use Fixing a domain that isn’t connecting or Fixing HTTPS and certificate problems before announcing the address. Keep the previous working site available until the replacement is verified.

2. Publish the essential content and navigation

Review your homepage, main offer or service page, contact route, and any pages needed to complete the customer journey.

• Replace example text, placeholder images, test prices, and temporary contact details.
• Confirm what you offer, who it is for, and what the visitor should do next.
• Check business name, email, phone, address, and hours wherever they appear. Use Setting up your business information for the shared settings, then check any details written directly into pages.
• Publish the intended versions of pages, posts, and docs. A saved draft or editor preview does not prove those changes are live.
• Open Site → Menus and review the header and footer links. If you have a separate signed-in menu, check that too. Save intended menu changes, then test the links on the public site.
• For a replacement site, check important old addresses. Manage needed redirects in Settings → Site → SEO → Redirects, and open the old addresses to confirm they reach the correct new pages.
• Make the customer-facing policies and support information relevant to your business easy to find. Review their content rather than leaving generic or unfinished text.

Read Understanding drafts, previews, and publishing before releasing edits. In particular, Save on an already-published visual page updates the live page; blog and doc Save draft keeps edits unpublished.

Pass when: a visitor can find the main offer, understand it, and follow every essential navigation link without reaching a draft, missing page, or outdated destination. A menu's Ready label checks its configuration; still open its links yourself.

3. Check the experience on a phone

Use the page builder's Preview → Mobile Web while editing, then open the final site on an actual phone. Also check a desktop browser.

Read and use the homepage, the main offer page, and the page where a visitor takes action:

• Open and close the menu. Make sure its links are readable and easy to tap.
• Check for cut-off headings, sideways scrolling, overlapping text, and images covering buttons.
• Read prices, dates, captions, and contact details without zooming.
• Try the main button and complete any form fields. Check that the on-screen keyboard does not hide the next step.
• On desktop, use the Tab key to reach links, buttons, and form fields. Confirm you can see which control is selected and activate the main action.
• Check image descriptions where they are needed, readable contrast, and clear field labels and error messages.

A page that looks good in the editor may still have a broken destination or awkward form. Test the interaction as well as the appearance.

Pass when: the main customer journey is readable and usable on both a phone and desktop, including the menu, form, and confirmation screen.

4. Test enquiries and email delivery

If you use a form, open Site → Forms and confirm that the intended form is active. Test the form from the actual page where customers will find it.

1. Submit a clearly labelled test enquiry with an email address you control.
2. Confirm that the visitor sees a clear success message or the expected next page.
3. Open Site → Forms → View submissions and find the exact test. Check that the important field values arrived.
4. Check any email notification or confirmation that you have configured. A saved submission does not prove email delivery succeeded.
5. Have the person responsible find the request and send a reply through the channel you intend to use.

Also try submitting with a required field missing. The visitor should receive a useful error and be able to correct it.

If customers contact you directly by email, send a message from an external account to the advertised address, then reply and confirm the reply arrives. If you use Cedros's inbox, check the conversation under Email → Inbox. Test receiving and sending separately.

Pass when: the request reaches the correct place, the responsible person can act on it, and expected replies or confirmations arrive. If email fails, use Choosing Cedros email or Google Workspace to check the inbox path and Setting up outgoing email delivery for sending. Publishing the page again will not configure mail.

5. Test the features your launch depends on

Skip a subsection only if the site does not offer that feature. For setup prerequisites, use Choosing which features to set up first.

Bookings

Check Grow → Calendar → My calendar → Configure for the booking type, availability, and timezone.

Make a controlled booking using your own details. Confirm the chosen time, calendar entry, and any expected confirmation. Check that an unavailable time cannot be booked, and test the cancellation or rescheduling link if you offer one. Remove the test booking through the normal cancellation flow when finished.

Pass when: a customer can choose a valid appointment and both sides receive the correct time and next steps.

Products and payments

Review Extension Settings → Pay hub, the products under Monetization → Catalog, and the public storefront. Check the displayed price, currency, availability, and any shipping or tax settings the product needs.

Use your payment provider's supported test environment for checkout testing. Confirm the expected order or payment record under Monetization → Transactions, customer confirmation, and fulfilment or download access. Include an unsuccessful or cancelled checkout so it does not appear as a completed order.

Before accepting real customers, separately confirm the intended live payment configuration and the actual public checkout. A successful test-mode purchase does not prove live checkout is ready. Do not use real payment details in a test checkout.

Pass when: the buyer sees the correct offer, the intended payment method is ready, and you know how a successful purchase becomes a delivered product or service.

Newsletter signup

Use a test address to subscribe from the public signup flow. Complete any required confirmation and check that the address appears in the intended audience under Email → Lists.

If your launch includes a campaign, send a test only to an audience you control. Check the sender, message, links, delivery, and unsubscribe flow before selecting the real audience in Email → Campaigns.

Pass when: signup produces the expected subscription state, and any planned message can be delivered and unsubscribed from. Publishing a page or blog post does not automatically send a campaign.

Member or paid access

Use an ordinary customer account, rather than the administrator account, to check sign-in and access to the intended content. If access depends on a purchase or subscription, test that complete route.

Then check the same content while signed out and with an account that does not have access. Include protected downloads or media, not just the page around them.

Pass when: eligible customers can obtain and use access, and people without access see the intended restriction.

6. Check search and sharing details

In Settings → Site → Access, review Show this site in search results. Enable it when you want a public launch discoverable by search engines. Hiding the site from search engines is not a privacy or access-control setting.

Check the SEO settings for your important pages: a useful title, an accurate description, and an appropriate sharing image where supported. Make sure a page you want indexed has not been individually excluded.

In Settings → Site → SEO, review Sitemap and use View sitemap to inspect the available public URLs. Read any visibility or setup notices. Check that links you plan to share use the final public address.

Pass when: the visibility settings match your launch, important pages have accurate metadata, and the sitemap is consistent with the public content. Search engines decide when to crawl and list pages; immediate search appearance is not a launch requirement.

7. Rehearse one complete customer journey

Run the whole journey once without using admin shortcuts. For a service business, this might be: homepage → service page → enquiry form → confirmation → staff reply. For a shop: product → checkout → order confirmation → fulfilment.

1. Start at the address a customer will receive, in a private browser window.
2. Find the offer through the site's navigation.
3. Complete the main action with controlled test details.
4. Check the customer's result and the corresponding record in Cedros.
5. Have the responsible person complete the follow-up.

Repeat the relevant failure case: an incomplete form, unavailable appointment, unsuccessful payment, or customer without access. The failure should be understandable and should not look like success.

Pass when: the journey works from the customer's first click through your team's response. Record the test result and any test records that still need tidying up.

8. Go live and repeat the visitor test

Once the essential checks pass:

1. Confirm that the final content and menu changes are saved and published. Check that any scheduled content has actually gone live.
2. If moving from a holding page to a public website, open Settings → Site → Access, choose Live, and confirm the mode change. Leave intentional member or regional restrictions in place.
3. Wait for the settings to finish saving. Recheck search visibility if you changed it for launch.
4. Open the normal public address in a fresh private window and on your phone. Check the homepage, navigation, and main customer action again.
5. Send the announcement only after this final check passes.

Site settings can save independently of content publication. Changing the site to Live does not publish unfinished drafts, activate a form, connect email, or configure payments.

Delay the announcement if visitors cannot load the site, complete the main action, receive the promised result, or access content with the correct permissions. A secondary feature can wait if it is clearly unavailable and is not part of the offer you are announcing.

9. Watch the first real activity

After launch, check the relevant submissions, bookings, messages, and transactions. Make sure someone is responsible for responding, and compare the first real results with what your test produced.

Use Tools → Site Health to investigate availability or loading issues. If you use analytics, review Settings → Analytics for collection settings and the site reports reached from Dashboard. New sites may have little data; an empty chart alone does not prove the site is broken.

If something fails, record the page address, time, device, steps, and exact message. Contact Cedros with those details, without passwords, payment details, or private customer information. Pause promotion while a problem prevents customers from completing the action you promised.