Site Start Checklist

Here we offer the list of most useful checks and actions to be done before the site goes live (and some after it has already started).

Before starting

Content and style

Typography
Correct symbols. Put down the correct symbols such as dash, quotation marks and apostrophes, depending on the language of the site
Hyphenation. Put down non-breaking spaces between initials, dashes, before the last words
For the English: Ligatures. Put down ligatures in the headers, if needed
Carefully read the text and check spelling
The connectedness of the texts
Check the register in the important texts and headlines
Provide a single text style
The unity of repetitive phrases (i.e. "Learn more", "Read more», «N comments", etc.)
Punctuation in lists (e.g. if the list item ends with a point then the following paragraph should begin with an uppercase letter and vice versa for the semicolon)
Check if there are no hardcoded links to dev-server
Check of there is no test content on the site
Check the printed versions of important pages
Check the RSS feed and the displaying of content in Google Reader
In the case of redesign or modification of the information, architecture check if there are redirects from the old URL to the new
Check the hidden text (i.e., alt / title attributes of HTML tags, text in JavaScript functions)

Standards and Validation

Accessibility for people with disabilities (check if everything is ok with the perception of color, sound, site navigation and so on)
HTML validation
JavaScript validation
CSS validation

Availability in search engines, SEO and statistics

Page Titles are very important, make sure they make sense and contain important keywords
Fill in the meta- tag description for important pages
Bring links to the home page to a single view (i.e., to choose one thing from variations http://site.ru, http://www.site.ru, http://www.site.ru/index.html)
Guarantee the preceding 6 points by redirecting to the selected version (e.g. redirect from http://www.site.ru/ * to http://site.ru/ *)
Ensure in semantically competent use of HTML tags (<h1>, <h2>, ... etc.)
Check for important keywords in the content
Bring references to a readable form (e.g. http://site.ru/blog/how-to-make-coffee, http://site.ru/user/nastya, etc.)
Add Google Analytics, FeedBurner, and / or other systems of statistics measurement
Create XML Sitemap
Add this site to Google Webmaster Tools

Check all ordered / special / complex functionality
Check the search work (including relevance)
Check the site work in different browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome etc.), versions (6, 7, 2.2, 3.1 etc.) and platforms (Windows, OSX, Linux)
Check the view of the site at different screen resolutions (1280 × 1024, 1024 × 768 1920 × 1200 800 × 600 ...)
Test all forms (contact, comments, feedback ...), add the captcha or other protection
Check out all e-mail templates
To test the site’s capacity for work with JavaScript, Flash, and other components turned off
Check the availability of external links

Safety / Risk

Configure scheduled backups, and test the restored one
Check whether the visitors have access to the service/secret/private pages
Close access to the service/secret / private parts of this site for the search engines using robots.txt
Cut off the output of errors on the screen
Check the amount of available disk space and calculate how much it will suffice
Run a regular procedure for the crown (for most CMS)
Configure email / SMS notification of inoperable site / server

Performance

Conduct load testing
Optimize the images / graphics
Check and implement caching where it is necessary
Check the overall size/speed of loading pages
Minimize / compress static (JavaScript / HTML / CSS)
Optimize CSS: a short path to the images, use the "cascading" basics of styles, etc.
Check the availability of indexes in the database tables
Check the other performance settings at all levels (server, database, CMS, etc.)
Enable logging of errors/performance on the server.

The final touches

After starting

Marketing

Other