10 Crucial Steps Before Making a WordPress Website Live

Launching a WordPress website is an exciting milestone. Small oversights at this stage can lead to performance problems, security gaps and lost search traffic. Here is the checklist I run through before any site goes live.

1. Set up backups

Make sure automatic off-site backups are running, and take a full backup right before launch.

2. Check search visibility

Untick "Discourage search engines from indexing this site", and review titles, descriptions and your sitemap.

3. Set up redirects

If you are replacing an old site, map old URLs to new ones with 301 redirects so you keep your rankings.

4. Test every form and email

Submit each form and confirm the email arrives. Use an SMTP service so messages do not land in spam.

5. Test on real devices

Check the site on a phone, a tablet and more than one browser.

6. Run a speed test

Check page speed and Core Web Vitals, and fix large images and blocking scripts.

7. Harden security

Remove unused plugins and themes, use strong passwords, enable two-factor login and limit login attempts.

8. Add analytics and Search Console

Connect your analytics and submit the sitemap so you can measure results from day one.

9. Add legal pages

10. Check the finishing touches

Favicon, custom 404 page, contact details, social links and a final read-through of every page.