Graduation day! You’ve built, designed, secured and filled your site. Before you announce it to the world, run through this checklist. It catches the small mistakes that trip up even experienced site builders. Tick every box and you’re ready to launch.
Visibility and SEO
- Untick “Discourage search engines” in Settings → Reading. This is the big one!
- Permalinks are set to Post name.
- Your SEO plugin is configured and your sitemap loads.
- Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Every page has a clear title and meta description.
Content and design
- Sample content (“Hello world!”, “Sample Page”) is deleted.
- Home, About, Contact and Privacy Policy pages are published. (WordPress can help generate a privacy policy draft under Settings → Privacy; review it carefully.)
- Menus work and every link goes somewhere real. Run a broken-link check.
- Proofread key pages and check that images have alt text.
- Test on a phone, a tablet and a desktop, and in more than one browser.
- Add a site icon (favicon) under your theme’s settings or Site Editor.
Function and safety
- Submit every form yourself and confirm the emails arrive.
- HTTPS works on every page with no browser warnings.
- A fresh full backup is complete and stored off-site.
- All core, theme and plugin updates are applied.
- 2FA is on for all admins and user roles follow least privilege.
- Caching is on, and you’ve run a final speed test.
- Your affiliate disclosures and email signup are in place.
Professor’s warning: If you use caching, clear the cache after final changes and view your site in a private browser window while logged out. That’s what visitors actually see.
After launch
Announce your site to your email list and social channels. Then settle into a rhythm: publish consistently, check updates weekly, review backups monthly and watch Search Console for issues. Launch is the beginning, not the end.
Celebrate by testing your knowledge with our quizzes, and keep learning with our resources. Class dismissed, and congratulations from Professor Press!
Your assignment
- Work through every item on this checklist and fix anything that fails.
- Launch your site and announce it to at least one audience.
- Put weekly update checks and monthly backup reviews on your calendar.
