Domain and DNS
Record the registrar, account owner, renewal status, DNS host and the people authorised to change records.
Practical guide / 12 checks
A business website launch checklist with named responsibility.
A launch check is useful only when somebody owns each item, records the result and knows what should happen when it fails.
How to use it
Record an owner, result and next action for every check.
This checklist is intentionally platform-neutral. It applies whether a site is static, CMS-based or part of a broader application.
“Checked” should mean a named person ran a real test against the intended production domain—not that a setting probably exists.
01 / Ownership and release
Know who controls the pieces that keep the site reachable.
Production host
Confirm the canonical host, deployment owner, rollback route and whether fallback domains redirect permanently.
Secrets and providers
List form, email, analytics and integration credentials by owner and environment without placing secret values in the checklist.
02 / Discovery and meaning
Make the intended public version easy to understand.
Status and redirects
Priority URLs return the intended 200, retired routes redirect to a relevant destination and missing pages return a real 404.
Metadata and canonicals
Each indexable page has a unique title, description, canonical URL and accurate social preview.
Robots and sitemap
The production site is crawlable, staging is controlled, and the sitemap lists only canonical indexable URLs.
Structured data
Schema is valid, matches visible content and does not claim reviews, prices, locations or identities that the page cannot support.
03 / Enquiry journey
Test the outcome, not just the button.
Form submission
Submit a realistic test on production. Confirm validation, success state, reference, internal notification and customer response if included.
Phone and email
Test `tel:` and `mailto:` actions on a mobile device and verify the public details are consistent across pages.
Privacy and consent
Confirm the form asks only for needed data, links to the correct policy and does not activate optional tracking before required consent.
04 / After launch
A launch is complete when failure has an owner.
Monitoring and recovery
Define what is monitored, what creates an alert, what is backed up, retention and how a real restore would be performed.
Post-launch verification
Recheck the production domain, forms, redirects, important pages and search-console status after DNS and caches have settled.
Acceptance record
The checklist needs an audit trail.
For each line, record the URL or system, tester, timestamp, observed result and action owner. Screenshots can support the record, but they do not replace the underlying result.
Pass: observed result matches the defined acceptance criterion.
Fail: impact, owner and resolution date are recorded.
Not applicable: reason is explicit, not assumed.
Not verifiable: access or evidence gap is documented.
Want these checks assigned to a managed launch?
Novalure can confirm the relevant acceptance checks as part of an agreed website scope.