The Free Website Launch Checklist: 15 Things to Check Before Going Live

Don't Launch Without Running These Free Tests First

TL;DR: Launching a website without checking SEO tags, broken links, SSL, page speed, social previews, sitemaps, and accessibility is like mailing a letter without an address. Free browser tools catch every common launch mistake in under an hour. I use this exact checklist for every client site, and it's prevented dozens of embarrassing "we forgot to..." emails.

I launched a client's website on a Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, three things had gone wrong. The SSL certificate was misconfigured, throwing security warnings. The sitemap hadn't been submitted, so Google didn't know the site existed. And every social share displayed a blank preview because Open Graph tags were missing.

Three fixable problems. Each one took five minutes to resolve. But catching them after launch meant the client's first visitors saw a broken, untrustworthy-looking site. That Monday taught me to never skip the checklist again.

Here are the 15 checks I run on every site before it goes live. All free tools, roughly one hour of work, and zero excuses for missing any of them.

Technical Foundation

1. SSL Certificate Validation

The SSL Checker confirms your HTTPS certificate is properly installed, not expired, and the chain is complete. Browsers display scary warnings for sites with certificate problems. This check takes 10 seconds. My network tools guide covers SSL in more detail.

2. Website Status Check

The Website Status Checker confirms your site returns a 200 status code. Run it from outside your network to verify the site is accessible publicly, not just from your development machine.

3. GZIP Compression

The GZIP Test verifies your server compresses responses. Without GZIP, page sizes are 60-70% larger than necessary. Enabling it is usually a one-line server configuration change.

4. DNS Configuration

The DNS Lookup confirms your domain points to the correct server. If you migrated hosts or set up a new domain, DNS misconfiguration is the silent killer that makes everything else irrelevant.

SEO Essentials

5. Meta Tags

The Meta Tag Preview shows how your homepage and key pages appear in Google results. Check title length (under 60 characters), description length (under 160 characters), and that both contain your primary keywords.

Generate any missing tags with the SEO Tags Generator. Full SEO walkthrough in my audit guide.

6. Structured Data

The Schema Markup Generator creates JSON-LD for your pages. At minimum, add Organization schema to your homepage and Article schema to blog posts. This enables rich snippets in search results.

7. Sitemap

The Sitemap Generator creates an XML sitemap. Submit it to Google Search Console immediately after launch. Without a sitemap, Google discovers your pages through crawling, which is slower and less reliable.

8. Robots.txt

The Robots.txt Generator creates the file that controls search engine crawling. A common launch disaster: leaving a "Disallow: /" rule from the staging environment that blocks all search engines from your live site.

9. Broken Links

The Broken Link Checker scans for dead links on your pages. Run it on every page of the new site. Internal links pointing to nonexistent pages, placeholder links that were never updated, and external links to pages that moved are all common at launch.

Social Media Readiness

10. Open Graph Preview

The Open Graph Preview shows how your links appear on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, and other platforms. The first time someone shares your new site shouldn't reveal a broken preview image. My social media toolkit guide covers this in depth.

11. Twitter Cards

The Twitter Card Generator ensures your links display rich media cards on Twitter/X. Generate the tags, add them to your pages, and verify the preview.

Performance and Accessibility

12. Image Optimization

Every image on the site should be resized to the correct dimensions and compressed. The Image Compressor and Image Resizer handle this. Convert to WebP with JPG to WebP for best results. Full workflow in my image optimization guide.

13. Color Accessibility

The Color Accessibility Checker verifies your text-to-background contrast meets WCAG standards. Run every color combination on the site through it. My design tools guide covers accessibility requirements.

14. Readability

The Readability Scorer checks that your copy matches your audience. Landing page copy should score higher (simpler) than blog content. Technical documentation can be more complex. The Grammar Checker catches typos that undermine credibility.

Security

15. Password and Data Security

Use the Password Generator for all admin accounts. Verify no sensitive data is exposed with the Data Anonymizer. Check that your Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages are live. Full security practices in my privacy guide.

Post-Launch Monitoring

After launch, schedule recurring checks:

• Weekly: Broken Link Checker on key pages
• Monthly: SSL certificate expiration, GZIP test, social previews
• Quarterly: Full SEO audit using my complete audit process

The Checklist (Copy This)

1. SSL Certificate → SSL Checker
2. Site Status → Website Status Checker
3. GZIP → GZIP Test
4. DNS → DNS Lookup
5. Meta Tags → Meta Tag Preview + SEO Tags Generator
6. Schema → Schema Markup Generator
7. Sitemap → Sitemap Generator
8. Robots.txt → Robots.txt Generator
9. Broken Links → Broken Link Checker
10. OG Preview → Open Graph Preview
11. Twitter Card → Twitter Card Generator
12. Images → Image Compressor + Resizer
13. Accessibility → Color Accessibility Checker
14. Copy → Readability Scorer + Grammar Checker
15. Security → Password Generator + Privacy Policy

Every item uses a free tool. The whole checklist takes under an hour. The peace of mind is worth ten times that.

FAQ

How long before Google indexes my new site? With a submitted sitemap and properly configured robots.txt, Google typically discovers and indexes pages within days to two weeks. Without a sitemap, it can take weeks to months.

What's the most critical item on this checklist? SSL and robots.txt. A missing SSL certificate scares visitors away. A misconfigured robots.txt makes you invisible to search engines. Both are catastrophic and both take minutes to fix.

Should I run this checklist for site updates too? Run the full checklist for major redesigns or migrations. For content updates, focus on items 5 (meta tags), 9 (broken links), 10-11 (social previews), and 12 (images).

Can I automate any of these checks? The checks themselves are manual using browser tools. For automated monitoring, paid services like UptimeRobot (uptime) and Google Search Console (indexing) complement manual checks.

What about mobile responsiveness? Test your site on multiple devices and screen sizes. While Toolgami doesn't have a dedicated responsive testing tool, the image optimization and accessibility tools ensure your content performs well across devices.