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Planning

Everything that has to be true before you go live.

Thirty one checks across five phases, filtered to the kind of site you are launching. Tick them off as you go. Progress stays in this browser, so you can close the tab and pick it up later.

Have Joseph check your siteSee how a build runs

The gate

Launch Checklist

Choose a site type and the list filters to the checks that apply to it. Your ticks stay in this browser until you reset them, and nothing here is sent anywhere.

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The five phases

  1. FoundationThe address resolves, the certificate is live, and a wrong link lands somewhere useful.
  2. ContentEvery fact a customer acts on: contact details, services, prices, images, policies.
  3. ExperienceIt holds up on a phone, on a keyboard, at speed, and in the browsers people actually use.
  4. ConversionThe paths that earn the work: forms, confirmations, agreed measurement, the map listing.
  5. Launch and handoffBackup, redirects, indexing, and an owner who can get in without asking anyone.

Progress is a planning aid. It does not replace a technical or accessibility review.

Checklist ready. Progress is saved only in this browser.
Foundation
Content
Experience
Conversion
Launch and handoff

Why it exists

A gate, not a wish list.

Launches rarely fail on one large mistake. They fail because five small things were each somebody else's job, and nobody was holding the list. This is the list a site has to pass before it goes live: every item can be verified in a few minutes, and every item states the reason it is there, so none of it has to be taken on trust. It is deliberately the same list for every site of its type, which is what makes it a gate. Anything unusual about your business belongs on a shorter list of your own beside it.

Known limits

What this list does not do for you.

  • It is not an accessibility audit. Two lines ask you to check contrast and the keyboard path, and both are the surface of a much larger subject. The Contrast Checker goes one step further, and neither replaces testing with people who use assistive technology.
  • It is not a legal review. It asks whether your policies are published, not whether they are right for your business, your state, or what you sell. That is a question for someone qualified to answer it.
  • It is not a security review. Backups and certificates are on the list because they are visible on launch day. Access control, payment handling and hosting configuration are continuing work, not a tick box.
  • It is not a performance test. One line asks you to review Core Web Vitals. It does not measure them: the Site Grade runs that check against a live address and shows you the result.

Related reading

Website Accessibility in 2026: The Data and the Fixes

Two lines on this list ask about contrast and keyboard access. This piece has the 2026 WebAIM Million findings behind why they are on the list at all, and what the most common failures actually are.

Want a second pair of eyes on it?

The audit runs the checks that can be run from outside against your live pages, names what is costing you visitors, and puts it in writing. You keep the review whether or not you hire me.

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