Going Live

When a project is ready to go live, we need to check the following to ensure it is ready.

1. Browser/device tests

Summarised in more depth in the testing section of these guides.

• Desktop: test on latest versions of Chrome, IE/Edge, Firefox, Safari
• Mobile: test on latest versions of Mobile Safari, Android

2. Front end checklist

Assets

• Search sources for http://. Replace by https://
• Lint (s)css sources
• Webfonts: is the live domain configured in services like Typekit, Fonts.com etc.?
• Compress raster images
• Optimize SVG path data

Scripts

• Check JS lint errors
• Check for console errors
• Remove all console.log lines in scripts
• Minify CSS and JS

Page weight and performance

• Evaluate total weight of the homepage at a minimum
• Open inspect and review network/timeline tab to identify heavy assets and see whether these can be compressed
• Check if heavy assets are cached, if not add the appropriate .htaccess rules

3. Check content

• Does menu/submenu have a correct active state on every page?
• Are 404, 500 and 503 pages active and do they provide useful call to actions?
• Do we need to implement 301 redirects? If this is a redesign then the answer is likely to be yes

Meta (where appropriate)

• Check page titles/descriptions/open graph tags exist
• Test Facebook sharing to ensure appropriate data is showing on the page
• Has a favicon been created? If not, please use Dan's Tools Favicon Generator

Components

• Google Maps
  • API key needed/configured
  • Prevent zoom out if the map takes up a large proportion of screen
  • Try clicking on markers and ensure they work
• Forms
  • Fill out forms with wrong/right values
  • Check for error and success messages
  • Does email deliver to your inbox? If yes, try the clients inbox and confirm they've received
  • Ensure we are using honeypot fields than obstructing users with a CAPTCHA field
• Newsletter subscription
  • Try subscribing to a newsletter with incorrect & correct email
  • Once subscribed, use the same email address again to get 'already subscribed' message
• Email
  • Check that the layout of emails are correct
• Structured data
  • Where used, structured data for news, events, products is working correctly by using https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/

4. Back end checklist

• Create a new admin for client and try to log in
• Confirm the password reset for existing user is working
• Try save and create facilities on all content types
• Check that all e-mail recipients are correct
• Use tools to ensure local and development URLs point to the new domain

5. Server, DNS & Services

• Install SSL certificate
• Check SSL certificate health
• Setup a SEO safe 301 redirect so that www should redirect to non-www
• Setup a SEO safe 301 redirect so that http should redirect to https
• Check DNS propagation
• Verify that either Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics have been correctly set up

6. Google Search Console

• Create all www/non-www http/https variations in Google Webmasters
• Ensure non-www https is the preferred domain
• Go to Crawl, then Fetch as Google and Submit to index

7. Server

• Has the new website got an Amazon backup?
• Do we have a monitor setup for the new website?
• Is dev password protected?

8. Misc

• Is caching turned on?
• Have relevant security settings been applied?
• Check that website does not have noindex enabled
• Configure Google Analytics is enabled, make sure the UA is consistent in both the head and the cookie banner