Fernside Studio
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Website Launch Checklist for UK B2B: 47 Items Pre-Live

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Web Design

The team is exhausted. The deadline is tomorrow. Half a dozen things are about to be missed in the rush to launch, and three of them will cost real money in the first month. This is the 47-item checklist used on production launches for UK B2B clients.

Work through each section in sequence. Technical issues block everything else. SEO and performance mistakes are more expensive to fix post-launch than pre-launch. Compliance gaps create legal risk that does not improve with time.

Technical (12 Items)

  • DNS configured correctly. A record and CNAME entries pointing to the correct hosting provider. TTL set to a short value (300 seconds) before cutover so rollbacks are fast.
  • SSL certificate active. HTTPS serving correctly on all pages. No mixed content warnings (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages). Check with an SSL certificate checker.
  • Robots.txt correct. Confirm it allows crawling of all pages you want indexed. Confirm it blocks any staging or test paths. Check at yourdomain.com/robots.txt.
  • XML sitemap generated and accessible. Located at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml or linked from robots.txt. Contains only the URLs you want indexed.
  • Custom 404 page. Branded, helpful, links back to the homepage and key sections. A generic server 404 is a bad experience and a missed recovery opportunity.
  • Redirect map implemented. Every changed or removed URL from the previous site has a 301 redirect to its new equivalent. Test a sample of 20 redirects.
  • Schema markup validated. Run homepage and key pages through Google’s Rich Results Test. Confirm no errors.
  • Canonical tags on all pages. Every page has a canonical tag pointing to its own URL (self-referencing). Pages with duplicate content canonicalise to the primary.
  • Security headers set. At minimum: X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Strict-Transport-Security. Cloudflare Pages sets most of these automatically.
  • Error monitoring configured. Sentry or equivalent catching JavaScript errors. You need to know when something breaks, not hear about it from a client.
  • Uptime monitoring configured. Freshping or UptimeRobot pinging the homepage every 5 minutes. Alerts to email or Slack if the site goes down.
  • Forms tested end to end. Each form submits, confirmation message appears, notification email arrives, spam protection (Turnstile or honeypot) is active.

SEO (8 Items)

  • Title tags unique and under 60 characters. Every page has a distinct title tag that includes the primary keyword. No duplicates.
  • Meta descriptions under 155 characters. Every page has a meta description. No duplicates. Check with Screaming Frog or a browser extension.
  • Alt text on all meaningful images. Decorative images have empty alt attributes. Images that convey content have descriptive alt text.
  • Internal links checked. Key pages are linked from multiple other pages. No isolated pages reachable only via direct URL.
  • Google Search Console verified. Domain property verified. Sitemap submitted. No crawl blocking errors.
  • Bing Webmaster Tools set up. Often skipped. Worth 30 minutes for the incremental traffic.
  • Sitemap submitted. Both in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
  • Redirect verification. Run the old sitemap URLs through a redirect checker tool. Confirm all redirect to the correct new URLs with 301 status.

Performance (6 Items)

  • Lighthouse score on key pages. Run on homepage, top service page, and contact page. Target 90+ on desktop, 70+ on mobile as a minimum.
  • Image optimisation verified. Hero images under 200KB, content images under 100KB. Check file sizes in browser dev tools.
  • Font loading optimised. Custom fonts loaded with font-display: swap. Preloaded if above the fold.
  • Render-blocking resources audited. No synchronous scripts in <head> that delay first paint. Defer non-critical scripts.
  • CDN caching active. Confirm static assets are being served with long cache headers. Check cache headers with a browser dev tools network tab.
  • Build size reasonable. No accidentally included development dependencies or debug files in the production build.

Accessibility (5 Items)

  • Colour contrast passes. Run axe DevTools or WAVE on homepage and a form page. All text meets 4.5:1 contrast ratio minimum.
  • Keyboard navigation works. Tab through the entire homepage and the contact form. Every interactive element is reachable and operable via keyboard.
  • Alt text complete. Covered in SEO section, but double-check specifically for decorative images having empty alt attributes.
  • Form labels present. Every form field has an associated <label>. Placeholder text does not substitute for a label.
  • Page titles descriptive. Every page has a unique <title> tag that describes the page content.

Analytics and Tracking (5 Items)

  • GA4 installed and collecting. Verify in real-time report by visiting the site. Confirm pageview events are firing.
  • Conversion events configured. Form submissions, phone link clicks, and any other conversion actions are tracked as GA4 events or goals.
  • Consent mode v2 implemented. UK GDPR requires consent before setting analytics cookies. Consent mode v2 allows analytics to model behaviour for users who decline.
  • Internal traffic excluded. Your own visits should not pollute conversion data. Add a filter for your office IP or use a referral exclusion.
  • Form tracking verified. Submit a test form and confirm the conversion event appears in GA4 real-time.

Compliance (5 Items)

  • Cookie banner active. Consent required before non-essential cookies are set. Covers GA4, any advertising pixels, and third-party scripts. Test by clearing cookies and visiting the site.
  • Privacy policy published. Covers what data is collected, why, how it is stored, and how to request deletion. Must be accessible from the footer and any form.
  • Terms of service present. Required if your site includes any commercial transactions or user accounts.
  • Accessibility statement. Required for public sector and good practice for private sector. Describes the accessibility standard you aim to meet and how to report issues.
  • GDPR contact form compliance. Contact forms collecting personal data link to the privacy policy. If data is used for marketing, a separate opt-in checkbox is required.

Content (6 Items)

  • Proofread all pages. Not by the person who wrote them. Fresh eyes, printed or read on a device other than the authoring machine.
  • Broken link check. Run a broken link checker (Broken Link Checker browser extension or Screaming Frog). Fix all internal 404s.
  • Footer information complete. Company name, registered address (if applicable), registration number, copyright year, links to privacy policy and terms.
  • Contact details accurate. Phone, email, and address match what is on your Google Business Profile and SRA/ICAEW/other registrations.
  • 404 page copy helpful. Does it explain what happened, offer a search field, and link to the homepage and top sections?
  • Thank you pages exist. After form submission: a dedicated thank you page (not just an on-page message) enables accurate conversion tracking in GA4.

This checklist takes 3 to 4 hours to complete thoroughly. It is significantly less expensive than fixing the mistakes it prevents.

At Fernside Studio, we run an equivalent process on every web development and Launch Sprint delivery. If you want us to run this checklist on a site you have built or are about to launch, book a pre-launch audit.