In this guide · 8 sections
- 01Content checks (1-7)
- 02Forms and notification email delivery (8-12)
- 03SSL, domain and redirects (13-17)
- 04Indexing, Search Console and speed (18-22)
- 05Analytics, consent and the PDPA notice (23-26)
- 06Backups, access and accessibility basics (27-30)
- 07Do it yourself or get help?
- 08Frequently asked questions
Short answer
Before launch, test every form end to end, check notification emails reach you and not spam, confirm SSL and redirects from old URLs, remove noindex and submit the sitemap in Search Console, set up analytics with consent, publish a PDPA privacy notice, and confirm backups run.
Content checks (1-7)
Content errors are the ones customers notice first. Read every page on a phone, not just on the designer's large screen.
- 1. No placeholder text, dummy images or 'coming soon' pages left
- 2. Business name, UEN, address, phone and hours match your Google Business Profile
- 3. Prices, packages and promotions are current, with GST stated
- 4. Every page has a unique title and meta description
- 5. Each page has one H1 heading that says what the page is about
- 6. Images are compressed and have descriptive alt text
- 7. Spelling and grammar checked by someone who didn't write it
Google's SEO starter guide covers titles, descriptions and headings if you want the reasoning behind items 4 and 5.
Forms and notification email delivery (8-12)
A form that silently fails is the most expensive launch bug, because you only find out when a customer says 'I filled in your form weeks ago'.
Forms and email
If form emails come from your own domain, SPF, DKIM and DMARC must include the sending service, or Gmail and Outlook may reject them. Test with a Gmail and an Outlook address as recipients.
SSL, domain and redirects (13-17)
Changing domains, platforms or URL structure without redirects is the usual reason a rebuilt site loses search traffic.
SSL and redirects
Keep a copy of the old site's URLs before you switch: export the old sitemap and the top pages report from Search Console. Without that list you can't build redirects, and links from other sites to your old pages break.
Indexing, Search Console and speed (18-22)
Staging sites are usually set to stay out of Google. That setting must come off at launch. Google's noindex documentation explains that a page with a noindex rule is dropped from results, and that for the rule to be seen the page must not be blocked by robots.txt.
Indexing and speed
The thresholds in item 22 are Google's 'good' targets from web.dev, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads. Our Search Console setup guide walks through items 20 and 21.
Analytics, consent and the PDPA notice (23-26)
The PDPA applies to personal data you collect through forms, chat and analytics. A website needs a notice that says what you collect, why, and who to contact.
- 23. Analytics installed once (not twice through two plugins), with enquiry actions tracked as key events
- 24. Cookie banner, if used, actually blocks analytics and ad tags until consent
- 25. Privacy notice published and linked from the footer and every form
- 26. Data protection contact (name or role and email) listed in the notice
PDPC's free Data Protection Notice Generator produces template notices for SMEs covering customers, employees and job applicants; edit the template so it matches what your site actually collects. Our website privacy policy and cookie consent guide covers the rest.
Backups, access and accessibility basics (27-30)
The last four checks protect the site after launch day.
Backups and handover
Selling online on Shopify? Use our Shopify store setup checklist instead; it covers payments, shipping and taxes as well.
Do it yourself or get help?
Most of these checks need only a browser, a phone and an hour. Items 10, 15, 18-22 and 27 are where small sites most often go wrong, because they depend on settings the owner rarely sees.
Our Business Website package (S$1,490) includes this launch list as standard. If your site is already live and you suspect something was missed, our Speed & SEO Fix (S$390) checks indexing, redirects, Search Console and page speed, and fixes what it finds.
Frequently asked questions
Test every form with a real submission and confirm the email arrives, check HTTPS and redirects from old URLs, remove any noindex setting, submit your sitemap in Google Search Console, set up analytics with consent, publish a PDPA privacy notice, confirm backups run, and read every page on a phone for leftover placeholder content.
The most common launch cause is a staging setting left on, such as a noindex tag or WordPress's 'discourage search engines' option. Google drops pages with noindex from results. Also check robots.txt doesn't block the site, verify Search Console and submit the sitemap. New sites can take days or weeks to appear.
Yes, if any page addresses change. Set up a 301 redirect from every old URL to its closest new page, including blog posts and service pages. Without them, visitors from old links and Google results hit 404 errors, and the rankings those pages earned are lost. Export the old site's URLs before switching.
If it collects personal data through forms, chat, bookings or analytics, you should tell visitors what you collect, why and who to contact, under the PDPA's notification and openness obligations. PDPC's free Data Protection Notice Generator gives SMEs a template to start from; adjust it to match what your site actually collects.
Send them through an authenticated service such as your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace account or a transactional email provider, not the web server's default mail. Make sure SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your domain include that service. Test with Gmail and Outlook addresses and check spam folders before launch.