Website redesign launch checklist template

Pre-launch redesign readiness

Protect the old site signals while confirming the new site is approved to replace it.

• Final approver, launch scope, redesigned pages, unchanged pages, and retired pages are confirmed.
• Priority legacy URLs are pulled from analytics, Search Console, campaigns, backlinks, and sales input.
• Redirect map is approved for changed, merged, removed, and renamed pages.
• Legacy content is marked preserve, rewrite, archive, redirect, or remove.
• Final copy, imagery, navigation, footer, calls to action, and legal content are approved.
• Forms, CRM routing, booking embeds, chat, downloads, and notification owners are confirmed.
• Metadata, canonicals, robots rules, sitemap, structured data, analytics, and consent are reviewed.
• Blockers, accepted exceptions, rollback owner, and launch-window contacts are documented.

Launch-day redesign replacement

• Old site backup or export is captured before production changes.
• Approved build, CMS release, theme, or deployment alias is published.
• DNS, SSL, canonical host, and HTTPS behavior are verified.
• Homepage, priority pages, navigation, footer, search, and key CTAs are smoke-tested.
• Forms, booking, chat, newsletter, downloads, ecommerce, or payment paths are tested if present.
• Priority redirects, robots.txt, XML sitemap, canonicals, noindex rules, and Search Console are checked.
• Analytics, conversion events, Tag Manager, pixels, and consent behavior are verified.
• Approver decision, timestamp, known exceptions, and immediate post-launch owners are recorded.

Post-launch redesign monitoring

• Uptime, DNS, SSL, deployment health, and rollback signals are monitored.
• Traffic, source attribution, conversions, form submissions, and lead quality are reviewed.
• Search Console coverage, crawl errors, indexing, submitted sitemap, and query changes are checked.
• 404 logs, landing-page errors, paid URLs, email links, QR codes, and social profile links are reviewed.
• Stakeholder feedback is triaged as blocker, quick fix, post-launch task, or future improvement.
• Temporary users, staging access, preview passwords, and elevated permissions are removed.
• Final redirect decisions, retired content decisions, and unpublished page decisions are documented.
• Launch notes, rollback notes, QA evidence, final approval, and exceptions are archived.