Website Redesign Checklist: 40 Steps Before Launch

A website redesign checklist keeps complex projects on track and prevents the SEO and UX mistakes that cause launch-day problems.

Use this checklist during planning, build, and pre-launch QA. It covers strategy, content, design, development, SEO, accessibility, and post-launch monitoring.

Planning phase checklist

• Define business goals and success metrics
• Audit existing content and analytics
• Identify stakeholder decision-makers
• Document functional requirements
• Set budget and timeline expectations
• Choose CMS or platform

Design phase checklist

• Create sitemap and user flows
• Wireframe key page templates
• Design mobile-first responsive layouts
• Establish typography and color system
• Get stakeholder approval on designs

Development and SEO checklist

• Build accessible, semantic HTML
• Implement redirect map
• Set canonical tags and meta data
• Generate XML sitemap
• Add structured data where appropriate
• Optimize images and page speed

Pre-launch and post-launch checklist

• Crawl staging site for broken links
• Test all forms and integrations
• Verify analytics and Search Console
• Check robots.txt and SSL certificate
• Monitor rankings and crawl errors post-launch