Go Live Checklist

A checklist of items for putting a site live

Browser testing

Go to Browser Stack and test:

Computer (Desktop)

Test on latest versions of

Google Chrome

Apple Safari

Mozilla Firefox

Mobile (iOS/Android)

Test on latest 2 versions of:

Google Chrome for Android

Apple Safari for iOS

Internet Explorer

LOL, ignore unless there's a specific requirement to provide support

Add a banner suggesting a browser </details>

External Services

Webfonts

Is the live domain configured in services like Adobe Fonts (Typekit), Fonts.com, Typography.com etc?

Only include font weights required

Maps

Check API keys

Live domain is whitelisted

Analytics

Check setup on the live site only

Do not include the tracking code in the repo/codebase

Content Checks

Evaluate total weight of at least homepage Open Inspector network/timeline tab to identify heavy assets Use the Chrome DevTools and throttle your CPU and network with 10x CPU slowdown and set the network to “Good 3G” – check at least the main pages

Check all links and images point to live domain

Check for mixed content warnings

Accessibility

Check for any accessibility issues with http://wave.webaim.org/

Optimisation

DNS Prefetch

//maps.google.com
//fonts.googleapis.com
//google-analytics.com
//youtube.com
//s.w.org

Compression

Images

Optimise images using tools like LiteSpeed/TinyPNG/ImageOptim

Optimise SVGs using SVGOMG

Video

Compress for best balance between resolution/quality/file size

Tools include handbrake

WordPress

Plugins

Go to Plugins > Add New > Favourites > Enter “barques” and install the following (as standard)

Install iThemes Security

Install Yoast SEO

Install LiteSpeed Cache (if we're hosting on Kualo)

Additionally, check plugins that require license keys such as ACF Pro and Gravity Forms have they keys entered correctly.

iThemes Security

Once iThemes security is installed

Go to the iThemes notification centre and set barques (or admin) as the only recipient

Hide the admin URL – change /wp-admin to /access

Enable strong passwords

Gravity Forms

For (Gravity) Forms, set the from address to the account name followed by the server address. For example, justgoodfood has the server account name justgood and is on the server DS2, this results in justgood@ds2.barqueshosting.co.uk.

accountname@server.barqueshosting.co.uk

Also, set admin notifications to the clients preferred email address. This may need to be requested.

Using MailGun or SendGrid is preferrable for sending emails over the server.

Security

Make sure admin editor is disabled in wp-config.php

Make sure barques/admin user is not using default/dev passwords, generate a new one on the WordPress user edit page.

Save new password in the Bitwarden entry for the site.

htaccess

Check either www. 301 redirects to non www. or non www. 301 redirects to www.

Add 301 redirect https to htaccess

Add cache expirations to htaccess for assets

SEO

Add to search console on barquesdesign@gmail.com account

Check robots.txt and meta tags do not block search engines

Remove any noindex nofollow

Configure Yoast SEO Plugin

Google site:domain.com and add 301 redirects for at least the first page of results a good WordPress plugin is Redirection

(WP) Go to Settings > Reading and uncheck "Discourage search engines from indexing this site"

Get someone from the SEO department to give it a once over

Barques

Add to an uptime checker

Update hosting list