Launching a new WordPress site for a client is one of the most visible — and most risky — moments in an agency's workflow. If the site goes live with broken contact forms, missing meta descriptions, or a checkout that doesn't process payments, the agency's credibility takes a massive hit before the client even writes the first blog post.
A structured pre-launch QA checklist eliminates the embarrassment of post-launch hotfixes. Here is what to verify before you hand over the keys.
Functional Checks
Forms and Submissions
Submit every single form on the site. Contact forms, newsletter signups, quote request widgets — all of them. Verify that the confirmation email arrives in the correct inbox and that the submission data is stored in the plugin's entry log.
Navigation and Internal Links
Click every menu item, every footer link, and every CTA button. Verify that nothing points to a staging URL, a placeholder page, or a dead # anchor. Use a crawling tool like Screaming Frog to automate this if the site has more than 30 pages.
Mobile Responsiveness
Load the site on an actual iPhone and an actual Android device — not just the Chrome device simulator. Real devices render fonts, touch targets, and scroll physics differently. Verify that the hamburger menu opens, that tables scroll horizontally, and that no text is cut off.
Search Functionality
If the site has a search bar, search for an actual blog post title and confirm the results page returns the correct content. Many themes ship with completely broken search templates that nobody bothers to test.
Performance Checks
Core Web Vitals
Run the homepage and two inner pages through Google PageSpeed Insights. The LCP should be under 2.5 seconds on mobile. If it's over 4 seconds, do not launch — fix the image and caching strategy first.
Browser Caching Headers
Verify that static assets (CSS, JS, images) are being served with proper Cache-Control or Expires headers. Without them, returning visitors re-download every asset on every page load.
SEO Readiness
Meta Titles and Descriptions
Manually check the meta title and description for every key landing page. Confirm they are unique, descriptive, and under the character limits (60 for titles, 155 for descriptions). The homepage meta title should never say "Just another WordPress site."
XML Sitemap
Verify that the sitemap exists at /sitemap.xml and that it has been submitted to Google Search Console. Confirm it doesn't include staging URLs, password-protected pages, or noindex pages.
Canonical URLs
Ensure that every page has a proper <link rel="canonical"> tag pointing to its own URL. Duplicate canonical tags or canonicals pointing to staging domains will immediately confuse search engine indexing.
Favicon
It sounds trivial, but launching without a favicon looks unprofessional. Confirm it appears in the browser tab and in bookmarked links.
A disciplined pre-launch process protects the agency's reputation and gives the client confidence that their investment was handled with professional rigor.