Sep 10, 2024

Website Launch Checklist, or: Base Camp of Womp Rats

Base Camp of Womp Rats

During a recent site launch, we did a quick review of tasks we performed to complete the release. There were more steps than normal, and it seemed an acronym might be a useful reminder of the many functions to test. Paying special attention to the first letter of each step, e.g. "Backups", and with the help of ChatGPT and general Star Wars fandom, the following list emerged. It's actually pretty useful and covers some nuanced, but important, launch details.

Oh, and while you are at it, read about Womp Rats.

Image generated using DALL-E, an AI tool by OpenAI, depicting a rats' basecamp in an underground tunnel. Created on September 10, 2024. OpenAI's usage terms


Backups turned on

Accessibility testing completed

SSL certificate provisioned

Email delivery configured (postmark etc)

Caching enabled

Analytics tags activated, API Keys installed, licensed

Mobile responsive tested

Page Speed Tested, Audited


Optimize Image size (prevent oversized, raw images)

Forms tested/databased/cc’d


Www and other necessary A records

Opengraph/Social shares tested and configured

Monitoring: Pingdom, Uptime Robot, Monit, etc.

Publicize site via Search Console/Submit to Google


Robots not blocking! Index/Follow tested

Alias domains/.dev off; client directed to live domain

TTL for domains set ahead of time

Spider the site for issues, 404, bad URLs


Let us know if you have any supplements to this list!

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