• Download all build files if developed remotely (database and files) locally.
• Install bug reporting app, assign team, save client files and uninstall all testing apps when finished.

Human Review

• Check for broken links (Screaming Frog, Scrutiny) fix items, save report
• Compare JPGs of design
• Compare approved site architecture
• Test the design and open in all browsers
• Resize the browser (stop every 50px). See how it breaks.
• Review header, footer, sidebar and main content area of home page.
• Click on all links (including main menu buttons, drop down bars, and sidebars – if available)
• Review those pages from a human standpoint
• Check the 404 page, make sure it redirects to 404 and has a html sitemap.
• Repeat all test for Internet Explorer, Chrome, iPad and iPhone
• Make sure there are no numbers in any of the links found on your site (bad for SEO)

Forms

• Contact Forms – Send test email from contact form, confirm it is received at the appropriate email
• Check all contact forms as sometimes there are 2-3 versions of the form

Check Design in All Devices & Browsers

• Check using Pixel Perfect or Visual
• Home Page
• Sub-Pages
• Landing page
• Bio page
• Landing page for Group
• Area Page for Group
• Contact Us Page and Contact Form
• Blog
• Blog Post
• 404 Error Page with site map
• Favicon is loading
• No image watermarks found
• All image rights are purchased and saved
• Responsive websites should snap at 959

Content

• Run Sitebeam report for spelling
• Check for content/format errors
• Check main navigation against approved site architecture
• Home Page – does it match what was approved?
• About Us page – does it match what was approved?
• Area pages – does it match what was approved?
• Bios pages – does it match what was approved?
• Blog posts – does it match what was approved?
• Contact Us page – does it match what was approved?
• Check office addresses and phone numbers are present on website and html
• Check site against developer notes
• Check that all inbound and outbound links lead to proper page
• Search for “Lorem Ipsum” content

SEO

• Run Screaming Frog and resolve any errors
• Check title tags & meta descriptions are in compliance
• Make sure schema local business is set up
• Make sure all social media icons are linked to the correct pages
• Check images for alt tag modifications
• Redirect all old pages to new pages. Use an .htaccess file for WordPress redirects.
• Redirect non-www to www, your testing link to www and alternate domains, if applicable
• Ensure URLs are SEO friendly URLs (short, extension less, close to the URL)
• Custom 404 error page with site links / site map and URL errors redirect to a 404 page
• Check that the robots.txt file is present and make sure website allows indexing
• Make sure html site map is created

Installs & Codes

• Webmaster Tools (WMT): Login and install your sitemap.xml. If you are using WordPress, install Yoast and use sitemap_index.xml.
• Set WMT tools to send notifications to you@yoursite.com. Use “Submit to Index” to make sure Google re-indexes your site.
• Google Analytics: Insert your Google Analytics “UA” code on all pages you want tracked – if site is using a subdomain; make sure to grab that version of code.
• PPC or Social Campaign: Insert all tracking codes to your website.  Adroll, Facebook, Retargeter, Google Conversion and Chat Boxes are samples of the needed codes. Verify all codes.
• Goal Tracking for SEO Clients: Create goal tracking in analytics for confirmation page.
• Sync Analytics and WMTs

• Download Locally
  • Download the site to Local Server (backups, we love backups)
  • Export the database to Local Server (backups, we love backups)
  • Run SiteSucker on the current website to ensure we have a local static copy for future reference
  • Import sub-directories as-is if they are present on the site (/pdfs/, /videos/, /articles/, etc.)
• Screaming Frog Report
  • Pre-launch
  • Post-launch
  • Redirect audit
• Point DNS
  • DNS/Nameserver switch on domain registrar
  • If necessary, setup email and point MX records
• .htaccess
  • Remove the testing links
  • Add redirects
• Robots & Meta
  • Check the domain.com/robots.txt file
  • If WordPress, ensure Settings > Reading > Search Engine Visibility is unchecked
  • Double check <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow”> is not on the site
• Contact Forms
  • Is the site using sendmail script? Check <form action>.
  • Is the site using SMTP setup through clients email?
  • Ensure email data is saved
  • Send test email to client, ask for a verification reply
• Google Analytics
  • Use a client email for all Google products accounts
  • Install Google Analytics UA – code before </head> tag
  • Setup Goal Conversions
• Google Webmaster Tools
  • Create sitemap.xml and submit to WMT
  • Verify both the non-www and www have been added to WMT (set preferred domain to www)
  • Fetch and render both desktop and mobile to Google and submit
  • Test robots.txt and submit/verify to Google
  • Check for crawl errors and fix
  • Select Google Analytics Property to tie Google accounts together
  • Other Resources/PageSpeed Insights, run test and resolve issues
• Manual Checks
  • Make sure a full physical sitemap exists
  • Check that vCards are complete and working
  • Open up each website page (hold down CRTL)
  • Check for 404 page
  • Also check for photos, sidebars, footers, odd text, odd URLs
  • Check each page of the site for broken pages (404) and quick visual scan
• WordPress
  • Under Users – Create client user, apply email account from the client complete with email and user name and make them an admin
  • Turn on caching
  • Turn on backups
• SEO & PPC Check
  • Check with SEO and PPC and make sure both are applied to site, as applicable
  • For WordPress, install WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin
  • Add/copy title tags and meta descriptions
• Xenu Scan
  • Check for broken links
  • Fix broken links
  • Inform content of broken links to send to client, include link location and link heading
• Credentials
  • Send all credentials to the client