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Tutorial 12: Launch checklist

Who this page is for: client website admins — the volunteers who will load content and run the day-to-day site, generally with no prior web-admin experience.

What you'll have at the end

You'll have worked through a pre-launch review of your site, know what happens on launch day and who does what, and know what to tell your members once you're live.

Before you start

You've worked through the rest of this series and loaded your content onto your UAT site. Your provider sends a UAT-handover email once it's ready for you to check — see the Getting started phase table if you want the full picture of how this fits into the wider process.

Pre-launch review

Work through this list with your team before telling your provider you're ready to launch.

  1. Check every page reads correctly, in every language you've enabled — see Languages & translations.
  2. Check your branding — logo, colours, fonts — looks right throughout your site, not just on the home page — see Make it yours: branding & theme.
  3. Check your navigation menus go to the right pages, with no dead links — see Navigation & menus.
  4. Check sign-up and sign-in work as a new member would expect them to — see Memberships.
  5. If you enabled the forum, check members can reach it and sign in automatically — see Forum.
  6. If you enabled events, check they show what you expect — see Events.
  7. If you enabled resources, check they show what you expect — see Resources.
  8. If you need a privacy policy, terms of service, or similar, publish it now, so it's live before members start signing up — see Terms & policies.
  9. Add anything else you find, wrong or missing, to one shared list with your team, rather than sending separate emails — your provider works through this list with you before launch.

Going live

You don't do the technical work of launching your site — your provider does.

Once you've worked through the pre-launch review above and you're happy with your site, tell your provider you're ready to go live. Your provider then copies everything from your UAT site to your separate production site, and switches your domain's DNS so production is what your members see from then on. This normally happens the same day, once your content is finalised on UAT. (If you're curious what that involves technically, your provider's provisioning runbook covers the exact steps — there's nothing there you need to do yourself.)

What to tell your members

Your provider sends a launch-day email once you're live, confirming your new site's address. Forward it, or write your own announcement — either way, it's worth covering:

  • Your website's new address.
  • How to sign in or sign up.
  • If you have a forum, that they sign in with the same account — no separate forum password needed — and that an active membership is what unlocks it (see Forum).
  • That a few small things may still be getting polished just after launch. Launch day focuses on making sure everyone can see and use the site; refinements keep happening in the background afterwards, so it's worth telling members not to be alarmed if something looks slightly unfinished at first.

What's next

That's the whole "Building your website" series complete. Your UAT and production sites stay separate after launch (see UAT site vs production site), so check with your provider which one to use before making any further changes.

Launch is the start, not the finish — here are some ways to keep growing your site and your community once you're live:

  • Add more content. New pages, updated stories, more translated content — the CMS skills from Your first pages and Languages & translations are exactly what you'll use for everyday updates.
  • Start publishing articles. News, updates, and announcements — always available, no provider setup needed — see Articles.
  • Grow your forum categories. If you launched with a minimal set, add more once your members tell you what they actually want — see Forum.
  • Introduce new membership types or pricing as your community grows. You don't need your final pricing model figured out before launch — see Memberships.
  • Keep your events and resources current, adding new ones as they come up — see Events and Resources.
  • Invite more team members as your workload grows — see Inviting your team.
  • Add a privacy policy or terms of service if you didn't at launch — see Terms & policies.
  • Switch on a feature you skipped at launch. The forum, events, resources, and Xero billing can each be switched on later — ask your provider when you're ready.