Introduction
Modern website and web application development involves managing a vast number of critical aspects that can sometimes be overlooked after prolonged development. To simplify the project delivery process, I’d like to share a checklist that I personally use.
Checklist
This checklist ensures that your project is delivered in excellent technical condition and fully ready to welcome visitors.
✅ MultiPHP & PHP Selector
If your site uses a CMS or framework running on PHP, and you manage your hosting via cPanel, you may have noticed two applications for configuring PHP versions: MultiPHP Manager and PHP Selector.
The choice between them depends on your needs, such as whether you require different PHP versions for different directories. They also differ in the list of PHP versions they offer.
However, there’s an important detail: based on my experience, the performance of a site often depends on which application is used to set the PHP version. The same version of PHP, when configured via MultiPHP, often results in 2-3 times faster page load times compared to PHP Selector.
✅ HTTPS Redirect
Modern hosting control panels typically set up automatic redirection from HTTP to HTTPS for your sites. However, it’s always a good idea to verify that the redirection is working and that all base URLs in your CMS database or configuration files are set to HTTPS.
If a user accesses your site via HTTP, they’ll see a browser warning about an insecure connection instead of your site.
On this topic, I recommend my article on configuring mod_rewrite in the Apache server.
✅ Favicon
The site icon (favicon) is crucial. Ensure it’s set up before launching the site. Today, it’s best to use an SVG image, as vector graphics ensure it looks great at any size.
WordPress has a built-in function for setting the favicon. If you want more control, I highly recommend the free service Favicon Generator. You can upload your icon, and it will prepare a package of necessary files for manual favicon integration, along with many flexible settings and real-time previews.
✅ 404 Page
The 404 page is an essential component of a website that’s often overlooked. It not only informs visitors about missing or deleted pages but also ensures the server sends the correct response to search engine crawlers, preventing indexing errors.
- Customize the page to inform users that the requested page doesn’t exist.
- Ensure the 404 page returns an HTTP status of
404 Not Found. Below is an example of PHP code:
header( 'HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found' ); echo 'Page Not Found'; die();
✅ Robots.txt File
The robots.txt file is essential not only for restricting the indexing of specific directories or controlling search engine bots but also for specifying the location of your sitemap. Verify that this file is accessible at yoursite.com/robots.txt and validate it using tools available in webmaster services.
✅ Sitemaps
A sitemap helps search engines analyze your site’s structure and list all public pages. Typically, the sitemap is located at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. WordPress has a built-in sitemap generation system, accessible at yoursite.com/wp-sitemap.xml. The main sitemap can also include links to other sitemaps.
Before launching your site, ensure the sitemap is accessible and add its URL to all webmaster tools.
On this topic, I recommend my article on adding sitemaps to a WordPress multisite.
✅ Caching
One of the most significant reasons for slow website performance is the lack of caching for static resources (CSS, JS, images, fonts). Before launching, ensure caching is enabled for the necessary content types. You can verify this in the “Network” tab of your browser’s developer tools.
Page caching can also be configured, but if your site displays dynamic content, I don’t recommend enabling it unless server response times are excellent, as it may lead to incorrect page rendering.
On this topic, I recommend my article on simple caching setup for Apache servers.
✅ Responsive Design
Statistics from my projects show an increasing share of mobile device users each year. Developers often work on desktops and tend to create desktop versions first, then adapt them for mobile devices. While the mobile-first approach exists, it’s not always practical during development.
Ensure your site’s layout is responsive across all screen resolutions and aspect ratios. Modern browsers offer tools for emulating different devices.
I typically test responsiveness for the iPhone 12 and the most popular desktop resolution, 1366×768.
✅ iPhone & Mozilla Firefox
Based on my experience, many features don’t work properly on Apple products or Mozilla Firefox. For example, iOS Safari only started supporting WebP images 5-10 years after other browsers!
I highly recommend testing your projects on Mac, iOS, and Mozilla Firefox, especially for new CSS and JavaScript technologies, popups, forms, interactive elements, and more.
✅ Schema.org Implementation
Implementing Schema.org markup not only improves how your site appears in search results but is also a part of SEO optimization. However, avoid overloading your site with unnecessary markup. Typically, I mark-up Breadcrumbs, Articles, Products, and FAQs.
Check the documentation of your preferred search engine to see which Schema.org markups are supported. For example, here’s Google’s list of supported markups.
There are also handy tools for validating Schema.org and Google markup.
On this topic, I recommend my article on commonly used Schema.org markups.
✅ Removing noindex
During development, especially on a production server, sites often have a noindex meta tag to prevent indexing before the site is fully ready.
Before submitting your site to webmaster tools, ensure all noindex tags are removed.
✅ Google Search Console, etc.
Adding your site to webmaster tools like Google Search Console, Bing Webmasters, or similar services is essential for monitoring and troubleshooting. These tools also help search engines perform initial indexing faster and keep it up to date.
Additionally, I recommend integrating the IndexNow protocol, which is often included in SEO plugins.
✅ Business & Products
If your site represents a local business, offers services, or sells products, consider listing it on local map services like Google Maps. This expands the ways customers can find your site. Many such services also offer product catalog integration, such as Google Merchant Center.
✅ Removing Debug Functions
While not always a critical issue, leaving debug functions in your code can lead to security vulnerabilities. Before launching, check your code for functions like console.log(), debugger, and print_r(). You can search for these in your code editor, such as Visual Studio Code.
✅ “Issues” Console
The final step in completing a project is checking the developer console for errors. This helps identify script errors, broken links to static resources, accessibility issues, and warnings related to web standards.
You can open this panel in the developer console under the “Issues” tab.
On this topic, I recommend my article on a script that helps find <img> elements without the alt attribute.
✅ Open Graph & Twitter (X) Cards
It’s fantastic when the link to your website gets shared in messengers or posted on social media. To ensure it looks presentable, it’s crucial to implement special tags with a title, description, image, and other parameters.
You can read more about how it works on the documentation pages for Open Graph and Twitter Cards. I also highly recommend using the official Telegram bot to test the changes made to this markup.
✅ Spell Сheck
Грамматические ошибки на сайте – плохой показатель, влияющий на уровень доверия пользователей. Всегда проверяйте наличие ошибок с помощью автоматизированных инструментов. К слову, в одной из своих статей я рассказывал, как можно быстро найти ошибки на странице.
Grammar mistakes on a website are a red flag that can significantly impact user trust. Always check for errors using automated tools. By the way, in one of my articles, I explained how to quickly identify and fix errors on a webpage.