The Pre-Deploy Checklist That Prevents Embarrassing Website Launches

The pre-deploy checklist that prevents embarrassing website launches is a series of gates, each of which must pass before the next: clean build, every route returning 200, visual screenshots at three sizes, performance, security headers, SEO signals, and a live production check within 30 minutes.

A website deployment is not pressing a button. It is a gated process where each gate must pass before the next step happens. If any blocking item fails, the deploy stops until the issue is fixed and re-verified.

Gate one: clean build. Zero TypeScript errors, zero linting warnings, total JavaScript bundle under 100KB. Gate two: every route returns a 200 status code. No broken links, no 404 pages, no missing redirects.

Gate three: visual verification. We capture automated screenshots at three viewport widths (desktop 1440px, tablet 768px, mobile 375px) and visually inspect each one. Code reviews cannot catch visual bugs. Only screenshots can. This step is non-negotiable.

Gate four: performance. All images optimized to WebP format. Total public directory under 1MB. No render-blocking font requests. Analytics loaded on lazy strategy. Gate five: security headers configured (content type, frame options, referrer policy, content security policy). Gate six: SEO signals verified (metadata, structured data, sitemap, robots.txt).

Post-deploy: the live URL is checked within 30 minutes. Not the staging URL. The actual production URL that clients will visit. This final verification catches deployment-specific issues like CDN caching, DNS propagation, or environment variable differences.

Topics

website deploymentpre-launch checklistQAwebsite testingdeployment process

Frequently asked

What does "gated" deployment mean?

A website deployment is not pressing a button. It is a gated process where each gate must pass before the next step happens, and if any blocking item fails, the deploy stops until the issue is fixed and re-verified.

What are the deployment gates?

Gate one is a clean build with zero TypeScript errors and a JavaScript bundle under 100KB, gate two is every route returning 200, gate three is visual verification at desktop 1440px, tablet 768px, and mobile 375px, gate four is performance, gate five is security headers, and gate six is SEO signals.

Why is the visual verification gate non-negotiable?

Because code reviews cannot catch visual bugs. Only screenshots can. The team captures automated screenshots at three viewport widths and visually inspects each one.

What happens after the site deploys?

The live production URL, not the staging URL, is checked within 30 minutes. This final verification catches deployment-specific issues like CDN caching, DNS propagation, or environment variable differences.