Agencies test a site before handing it over. You should still test it yourself, because you are checking something different: not whether it works, but whether it works for your business. Do the checks on the staging address before launch, then repeat the first four on the live address afterwards.
On your phone, away from the office Wi-Fi
- Open the homepage on mobile data. Count how long it takes before you can read the headline. If you are waiting, so are your customers.
- Do the one thing the site exists for. Send the enquiry, book the table, buy the product. Use your thumb, not a mouse.
- Check the message arrived. A form that shows "thank you" and delivers nothing is the most common launch failure, and the most costly. Confirm who receives the email and that it is not in spam.
- Tap every phone number, email address and WhatsApp link. Each should open the right app with the right details.
On a laptop
- Read every page as a customer would. Look for placeholder text, old prices, the previous address, a team member who has left.
- Type a wrong address on purpose. Add a few random letters after your domain. You should see a helpful "page not found" page with a way back, not a blank screen.
- Try your old links. If the site replaces an earlier one, open the pages people have bookmarked or that appear in search results. Each should arrive somewhere sensible. Ask your agency for the list of redirects.
- Use only the keyboard. Press Tab through the menu and the main form. You should be able to see where you are and reach every button. This is a quick test of whether the site works for people who cannot use a mouse.
Things to ask, and get in writing
- Who owns the accounts? The domain, the hosting, the analytics and the advertising accounts should be in your company's name, with your agency added as a user. Not the other way round.
- What is being measured? Ask which actions are recorded as enquiries or sales, and ask to see a test one appear in the report.
- What happens with cookies? Ask what the site sets, whether visitors are asked first, and whether that matches the cookie policy on the site. If you sell into more than one country, ask which rules were considered.
- How do we go back? There should be a copy of the old site and a stated way to restore it. Hoping not to need it is fine. Not having it is not.
What this does not cover
This list will not tell you whether the code is well written, whether the site is secure, or how it will perform in search. Those need specialist checks, and you should ask to see their results. What the list does is catch the failures that customers notice on the first day, which are also the ones that are most embarrassing to discover from a customer.
If you are comparing agencies before a build, our article on why website quotes differ covers what to ask at that stage, and our web development page describes how we run a launch.