Checklist for when putting a Wordpress site live

A running list of things to check before deploying WordPress sites. How do people remember all this?

Avoid putting a site live on a Friday.

Development

• Always use the last version of WordPress
• Avoid excess of plugins
• JavaScript compressed, minified and combined in one file
• Add scripts always on footer
• CSS compressed, minified and combined in one file
• Callback image for all WordPress image requests
• Use Git for version control
• Use Gulp

CSS

• Don't use inline style!
• Don't use tables for anything other than displaying data in an orderly way.
• Remove Blank classes/IDs declaration i.e #header { } from your style.
• Avoid the ‘! important’ in your style. Use the proper specificity.
• If you are using position: absolute; then make sure its recent parent container ( Or the container to whom you want the absolute element to be relative with ) has position: relative;
• Giving precise and clear class names to your elements is a key. This will seriously avoid confusion & let you understand your CSS better and faster.
• Name of classes/IDs based on function, not appearance.
• Use classes instead of ids whenever possible.
• Separate class names by dashes. e.g ‘footer-copyright’
• Note: Avoid names like ‘footerCopyright’, ‘FooterCopyRight’, or ‘footer_copyright’
• No special characters in classes and ids.
• For more information about naming see this article
• Mouse-hover effect should be present for all links.
• Always specify a fallback generic font. i.e body { font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; }
• Always user a web-safe font i.e Google fonts
• Use numbers (Hex color), not names, for colors. i.e body { color : #FF0000; }
• Always use pre-processor (SASS, LESS, Stylus)
• Avoid coment inline. i.e // comment here

Pre-launch

• Check if favicon is there and apple-touch-icons as well and displaying correctly. (favicon 16x16, icon 180x180, ios-icon 192x192)
• Style miscellaneous pages (404, search results, terms, etc)
• Setup 301 redirects if needed
• Review Print version
• Setup Google Analytics, if not present
• Setup Google Webmaster Tools, if not present
• Install a SEO Plugin
• Browser testing (be honest, was it thorough?)
• Mobile testing
• Image optimization Compress JPEG & PNG images
• CSS & JS optimization
• Remove all Lorem Ipsum
• Proofread entire site for grammar and spelling mistakes
• Ensure that the client's contact information is entered (social links, admin email, etc)
• Check all links, main navigation, sub navigation and mobile navigation.
• Ensure that all required licenses are purchased for necessary plugins, fonts, etc
• Check that all form submissions are working correctly
• Check if structured data is working Google testing tool

Post-launch

• Finish any remaining SEO configuration
• Check all links, again.
• Check all contact forms
• Build first sitemap and ping search engines
• Create a backup

License

MIT License © Checklist for when putting a Wordpress site live