Website Design Checklist: Key Highlights
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Pre-launch checks reduce risk: A structured website design checklist helps teams catch performance, security and tracking issues before launch, when fixes are simpler and less costly.
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Performance shapes trust: Speed, stability and usability influence how users and search systems evaluate a website from the first interaction.
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Measurement sustains results: Websites that launch with clear conversion paths and analytics ownership are easier to optimize and less likely to lose momentum after go-live.
Over 20% of startups fail within their first year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
When companies struggle early, it often comes down to unclear planning and execution that didn’t fully account for how the website would perform once real users showed up.
In 2025, the margin for error online is thin. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 shows the average global breach now costs about $4.44 million, with U.S. incidents climbing past $10 million as regulatory and investigation costs continue to rise.
Small oversights at launch can turn into serious exposure later.
Performance expectations have shifted too. Google now treats Core Web Vitals, such as loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability as part of how pages are evaluated in search. Sites that feel slow or unstable frustrate users and lose visibility.
That’s why a web design and development strategy matters beyond simply getting a site live. A website design checklist gives teams a practical way to align decisions before launch, cut down on avoidable rework and focus attention on the details that shape how a site actually behaves once it’s in the wild.
How To Use This Design Checklist
Launch dates get met all the time.
What’s less common is alignment around what the site needs to support once it’s live.
Use this checklist in two passes:
- Pass 1 (Risk pass): Anything that can break trust fast, like security, privacy, accessibility, core performance, broken conversion paths
- Pass 2 (Growth pass): Search visibility, content structure, measurement depth, experimentation readiness
If your timeline is tight, don’t trim by removing whole categories. Instead, trim by removing nice-to-have polish and keep the work that prevents rework.
Website Design Audit Checklist: 40+ Items To Check Before Launching A Website
The modern web design checklist should contain all the items and checkpoints that a team of web designers should take care of during the development process.
For ease of use, it’s advisable that the checklist be divided into several thematic sections, each covering a specific aspect of the website.
A very comprehensive website design audit checklist should contain the following sections and items:
1) Design
1. Make sure the website is compatible with different devices and browsers
2. Validate HTML and CSS properly
3. Optimize scripts across all pages
4. Optimize images across all pages
5. Optimize CSS across all pages
6. Upload the favicon and make sure it renders properly
7. Make sure the paragraph styles such as quotes, lists and headers are working correctly
2) Functionality
8. Check whether forms submit data successfully and display a thank-you message
9. Make sure that form info is stored in a company database and is emailed to a recipient
10. Check to make sure auto-responders work properly
11. Ensure internal links across the website work properly
12. Ensure external links across the website work properly and open in a new tab
13. Make sure social media share icons work properly
14. Make sure news, social media and RSS feeds are working properly
15. Check to make sure the company logo links to the home page
16. Ensure the loading page speed is optimized and kept at a minimum
17. Make sure that 404 redirect pages are in place
18. Make sure that third-party tools integrations run successfully
3) Content
19. Check the formatting of headers, lists and paragraphs
20. Make sure the copyright date in the footer includes the current year
21. Place accurate company contacts on the website
22. Remove any generic placeholder content and replace it with proper content
23. Check if images, videos and audio files are all in place and load properly on all devices
24. Make sure that downloadable content such as e-books and white papers work properly
25. Cite and license the proper rights to images, fonts and other media
4) SEO
26. Make sure web pages all have unique H1 titles and SEO titles that include keywords
27. Make sure unique meta descriptions for every page are in place
28. Place the metadata for any content in RSS feed
29. Create a dynamic XML sitemap
30. Submit the XML sitemap to search engines
31. Check to make sure that page URLs reflect site information architecture
32. Place 301 redirects for old URLs
33. Put a rel=”nofollow” tag for applicable links
5) Analytics
34. Insert analytics code on the website
35. Exclude relevant IP addresses from analytics tracking
36. Create funnels and goals in your analytics software
37. Sync the Google Search Console and Google Analytics accounts
38. Sync Google AdWords and Google Analytics accounts
6) Backup & Security
39. Install monitoring scripts
40. Create a copy of the final website for backup purposes
41. Create and store backup copies of the website regularly
42. Keep passwords and other website credentials in a secure database
7) Compliance
43. Provide accessibility for users with disabilities
44. Let users know if your website uses cookies
45. Make the website compliant with usage rights for bought code, fonts and images
46. Make the terms and privacy policies visible to visitors
47. If you’re processing and storing credit card info, make the website PCI compliant
Why Use a Web Design Checklist?
As a website approaches launch, details tend to slip.
Timelines tighten, feedback increases and teams focus on getting pages live rather than checking whether everything behind the scenes is set up properly.
A web design checklist helps keep the process grounded.
It gives teams a shared reference point during design and development, making it easier to track progress and catch issues before they turn into post-launch fixes.
That discipline matters. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 found that organizations with strong, well-defined processes reduced breach-related costs by more than $2 million on average, largely because fewer things were missed early on.
The same principle applies to websites: problems caught before launch are cheaper and faster to fix.
Without a checklist, small oversights tend to pile up toward the end of a project. Broken links, missing tracking, incomplete redirects or misconfigured forms are rarely intentional, but they often appear when work is rushed.
When used consistently, a web design checklist helps ensure that:
- The website is easy to use because layouts, navigation and interactions were reviewed against established UX and UI standards
- Messaging remains clear and consistent after formatting and final edits are complete
- Design and development follow accepted conventions and compliance requirements
- Brand voice and visual identity feel cohesive, supporting trust and credibility
- Security and backup measures are in place before the site is exposed to real traffic
- Search visibility is supported through proper SEO implementation
- Performance and results can be measured through correctly configured analytics
In short, a checklist reduces guesswork and helps teams move into launch with confidence.
Fundamentals Of A Web Design Checklist Template
A checklist works best when it’s built around the type of website you’re actually creating.
Before listing tasks, it’s worth stepping back and defining the fundamentals that shape how the site should function and what it needs to support once it’s live.
That early alignment matters more than many teams expect. McKinsey’s 2024 research on digital transformation shows that while nearly 89% of large companies are pursuing digital initiatives, only about 31% of the expected value is typically realized, largely due to gaps between strategy, structure and execution.
The steps below help clarify how your website should operate, which goals matter most and which items deserve a place in your checklist.
1. Map Out The Plan Before You Build The Checklist
Start with a sitemap and early page structure before focusing on individual checklist items.
Wireframes or high-level mockups help surface gaps early, especially around navigation, key pages and user journeys.
Without this context, a checklist quickly turns into a collection of disconnected tasks.
2. Analyze The Previous Website (If One Exists)
If you’re redesigning or migrating, your current site provides useful signals about what needs to change.
Ask yourself these questions to set the goals for the new website:
- What is the purpose of a new design and overhaul?
- What did the existing website fail to accomplish?
- How will the new design serve the business?
These answers should influence what your checklist prioritizes rather than repeating the same structure with updated visuals.
3. Identify The New Design Goals
Design goals should be tied to behavior, not appearance alone.
Instead of broad objectives like “more modern” or “more engaging,” clarify what the site needs to help users do.
This might include qualifying leads more efficiently, guiding users toward specific actions or reinforcing trust during high-consideration decisions.
Clear goals make it easier to evaluate checklist items based on impact rather than preference.
4. Come Up With A Technical SEO Strategy
Give your new website a basis for SEO success by keeping the content hierarchy and site architecture in check.
These elements, which will comprise your web design checklist, should be defined by these preliminary steps:
- Keyword research to decide what keywords your website will rank for
- A content strategy that follows the above keywords
- A map of where superfluous pages will redirect to
These decisions should inform your checklist, so SEO is built into the site instead of added after launch.
5. Establish Your Conversion Paths
At this step, you need to determine the actions you want your visitors to take in order to convert.
You’ll also want to capture their information as a point of contact. This will be an important part of your website design checklist.
To do this, ask yourself:
- What content you should have at all three stages of the funnel: top, middle and bottom?
- What CTAs and forms you should have on your website?
- How will you track the conversions?
- What action will take place once the visitor has converted or submitted their information?
Defined paths make it easier to review pages objectively during checklist reviews.
6. Decide How You Will Measure Results
Measurement shouldn’t be added at the end.
Before launch, confirm which analytics platforms will be used, whether existing tracking can be reused and who is responsible for monitoring performance once the site is live.
Clear ownership makes it easier to spot issues early and reduces uncertainty when results need to be evaluated or improved.
Build Smarter Websites With Digital Silk
Strong websites are shaped by clear planning, thoughtful structure and decisions made before launch.
Teams that treat strategy, design, performance and measurement as a single system tend to build sites that hold up under real traffic, real expectations and real scrutiny.
That approach reduces rework, protects trust and makes growth easier to manage over time.
Digital Silk helps companies plan, design and build digital experiences that are structured, measurable and aligned with how people discover and evaluate brands today.
As a full-service digital agency, our services include:
- Website strategy and planning
- Custom website design and development
- UX and conversion optimization
- Technical SEO and content structure
- Performance marketing and PPC
- Branding and visual identity systems
If you’re planning a new website or preparing for a redesign, our team can help turn early decisions into long-term performance.
Contact our team, call us at (800) 206-9413 or fill in the Request a Quote form below to schedule a consultation.
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