Website Launch Checklist for a Business Site or Portal
What to settle before going live: subdomain, DNS, hosting, keeping the page unindexed until legal approval, and email sent from your own domain.
Most launch problems do not begin on launch day but in decisions that were put off: where the site will live, under what address, who approves the text and from which mailbox emails will be sent. This article puts those decisions in order.
- Subdomain, DNS and hosting are decided before launch, not during it.
- The page stays unindexed until the legal team approves the text.
- The site's emails go out from your own sender address, configured and tested.
Decide before building
A new site requires settling three matters that are usually left until the end: the address it will be published at, the place where it will be hosted and the way DNS records will be managed. Leaving them to the last day forces hurried decisions and depends on people who may not be available that day.
For a private portal or restricted area, it is also worth deciding from the outset whether it will live on a dedicated subdomain. A separate subdomain helps isolate the portal from the public site and makes it easier to change hosting provider without touching anything else.
Subdomain, DNS and hosting
DNS is the internet's address book: it states which server each name points to. Whoever manages DNS controls, in practice, where the domain's traffic and email arrive. It is therefore essential to know who manages it and that the domain is in the organisation's name, a topic developed in Who owns your data.
As for hosting, it is best to define before launch where it will be hosted, who administers it, how it is backed up and what monitoring it will have. Managed hosting, with backups and oversight, prevents the site from depending on someone who checks it when they remember.
An unindexed page until legal approval
During development and review, the site should not appear in search engines. Keeping it unindexed prevents draft text, clauses under review or information not yet approved from becoming visible and stored in search results. Indexing is enabled only when the organisation's legal team approves the text, including privacy notices and cookie consent where applicable.
It is a simple step, and worth recording as a task with an owner: who switches it off, and when.
Email from your own sender
A site's forms, notices and notifications generate email. If they go out from a generic server address, they are likely to land in the spam folder or be rejected. Configuring your own sender, with the organisation's domain and the usual email authentication, improves delivery and protects the domain's reputation.
When the organisation uses a corporate cloud email platform, the setup is done with minimum permissions and an administrator's consent. The full process is explained in Website email with the corporate cloud and DNS.
Test, and be present on launch day
Before opening the site, everything is tested in an equivalent environment: forms, email delivery, access, backups and the restoration of at least one copy. For portals with restricted access, roles and the access log are checked as well, as in Virtual data room for investors.
On launch day it helps to have close support. Not because failures are expected, but because any minor adjustment can be resolved at once when someone is attentive. At IT Lab we provide reinforced support for launches during the first days.
Practical checklist
- Define the subdomain and who manages DNS.
- Confirm that the domain and hosting are in the organisation's name.
- Decide where the site is hosted and how it is backed up.
- Keep the page unindexed until the legal team approves the text.
- Review privacy notices and cookie consent.
- Configure and test your own email sender.
- Test forms, email and access before opening.
- Agree who will be available on launch day.
- Note who enables indexing and when.
Frequently asked questions
Why not index a site from the start? Because until the text is approved, draft content should not become public or be recorded by search engines.
Who should decide the hosting? The organisation, with technical advice. The hosting should be in its name and have an identified administrator.
Is a subdomain necessary for a portal? Not always, but it is often useful to separate the portal from the public site and ease future changes.
What about email if the site is not yet published? It can be configured and tested in advance, so it is ready on launch day.
General guidance; legal text should be reviewed by the organisation's legal team.
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