You’ve invested time and money into your new website. The design looks great, the content is ready, and you’re excited to go live. But there are some unglamorous technical things that can derail your launch if you’re not careful.
As a Bristol WordPress developer, I’ve seen these issues trip up business owners time and time again. Here’s what to check before you launch.
1. Can You Actually Access Your Domain?
This sounds obvious, but it’s the number one launch killer.
Your domain is registered with a company like GoDaddy, Namecheap, or 123-Reg (I’d recommend Hover.com – they are great). To launch your new site, someone needs to log into that account and update the settings
The problem: Many business owners discover on launch day that they don’t have the login details. Maybe the previous developer set it up. Maybe it was an old employee. Maybe it was set up years ago and nobody remembers.
What to do: Log into your domain registrar account right now. Make sure you have the username and password. If you don’t, get them from whoever set it up. If that’s not possible, contact the registrar and prove you own the domain (they’ll have a process for this, but it takes time).
2. Contact Forms Need Proper Email Setup
You’d be amazed how many websites launch with broken contact forms.
WordPress doesn’t automatically send emails reliably. It needs to be configured to use a proper email service (called SMTP). Without this, your contact form might look like it’s working, but the emails disappear into the void.
The problem: A potential customer fills out your contact form. They think you’ve received their enquiry. But the email never arrives because WordPress couldn’t send it.
What to do: Ask your WordPress developer in Bristol (or wherever they are) to set up SMTP. They might use a plugin like WP Mail SMTP or configure it through your hosting. Then actually test it—fill out the form on your staging site and make sure the email arrives. Check your spam folder too.
3. The “Not Secure” Warning
Modern browsers show a “Not Secure” warning if your site doesn’t have an SSL certificate. Some browsers go further and block access entirely with a scary red warning.
The problem: Visitors see the warning and leave immediately. They think your site is dangerous or unprofessional.
What to do: Ask your developer if SSL is installed and working. When you visit your staging site, look for the padlock icon in the address bar. The URL should start with https:// (not http://). Sort this out at least a week before launch—SSL issues can sometimes take a day or two to resolve.
4. Your Old Pages Will Disappear
If you have an existing website, those pages are probably indexed by Google. People have linked to them. Customers have bookmarked them.
When you launch your new site with different page names, all those old URLs will show “Page Not Found” errors.
The problem: You’ll lose months or years of SEO work overnight. Traffic will drop. People clicking old links will hit dead ends.
What to do: Make a list of your important current pages (your most popular content, pages that rank well, anything people link to). Give this to your developer and ask them to set up redirects. These tell browsers “that old page is now at this new address.” A good WordPress developer will do this automatically, but double-check.
5. DNS Changes Take Time
DNS is the internet’s address book. When you launch your site, you’re telling the internet “this domain now points to this new location.” But this information doesn’t update instantly everywhere (and your registrar will have a impact on the speed of this)
The problem: You launch at 9am ready for your big announcement. But half your audience still sees the old site hours later. Some see the new site, some see the old one. It’s confusing for everyone.
What to do: Never, ever, launch and announce on the same day. Do a “soft launch” where you point your domain to the new site at least few days early. Then make your big announcement once everything has settled. If you’re launching Monday, flip the switch the previous week so you have time to check it.
Note: Always adhere to the golden rule – never launch on a Friday (if there’s a problem, on-one wants to work on a weekend)
6. Have a Plan B
Things go wrong with websites. Plugins conflict. Something works on staging but breaks on live. A seemingly small change causes an unexpected problem.
The problem: Your site breaks on launch day and you have no way to quickly fix it or roll back.
What to do: Before launch, ask your developer: “If something goes wrong, can we quickly switch back to the old site?” Keep your old site accessible for at least a week after launch. Make sure your developer is available on launch day. Have their phone number, not just their email.
7. Who Actually Owns Your Accounts?
Your website probably relies on services like Google Analytics, hosting, email providers, payment processors, or form tools.
The problem: These accounts are set up under your developer’s email address or company. If you part ways with them, you lose access to your own data and services.
What to do: Ask directly: “Are all these accounts set up under my company’s email address?” If not, get them transferred before launch. This includes your hosting account, Google Analytics, Search Console, and any other services. You’re paying for these services—you should own the accounts.
Your Simple Pre-Launch Checklist
Three weeks before launch:
- Confirm you can log into your domain registrar
- Give your developer a list of important old URLs to redirect
- Confirm all third-party accounts are in your company’s name
- Test contact forms actually send emails
One week before launch:
- Do your soft launch (point the domain to the new site)
- Check for the padlock icon (SSL)
- Test everything again on the actual domain
Launch day (announcement):
- Remember some people might still see the old site for a few hours
- Keep the old site available for a week just in case
- Make sure your developer is contactable
- Never launch on a Friday!
The Bottom Line
None of this is exciting. But the good news is that most of these issues are easy to avoid—you just need to know they exist and check them early. Don’t leave it until the day before launch.
Do the checks now, test on staging, soft launch when possible, and have a backup plan.
Your launch day will be much less stressful.
