You’ve done the sweetest Ajax site this side of the Vaal. Your client loves the way the text flashes red->black->red->black. The brighter the better right?

So you’re ready to go live… Or are you?

Some essential checks before launching your website after the break…

1. Do you have a FavIcon? It always looks more professional
2. Have you added a title and meta tag data? Search engines will know what your site is about.
3. Does the site work in the major browsers?… Does it f’ing work in IE f’ing 6? *Spits on IE6*
4. Proof read the site. Make sure of spelling, grammar and that there isn’t TOO MUCH text.
5. Make sure all your links work. Make sure your external links won’t change.
6. Try and break your forms. Nothing like a contact us form that can’t contact anyone.
7. Degradation. Make sure your website works without Javascript as well.
8. Add a tracker. Like Google Analytics, see how well your site is doing.
9. Add a sitemap. It allows search engines to easily index your site.
10. Optimise. Make sure your load-time isn’t unnecessarily long.
11. Backup. Make sure you can’t lose all your hard work.

SM has more detail and some useful links.