A Pre Launch Link Checklist

Launch is the riskiest moment

A launch changes many things at once, which is exactly when links break in bulk. A short checklist run before you go live catches the problems while they are still cheap to fix.

Crawl the staging site

Run a full crawl on the staging version before launch. It surfaces the internal links that point nowhere and the assets that fail to load, so you fix them before any visitor sees them.

Verify every redirect

If URLs changed, confirm each old address redirects to the right new one, in a single hop. This is the step that most often gets rushed and most often causes post launch damage.

Recheck right after launch

No staging environment is identical to production. A quick crawl immediately after launch confirms the live site is as clean as staging suggested, and catches anything that slipped through.