Go-live checklist

Walk through these top-to-bottom the day of launch. Nothing here needs a developer — every step is a click in the WordPress admin or a URL to load.

1. DNS + SSL

• [ ] Domain points at the production host (A record or CNAME as instructed by the host)
• [ ] SSL certificate active on toolplaybook.com and www.toolplaybook.com
• [ ] www → non-www (or vice versa) redirects consistently — pick one and stick with it
• [ ] Load https://toolplaybook.com/ in an incognito window and confirm the padlock is green

2. WordPress core

• [ ] Settings → General — Site URL and WordPress Address both use https:// + the chosen host (no trailing slash)
• [ ] Settings → Reading
  • [ ] "Your homepage displays" set to A static page
  • [ ] Homepage set to a page called Home (or left blank — the theme uses front-page.php either way)
  • [ ] Posts page set to a page called Blog — required for /blog/ to render (otherwise it 404s)
• [ ] Settings → Permalinks — Post name (/%postname%/). Click Save Changes even if nothing changed to force a rewrite flush.

3. Theme + plugins

• [ ] Appearance → Themes — ToolPlaybook is active
• [ ] Plugins
  • [ ] Rank Math SEO active and configured (see step 5)
  • [ ] Fluent Forms active if you're using the newsletter shortcode
  • [ ] LiteSpeed Cache (or whatever the host provides) active
  • [ ] Deactivate + delete any stock themes (Twenty Twenty-Four etc.) and demo plugins

4. Content review

• [ ] Every published Review has: title, category, overall score, pros, cons, verdict, affiliate URL, featured image
• [ ] Every published blog post has: title, category, excerpt, featured image (or accept the glyph fallback)
• [ ] Homepage hero copy correct (Appearance → Customize → Homepage hero)
• [ ] Footer disclosure text correct (Appearance → Customize → Disclosures)
• [ ] In-review disclosure text correct (same section)
• [ ] Delete any test / draft posts that shouldn't ship

5. Rank Math SEO

• [ ] Rank Math → Titles & Meta → Post Types — Reviews and Posts both set to be indexable
• [ ] Rank Math → Sitemap Settings
  • [ ] Review post type enabled (the theme force-enables this on install; verify)
  • [ ] Review Category taxonomy enabled (same)
• [ ] Load https://toolplaybook.com/sitemap_index.xml and confirm you see:
  • [ ] post-sitemap.xml
  • [ ] page-sitemap.xml
  • [ ] review-sitemap.xml
  • [ ] category-sitemap.xml
  • [ ] review_category-sitemap.xml
• [ ] Submit the sitemap to Google Search Console at Sitemaps → Add new sitemap

6. Cache + performance

• [ ] LiteSpeed Cache → Toolbox → Purge All — clear any stale cache from staging
• [ ] Load the homepage in incognito twice; second load should have x-litespeed-cache: hit header
• [ ] Run PageSpeed Insights on the homepage + a single review — aim for 90+ on both mobile and desktop
• [ ] Check Web Vitals in Search Console after a week of real traffic

7. Analytics + tracking

• [ ] Google Analytics 4 property created, measurement ID pasted into Rank Math (or the plugin of choice)
• [ ] Search Console property verified
• [ ] If using an affiliate tracker (e.g. Impact, ShareASale), its script is added via Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS or a header/footer plugin
• [ ] Consent banner (if targeting EU) — install a plugin like Complianz, verify it fires before analytics

8. Legal pages

• [ ] /affiliate-disclosure/ — page exists with full FTC disclosure
• [ ] /privacy-policy/ — page exists, GDPR-compliant if targeting EU
• [ ] Both linked from the footer (they are by default via the Footer menu)

9. Email + newsletter

• [ ] Contact form works — submit a test through /contact/ and confirm the email lands
• [ ] Newsletter form works — subscribe from a blog post sidebar; confirm the signup lands in the connected list (Mailchimp / ConvertKit / etc.)
• [ ] Transactional email (registration, password reset) sends — trigger a password reset on a test account

10. Cross-browser + device smoke test

Load these URLs in Chrome + Safari + Firefox, desktop + mobile:

• [ ] /
• [ ] /reviews/
• [ ] /reviews/category/crm/
• [ ] /reviews/gohighlevel/ (or whatever the top review is)
• [ ] /blog/
• [ ] /category/crm/
• [ ] /what-is-vibe-coding/ (or any single post) — confirm the Jump-To TOC renders
• [ ] /?s=email — search results page
• [ ] /about/, /contact/, /affiliate-disclosure/, /privacy-policy/
• [ ] Deliberately bad URL like /does-not-exist/ — confirm the styled 404 page renders

11. Broken-link scan

• [ ] Run a link checker (e.g. wget --spider -r -nd -l 3 https://toolplaybook.com/ 2>&1 | grep -B 2 'broken') or use a plugin like Broken Link Checker
• [ ] Fix or 301 any 404s

12. Backup + rollback plan

• [ ] Full database + files backup taken before flipping DNS
• [ ] Backup stored off-server (S3, Dropbox, external drive)
• [ ] Backup schedule set to daily (host tool or UpdraftPlus)
• [ ] Know how to roll back: which restore point is safe, how long it takes

13. Post-launch (first 48 hours)

• [ ] Watch Search Console for crawl errors
• [ ] Check GA4 real-time to confirm traffic is landing
• [ ] Watch LiteSpeed cache hit ratio (should climb past 90% within a day)
• [ ] Monitor bounce rate on the homepage — spikes usually mean a broken CTA
• [ ] Test affiliate CTAs by clicking one and confirming the tracking pixel fires (or the affiliate network's dashboard shows the click)

14. Housekeeping

• [ ] Delete dev/seed/ files if any remain on production
• [ ] Delete any WXR import files (tpb-reviews-import.xml, etc.)
• [ ] Set WP_DEBUG to false in wp-config.php
• [ ] Set discouragement of search engine indexing (Settings → Reading) to off — this is the one people forget most
• [ ] Remove any staging admin accounts that shouldn't have production access