How to review a website before it goes live: 22 checks in the order that catches the most, split between what the agency checks and what the client checks
Most website reviews go wrong before they start, because one review is asked to do two jobs.
The client opens the staging link, and the first thing they notice is a broken image on the About page. They write that down. Then a form that does not submit. They write that down. By the time they get to the thing only they could catch, that the office hours are wrong, they are tired and the email is long and the agency is reading feedback about bugs it would have found anyway.
Split it. The agency does the technical pass and fixes what it finds. Then the client does the content pass on a site that works. The client's review gets shorter and better, and the agency stops paying for its own QA in client goodwill.
Do these before anyone outside the team sees the link. Each one is a thing clients notice first and should never have to.
Click every link in the navigation, the footer and the body. Broken links and links to the old site are the most common thing a client finds, and the most avoidable.
Fill in every form with a real email address and check that the notification lands, that the thank-you message shows, and that the data goes where it should. Test the validation with a bad email too.
Not "it is responsive" but "I have looked at every page at 375, 768 and 1440 wide." Headings that wrap badly, images that crop the face out, buttons that fall off the edge. Half your client's visitors will see the mobile version first.
Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge at minimum, and Safari on an actual iPhone. Fonts, video and sticky headers are the usual suspects.
Run the homepage and the heaviest page through a speed test. Oversized images are nearly always the cause. Fix those first.
No placeholders, no stretched logos, no 6 MB hero photo. Every meaningful image has alt text that says what is in it.
Each page has its own title and description. The browser tab does not say "Home" and the favicon is not the platform default.
Type a wrong URL. A branded page with a way back is the minimum.
Check that the analytics tag is present on every page and not duplicated. If there is a consent banner, check that nothing fires before consent where that matters.
Staging has noindex set. The launch checklist includes removing it. This one is easy to forget and painful to find out about three weeks later.
If an old site exists, every page that had traffic redirects to its new home. A spreadsheet of old URLs to new ones, tested.
Headings in order, buttons that can be reached by keyboard, color contrast that passes, labels on form fields. Run an automated check and then tab through the site by hand.
Now send the link. These are the checks only the client can do, and the ones to point them at. A good brief to the client is this list, with a sentence: "The site works. We need you to tell us where it is wrong."
Read every page. Every claim is true, every name is spelled right, every number is current. The client knows their business; the agency only knows the brief.
Is that the current team? Has anyone in the photo left? Is the product shot the current packaging? Nobody at the agency can know.
The details that are correct in the brief and changed since. Check them against the real thing, not the old website.
Terms, privacy, any industry wording that has to be there. The client's lawyer or compliance person, if they have one, looks at this once.
The agency tested that the form sends. The client confirms it sends to the inbox someone actually reads.
Is the most important service first? Is the thing customers ask about most easy to find? The client knows what people ring up about.
Does "Book now" go to the booking system the client uses? Does "Get a quote" ask the questions the sales team needs?
The Instagram link goes to the right account. The map pin is on the right building. The review widget shows the right business.
Ask the client to open the site on their own phone and look at the page they care about most. Something always turns up.
A review is finished when someone says so. Ask the client to confirm, in writing, that the content is approved for launch, with the date. If that sounds formal, it is; it is also the thing that settles "I never approved that" a month later.
HopBack is built for the client pass. Paste the staging URL, set the round and the deadline, and send the link. The client opens the real site in their browser, no account, and reviews it page by page at desktop, tablet or mobile width. They click the thing they mean and a carrot pin lands on the element with their comment, so "the heading" is never a question. HopBack sends the reminders as the deadline nears. When they hit Finish review they choose Approve or Send feedback, the feedback locks, and the approval records their name and the time. That is item 22, done.
QA is the agency checking that the site works: links, forms, browsers, speed. A website review is the client checking that it is right: words, photos, prices, order. Do QA first so the review is about content, not bugs.
For a typical small-business site, an hour or two for the client, spread over a few days. Set a deadline of about a week and send a reminder before it.
The agency does the technical pass. On the client side, the person who owns the content, plus whoever knows the prices and the legal lines, plus anyone whose photo is on it.
Items 13 to 22 above: the words, the photos, the details, the forms, the order of things, the calls to action, and a sign-off at the end.
One link, one deadline, a way to point at things rather than describe them, and a clear finish button. Reminders help. So does thanking them for being quick.
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