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The Launch Day Runbook: What to Do in the 24 Hours Before Go-Live

A calm launch is a planned one. Here's an hour-by-hour runbook for the day before and the day of going live.

Client Management

September 8, 2026

• 4 min read

Launch day shouldn't be exciting. Exciting means something unexpected is happening. A good launch is almost boring: a list of steps, done in order, with nothing left to chance.

Here's the runbook we'd use for the day before and the day of going live.

The day before

Morning: final QA pass on staging
Run your full check across every page: placeholder copy, links, alt text, accessibility, forms, and the build against the design. The site should have been frozen for at least a day, so you're checking the version that will actually launch.
Midday: fix and re-check
Fix anything the pass turned up, then check those pages again. Don't assume a fix worked.
Afternoon: written sign-off
Get an explicit “approved to go live” from the client in writing. Confirm the launch time and who'll be available.
End of day: prepare the switch
Have DNS records, redirects, form notification addresses and analytics IDs written down and ready. Lower the DNS TTL if you can, so changes take effect faster.

Launch day

Connect the domain
Make the DNS change at a quiet time, not 4pm on a Friday. Check the SSL certificate issues correctly before you announce anything.
Check the live site, not staging
Load the real domain on desktop and mobile. Check the www and non-www versions both resolve to the same place.
Test every form
Submit each one and confirm the notification arrives at the right inbox. Forms are the most likely thing to behave differently on the live domain.
Check redirects and analytics
Visit a few old URLs and confirm they land on the right pages. Check analytics is receiving visits.
Tell the client
Send a short confirmation that the site is live, with anything they need to know.
Don't Launch on a Friday Afternoon

If something goes wrong, you want the next working day available to fix it, with everyone around. A Tuesday or Wednesday morning launch gives you that.

The day after

Run your QA again, this time on the live domain. Links that pointed to the staging domain, forms with test addresses, a page that didn't make it across: this is when they show up. Then check search console and analytics are picking up the site properly.

Launch Day Essentials

7 checks
Final QA on a frozen staging site The day before, not the morning of.
Written sign-off from the client An explicit approval, saved with the project.
SSL working on the live domain Check both www and non-www.
Every form tested on the live domain And notifications arriving at the right inbox.
Redirects checked Old URLs land on the right new pages.
Analytics receiving data Check the real-time view.
Post-launch QA on the live domain The day after, before you close the project.

Agree who does what

Launches go wrong most often in the gaps between people. The developer thinks the client has updated the DNS. The client thinks the developer has. Everyone thinks someone else tested the forms.

Put a name next to every step in the runbook. Who changes the DNS? Who tests the forms? Who tells the client it's live? Who's on call for the rest of the day? It takes five minutes to agree and removes most of the ways a launch can stall.

Have a way back

Know what you'll do if something goes badly wrong. Can you point the domain back at the old site? Is there a backup or an earlier version you can restore? You'll almost certainly never need it, but knowing it's there makes the whole day calmer.

And write down what happened afterwards. A short note on what went smoothly and what didn't makes the next runbook better.

Reuse the Runbook

Save this list as a template and copy it for every project. A runbook improves every time you use it, and after a few launches it'll cover the things that tend to catch your team out.

Before and After

Run a Frank scan on staging the day before launch, then another on the live domain the day after. Every scan is kept on the project, so you have a record of exactly what was checked and when. Get started with Frank →

Make Launch Day Boring

Check everything the day before, follow the list on the day, and check it again after.

See plans and pricing →

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