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DCC Website Launch Checklist
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dcc-site-launch-list.md

Table of Contents

  • Design
    • Colors
    • Images
    • Navigation
    • Content
  • Hosting Setup
  • WordPress Config
    • Setup dccadmin user
    • Configure WP
      • General
      • Permalinks
      • Post Categories
      • wp-config.php
      • Themes
      • Plugins
  • Development
    • Coding Standards
    • CSS
    • Theme
      • Customizer
      • Menus
    • Plugins
    • Content
  • Pre-Test Site
  • Test Site
    • Install plugins
      • WordPress.org plugins
      • Upload plugins
    • Configure Plugins
      • Advanced Custom Fields Pro
      • Formidable
      • Video User Manuals
      • WP Accessibility
    • Configure WP Settings
    • Import content from dev site
    • Add favicons
  • Security
    • Config iThemes
    • Run checks
  • Launch
    • WordPress Settings
      • Reading
    • Smush all images
      • Run Optimus Bulk optimizer on all images
    • Update all the things
    • Link checks
    • Cross Browser Testing
      • Local Tests
      • BrowserStack Tests
    • Speed Test
    • Responsive test
    • Accessibility checks
  • SEO
    • Analytics
    • Configure WordPress SEO
      • General > Your info
      • Social > Accounts
    • Google Webmaster Tools
    • Change WP Settings
      • General
  • Performance
    • Caching
      • Supercacher
      • SG Cachepress
      • memcached

Design

Back to the top

Colors

  • Client's branding colors are being used
  • Ensure all colors have enough contrast

Images

  • Check hero images for determined widths
  • If not, ensure pictures used don't require a specific focal point

Navigation

  • Main nav has all links
  • Secondary navs aren't just random
  • All external links are in a separate nav

Content

  • Sections need set widths - these won't scale like a PDF will
  • Call-to-action
  • Refreshable content on homepage - news, blogs, etc
  • Indexable content on homepage - description of site or business/organization
  • Contact info/hours are easy to find

Hosting Setup

Back to the top

  1. Install WordPress at root
  2. Create a database
  3. Run WordPress installer
    1. Choose “English” as language
    2. Customize database prefix to client
    3. Set Site Title to name of client
    4. Start with a generic user
      • Username: “admin”
      • Password: “passwordpassword”
      • Email: your email
    5. Uncheck “Allow search engines to index this site”

WordPress Config

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Setup dccadmin user

  1. Login into Site
    1. Go to Users > Add New
    2. Setup new admin user
      • Username: “dccadmin”
      • Password: use a password generator to create secure password
      • Email: web@dccmarketing
  2. Log out of site
  3. Log in as dccadmin
  4. Delete “admin” user
    1. Go to Users
    2. Delete “admin”
    3. Choose to delete all related content

Configure WP

General

  • Tagline: Customize or remove text
  • Email: change to “web@dccmarketing.com”
  • Timezone: change to “Chicago” or appropriate near client
    • Choose a city, not the specific UTC, to account for Daylight Saving changes
  • Week Starts On: change to “Sunday”

Permalinks

  • Select “Post name”

Post Categories

  • Change “Uncategorized” to something else like “News”

wp-config.php

Add the following lines to wp-config.php to:

  • Limit post revisions to 5
  • Auto-empty trash every 7 days
/** Limit Revisions */
define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 5);

/** Auto-empty trash */
define( 'EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 7 );

Themes

  • Remove all but the latest WordPress theme
    • Always leave an extra theme for troubleshooting

Plugins

  • Remove Hello Dolly
  • Remove Akismet - unless comments will be turned on

Development

Back to the top

Coding Standards

CSS

  • Use dashes “-“ for class names
  • Do not use "initial" to reset any value (ie: width: initial;). Use the actual initial value. IE will not handle "initial" as expected.
    • width = auto
    • position = static
  • Add width and height for SVGs - IE requires both.

Theme

  • Use index.php for News/Blog page only
  • Use a page template for homepage
  • Customize design of login page to match the rest of the theme
  • Include latest copy of menukit.php and themekit.php
  • Enqueue all scripts to footer
  • Link logo to homepage

Customizer

  • Use Customizer for all theme options
  • Make as many things as possible editable by the client

Menus

  • If its a menu, use a WordPress menu
  • Use a menu for social media links

Plugins

  • Don’t enqueue the default scripts and stylesheets if they are empty
  • Enqueue all scripts to footer

Content

  • Run all images through ImageOptim before using or uploading
  • Use heading tags appropriately
  • Add screen reader text for image links
  • Use a11y tags (aria-*, etc)
  • Use i18n functions for text coded into theme
  • When writing text for links, do not use "click here" or "read more" as the link. Write something descriptive.
    • Examples
      • ‘Click here for the latest company news’ becomes ‘Latest company news’
      • ‘Buy now’ becomes ‘Buy 4-socket extension cable’
      • ‘More info’ becomes ‘More info about our product range’

Add favicon

  • Upload favicon using the Site Icon field in Customizer

Pre-Test Site

Back to the top

  • Check Homepage
  • Check all page templates
  • Check all menus
  • Check News/Blog page
  • Check News/Blog item page
  • Check 404 page
  • Check Search page
  • Check login page
  • Check responsiveness

Test Site

Back to the top

SiteGround

Login to WHMCS Setup order for new site under Chris's account - override the pricing to 0.00 Complete the order Be sure to save all data to LastPass Setup the database in cPanel Turn off SuperCacher (switch to x3 theme)

Duplicator

Install Duplicator Pro on dev site Go to Duplicator > Settings > Licensing

  • Enter the license # in "License Key" field
  • Click the "Activate" button
  • Go to Duplicator > Packages
  • Create a new package using the database info from the test site
  • Once the package is built, upload archive and installer files to test site
  • Run the installer on the test site

Install plugins

WordPress.org plugins

  1. Go to Plugins > Add New.
  2. Click the Favorites tab
  3. Enter "slushman" in the username field and click the "Get Favorites" button
  4. Install the following:
    • Access Monitor
    • Broken Link Checker
    • Disable Comments
    • Email Address Encoder
    • Exploit Scanner
    • InfiniteWP Client
    • iThemes Security
    • Optimus
    • Scripts To Footer *** Do not install with Revolution Slider!
    • SEO Friendly Images
    • WordPress Importer
    • WP Accessibility
    • Yoast SEO

Upload plugins

  • Video User Manual

Configure Plugins

Video User Manuals

  • Enter VUM serial #
  • Go to Manual > Manual options
  • Choose to use Master Profile
  • Double check these settings:
    • Branding & Customization tab - Menu up top: Yes
    • Videos tab - select appropriate video groups for the site

WP Accessibility

Settings > WP Accessibility

  • Check: Tag Clouds
  • Check: Archive Links
  • Check: Remove target attribute from links
  • Check: Force search error on empty search submission
  • Check: Remove tabindex from focusable elements
  • Check: Remove title attribute from images inserted into post content and featured images

Security

Back to the top

  • Delete “wp-config-sample.php” file from root directory
  • Delete all duplicator files (archive.zip, etc)

Config iThemes

See iThemes Security [config gist] (https://gist.github.com/slushman/9d4ec665dfb344a6bb72639fd32f6d59).

Run checks

  1. Run Exploit Scanner

Launch

Back to the top

WordPress Settings

Reading

  • Uncheck: Discourage search engines from indexing this site

Smush all images

Update all the things

  • WordPress
  • All plugins
  • Extra theme

Link checks

  • Test links/menu items that should open in a new window/tab
  • Check for broken links using Broken Link Checker

Cross Browser Testing

Local Tests

  • Computer
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Safari

BrowserStack Tests

  • Windows 7 - latest Firefox
  • Windows 7 - latest Internet Explorer
  • Windows 7 - latest Chrome
  • Windows 7 - latest Opera
  • Android - latest Samsung Note
  • Android - latest Samsung Galaxy
  • Windows Phone - pick one
  • iOS - iPhone 4S
  • iOS - iPhone 6
  • iPad - pick one
  • iPad Mini - pick one
  • Windows 10 - Edge

Speed Test

Responsive test

Accessibility checks

  • Run the Access Monitor plugin
  • WebAim
  • Fireeyes in Firefox
  • Accessibility audit in Chrome

SEO

Back to the top

Analytics

  • Setup analytics account
  • Embed Google Tag Manager code on site
    • Paste code into function in themekit

Configure WordPress SEO

General > Your info

  • Enter website name, and alternative name
  • Select "Company"
  • Enter company name
  • Link to logo

Social > Accounts

  • Fill out links to all networks
  • Add image for Facebook

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Verify site with www and non-www
  • Site Settings
    • Choose to display URLs as www
  • Google Analytics Property
    • Link analytics account
  • International Targeting
    • Choose United State

Change WP Settings

General

  • Uncheck: Discourage search engines from indexing this site

Performance

Back to the top

  • Check if gzip is turned on
  • Install sg-cachepress plugin
  • Change site to PHP 7
  • Turn on SuperCacher in cPanel (switch to the X3 theme for now).
  • Add site URL to Dynamic Caching tab turn on Dynamic caching
  • Setup Free CloudFlare account
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