WES custom hosting

WCH Go-Live Checklist

1. Staging review

  • Review the WCH staging build for broken scripts, styles, embeds, custom head and footer code, and third-party integrations.
  • Check the browser console for significant JavaScript errors.
  • Replace Webflow-hosted features that stop working on a static site. Site search and CMS pagination, filtering, and Load more all depend on Webflow hosting. Use Slater Data for lists and Slater global search for search. See Pagination and Search.
  • Remove Finsweet Attributes such as CMS Load More, CMS Filter, and sliders that depend on Webflow hosting.
  • Verify paginated CMS lists load and link correctly.
  • Check internal links, buttons, downloads, images, videos, and other assets.
  • Test all forms: submission succeeds, success and error states work, notification emails arrive, spam protection or reCAPTCHA works, and production endpoints and recipients are configured.
  • Confirm third-party scripts work. If a script must load from its vendor rather than a local copy, add it under Excluded URLs in Settings.
  • Test key pages in major modern browsers.
  • Review mobile and tablet layouts.

2. Production environment

  • Add a non-production destination and a production destination under Extensions, then Deployments, and turn on Is Production? for the production one.
  • Enter your live domain in the Project domain field in Settings. WCH uses it for sitemap.xml URLs, canonical tags, and hreflang links.
  • If you use a custom staging domain in Webflow, enter it in the Staging URL field so webhooks tell staging and production publishes apart.
  • Fill in the Robots.txt field in Settings. If you leave it blank, WCH copies the robots.txt from your Webflow site.
  • Configure production DNS records.
  • Confirm SSL/TLS works on both apex and www.
  • Choose the canonical hostname (www or non-www) and 301 redirect the other at your host.
  • Lower DNS TTL ahead of cutover when appropriate.
  • Confirm HTTP to HTTPS redirects correctly.
  • Confirm production responses return the expected HTTP status codes.

3. SEO and indexing

  • Verify sitemap.xml loads and contains production URLs. If you chose a grouped Sitemap structure in Settings, check the child sitemaps too.
  • Use Exclude from sitemap.xml in Settings for pages that should not be listed.
  • For localized sites, verify hreflang URLs and language and region mappings.
  • Verify canonical URLs point to the production domain.
  • Review titles and meta descriptions.
  • Verify Open Graph and social metadata.
  • Verify favicon and site icons.
  • Check that no noindex tags remain in your Webflow page settings or custom code. WCH does not add or remove noindex; it publishes what Webflow serves.
  • Verify GA4, GTM, pixels, and other analytics are firing in production.
  • Verify the custom 404 page works and returns a 404 status. WCH always includes your 404 page at /404/index.html; your host must be configured to serve it.
  • Submit the production sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

4. Redirects

  • Export redirects from the 301 Redirects page under Extensions as CSV or JSON. This needs a Webflow Enterprise plan. See 301 Redirects.
  • Configure the redirects at your production host. WCH does not apply redirects; a static site needs the host to do it.
  • Spot-check important legacy URLs.
  • Confirm redirects use 301 responses.
  • Check for redirect chains and loops.
  • Verify URLs that previously received meaningful organic traffic or backlinks have an appropriate destination.

5. Pre-cutover review

  • Complete a final review of the production build before changing DNS.
  • Compare important production pages against the existing site.
  • Confirm forms, integrations, analytics, and critical user flows are production-ready.
  • Confirm production sitemap, robots.txt, canonicals, and redirects.
  • Identify the rollback procedure before launch. Every archive on the Archives page can be promoted again, and a GitHub destination has a tag per publish.
  • Schedule cutover during a lower-traffic window when possible.

6. Cutover

  • Update DNS to point the production domain.
  • Confirm apex and www resolve to the expected production environment.
  • Confirm HTTPS and hostname redirects.
  • Confirm the WCH publish and promote completed successfully on the Dashboard.
  • Invalidate your CDN cache. WCH does not do this for you.
  • Spot-check homepage, key landing pages, CMS pages, and localized pages on the live domain.
  • Confirm assets and scripts are loading from the expected production locations.

7. Post-launch

Immediately after launch

  • Re-test forms.
  • Re-test critical flows and third-party integrations.
  • Check the browser console for production errors.
  • Confirm analytics and conversion events are being received.
  • Re-check sitemap, robots.txt, canonicals, redirects, and 404 behavior.
  • Verify several old URLs redirect correctly.
  • Confirm CDN caching is serving the current production build.

First 24 to 48 hours

  • Monitor uptime.
  • Monitor Google Search Console for indexing or coverage issues.
  • Watch analytics for unexpected traffic or conversion changes.
  • Check for unexpected 404s and add redirects where appropriate.
  • Verify privacy policy, terms, cookie consent, and other required compliance pages are live.
  • Confirm your WCH staging URL and any .webflow.io address are not being indexed. Set Staging visibility to Private in Settings if the staging site should not be public.