The night before launch
You've built the store. Products are in. Payment gateway is configured. Shipping zones are set. The client says "let's go live tomorrow morning."
Between now and then, there's a list of things that should happen: compress product images so pages load fast, make sure every image has alt text for SEO, export the product catalog as a reference snapshot, install tracking pixels so day-one traffic is measured, take a full backup as a rollback point, and remove the password wall that's been protecting the staging site.
Each of those tasks normally means a different plugin, a different screen, or a call to the developer. Here's how to do it all from one place in about 10 minutes.
The pre-launch checklist
-archive_name=pre-launch.Why this order matters
The sequence isn't random:
- Child theme first — before any customization goes into files that would be overwritten
- Images before alt texts — optimize compresses files, alt texts adds metadata. Order doesn't break anything, but optimizing first means the alt text scan runs on the final file set
- Export before going live — captures the clean pre-launch state
- Tracking before removing the wall — pixels should be active before real traffic arrives
- Backup last — captures the fully prepared state, not the half-done state
- Password wall removed last — the site goes public only after everything else is ready
After launch: set up ongoing maintenance
Launch day is step one. Keeping the store healthy is everything after that.
Schedule weekly maintenance. Set up a Cron Schedule with image optimization, broken link scanning, and backup creation. The store maintains itself while you focus on sales.
If the client runs seasonal sales, the discount command applies a sitewide percentage off without editing any product prices. When the sale ends, remove the startup command and prices revert instantly.