When building WordPress web pages, there is an odd crossover between being a web developer, an SEO, and a marketer. The ease of use from modern WordPress theme builders means that a high technical skill doesn’t need to be honed to build robust websites, but there are a lot of technical pitfalls the person using the theme can fall into.
Even worse, when you wear so many hats, it’s easy to end up in “client limbo” since you are responsible for so much. Using a checklist can help define boundaries and expectations up front to avoid that.
If you manage non-web developers who need to drive home WordPress web pages, or you are tasked with building a new WordPress web page (or entire website), then the following checklist is for you.
It was designed from my experience managing in a digital marketing agency, significantly reduced roadblocks on my team, and encouraged a learning environment.
This checklist is not super technical instructions but a series of questions asking the builder to evaluate the web page from a user’s perspective.
If the website “looks janky,” it’s time to investigate what makes it janky or reach out for help. If the web page jumps around during loading – it’s time to investigate or help. This checklist should be used to reference things you should check on.
One last disclaimer – this is meant to cover the basics. It’s meant to get a WordPress website ready enough for more senior team members to drive home any of the more challenging issues without wasting time on smaller concepts that even an inexperienced person can do some Googling to figure out.
Per Page WordPress Website Production Ready Checklist
If the web page you are working on passes all the following questions, your webpage is ready for final review.
User Experience
- Is the most important information above the fold? Resource
- Does the page look good on Mobile?
- Does the page look good on Tablet?
- Does the page look good on Desktop? (Check multiple scaling options)
- Are there any window variations that break the website?
- Does the website jump around at all?
- Does the website look janky?
- Are there any broken links?
- Do all external links open in a new window?
SEO / Browser Configurations
- Is the page “Title” set accordingly? Resource
- Is there only one H1 tag, and does it title the web page appropriately? Resource
- Is the Meta Description filled out and unique from other pages? Resource
- Are the main content headings on the page marked as h2s? Resource
- Are the non-main content headings marked as h3s?
- Is there an image assigned to the web page? Resource
- Does sharing the webpage look good? Use this tool to check – Sharing Debugger
SEO / Accessibility Configurations
- Do all images have alt tags? (excluding background/structure images)
SEO / Page Size
- Is caching turned on? (Rocket Cache or SG Cache)
- Does it feel good to load?