Drupal Website Launch Checklist

INTRODUCTION

When launching a Drupal website there are areas that should be configured, reviewed and tested. This article will list some items that will usually need to be checked when launching a Drupal website. This basic list does not cover advanced or uncommon items. Although this list is geared toward Drupal websites, a lot of these items will also pertain to other types of websites.

PRELIMINARY / REVIEW

• Review Drupal’s status page for any errors or warnings that may need to be addressed (admin/reports/status)
• Ensure you have the latest stable release of Drupal and contributed modules installed
• Review the Recent Log Messages for any items that may need to be addressed (admin/reports/dblog)

PAGES & LINKS

• Check for broken links - Link Checker Module | W3C Link Checker
• Configure / Create 404 Pages - Fast 404 Module | Drupal 403 and 404 error page setup
• Setup Content Schema - Schema.org Module
• Test that pages are printer friendly - more info

SEO

• Confirm proper URL/path aliases are setup and automatic path aliases (patterns) are configured
• Confirm proper meta data output on all Pages and Views
• Install and configure Global Redirect module to minimize duplicate content
• Install and configure XML Site Map Module
• Customize robots.txt to prevent search engine indexing as needed
• Setup Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools and review for any issues

TESTING

• Test website on all applicable browsers and devices
• Validate HTML
• Validate CSS
• Check Accessibility
• Test website forms (contact, etc.) submissions and verify that email notices are received properly
• Test Drupal User Roles by logging as user/role to verify account permissions and access is working properly

FILES & DATABASE

• .HTACCESS
  • Setup www or non-www redirects
  • Setup https:// redirects as needed
• Check Drupal File Settings are configured properly
• Configure and test the website Favicon

CLEAN UP

• Remove all test content and test users accounts
• Disable/remove any development modules
• Disable any development settings in your theme(s)
• Turn off error reporting (admin/config/development/logging)
• Remove files from root Drupal install directory (not required but considered best practice)
  • CHANGELOG.txt
  • install.php
  • INSTALL.txt
  • INSTALL.mysql.txt
  • INSTALL.pgsql.txt
  • INSTALL.sqlite.txt
  • LICENSE.txt
  • MAINTAINERS.txt
  • README.txt
  • sites/all/modules/README.txt
  • sites/all/themes/README.txt
  • UPGRADE.txt

SECURITY

• Make sure file permissions for file directories and code directory are set correctly
• Setup a password policy for user account - Password Policy Module
• Set "New Account" to “Administer Only” if website does not utilize public user account (admin/config/people/accounts)
• If using SSL, check certificate is installed correctly
• Additional/Optional: Security Review Module
• More info on securing your Drupal website

PERFORMANCE

• Turn on and configure Drupal caching
• Optionally, install and configure Advanced CSS/JS Aggregation Module
• Optionally, install and configure the Minify Module
• Turn on Views 'Time-Based' caching for applicable Views. Optionally, install Views Content Cache
• Turn off Drupal’s built-in Cron (set to run 'never') and configure cron task on server
• Disable all unused/unneeded modules.
  • Some common modules to disable (if not used), color, comment, dashboard, help, locale, search, shortcut, overlay, toolbar and UI modules.
• Check speed of pages on Google PageSpeed Insights

RECOVERY

• Configure and test Backup Migrate scheduling
• Turn on Content Revisions for Content Types that editors may be changing
• Configure and test any 3rd-party / server-side backup system(s)
• Make full backup of website at launch for off-site/client storage

REPORTING & ANALYTICS

• Install, configure and test Google Analytics Module

FINAL

• Create/provide user manual, documentation and account information as necessary
• Provide assets and deliverables as necessary