CHICKENPIE.The homepage loads. The logo looks right. Someone sends a thumbs-up emoji.
You can still have a contact form that goes nowhere, a menu that traps a phone user, or a domain account nobody in the business can access. None of that shows up in the launch screenshot.
When you're getting a website made, agree on what “finished” means before the handover. These are the checks we'd put ahead of another afternoon adjusting the hero animation.
Follow one customer journey all the way through
Start outside the site. Open the link someone would actually share, on a phone. Find the service, product or information. Take the next step.
Does the menu work? Can you read the page without pinching? Does the contact button open the right destination? If there's a form, check its labels, errors and confirmation as well as the happy path. The browser can help catch mistakes, but the server needs to validate input too. [1]
Agree on a controlled test with the builder. Use a sandbox or blocked delivery where possible; don't create real orders, bookings or messages just to prove a button exists.
Ask for the accounts, not a screenshot of them
List the domain, hosting, CMS, source repository and analytics account. For each one, record who owns it, who can recover access and who pays for renewal.
This isn't a demand that every website must be custom-coded. A builder-based site still needs an owner who understands its accounts. A custom build still needs someone responsible for maintaining it.
Ask the builder to show how you'd change a phone number or update an image. A handover guide that nobody can follow needs another pass.
Check the boring things while everyone is still paying attention
Give important pages useful titles and descriptions. Check the favicon and the preview people see when they share a link. Confirm which pages belong in search, and review the sitemap and crawl settings. These help explain and expose the site; they aren't a promise of search rankings. Google's own starter guide explicitly rejects that promise. [2]
Test missing pages and broken links. Check image descriptions, readable contrast and keyboard navigation. A neat desktop layout doesn't tell you whether those jobs are done.
For performance, ask what was tested and on which pages. Loading speed, response to input and layout movement are different problems. Google measures those through LCP, INP and CLS; a test report is more useful when the builder explains what the results mean for your site. [3]
Don't confuse security with a padlock icon
HTTPS belongs on the checklist. So do access permissions, server-side validation and the handling of private keys. OWASP treats validation, authorization and safe use of data as separate controls; passing one doesn't clear the others. [4]
You don't need secret values pasted into a handover document. You need a documented way for the right people to manage them securely.
Privacy notices, terms and any cookie controls also need to match what the site actually does. Have the requirements reviewed for your business and audience. A copied banner isn't evidence that the underlying tracking behaves correctly.
Leave with an honest completion record
A small website doesn't need a ceremonial folder full of paperwork. It does need a useful record:
- What was checked on the production domain, and when.
- Which accounts and editing instructions were handed over.
- How backups and rollback work for this particular setup.
- Who handles updates, problems and ongoing costs.
- Which defects or exclusions you knowingly accepted.
Mark each agreed requirement pass, fail or not applicable, with evidence where it matters. If something is unfinished, give it an owner instead of hiding it behind “phase two”.
The launch screenshot can go in the group chat. Keep the completion record somewhere you can find it when the contact form stops working.
Sources and editorial note
This is a practical Chickenpie editorial checklist, not a security audit, legal opinion or report of a tested client project. The starting prompt came from Michael Ly (@millee.md)'s website-launch Reel supplied by Airell; the acceptance criteria, ownership and handover discussion are Chickenpie's adaptation.
- W3C WAI, Validating Input: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/forms/validation/
- Google Search Central, SEO Starter Guide: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
- Google web.dev, Web Vitals: https://web.dev/articles/vitals
- OWASP, Input Validation Cheat Sheet: https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Input_Validation_Cheat_Sheet.html
- Source prompt: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DdFJTtMganO/
Sources checked 21 October 2026. Artwork is an original AI-generated editorial illustration, not a screenshot of a completed website or a real client's project.
