A comprehensive pre-launch checklist for export websites covering technical, content, SEO, and compliance readiness.
A Philippine coconut products exporter spent four months building a website that was visually stunning, full of detailed product information, and available in three languages. They launched with a social media campaign targeting buyers in Europe and North America. Within a week, they discovered that their contact form was not sending emails to their sales team — inquiries were being submitted but never delivered. They had lost an unknown number of potential orders because the form had never been tested from the live server.
A pre-launch checklist is not a formality — it is the difference between a launch that generates inquiries and one that generates frustration. Export websites have more moving parts than domestic sites: multiple languages, international forms, global CDN configuration, compliance requirements across markets. Each of these elements must be tested before launch, not after.
Before launching, verify: SSL certificate is installed and working on every page (not just the homepage — check subpages and language versions too). CDN is properly configured and serving content from edge locations closest to your target markets. Mobile responsiveness is tested on real devices, not just browser resizing — test on a mid-range Android phone, which is the most common device in many emerging markets. Page speed is tested from each target market location, not just your local connection.
Form testing is critical and often overlooked. Submit a test inquiry from each language version of your contact form, each product inquiry form, and each newsletter signup. Verify that the email reaches your team. Check that the form data includes all necessary fields. Test what happens when a user submits incomplete or invalid data — error messages should be helpful and translated. Test form submission from mobile devices. Test form submission from different countries (use a VPN or ask a contact in the target market to test).
Check all links: internal links (do all navigation menus work on all pages?), external links (do partner links, social media links, and resource links go to the right places?), language switcher links (does each language link go to the correct version of the current page?), and footer links (privacy policy, terms of service, shipping information). A broken link on launch day creates a poor first impression.
Review every page for content completeness: no placeholder text, no "Lorem ipsum," no missing images. Verify that all language versions are complete — a buyer should never encounter English text on what is supposed to be a fully translated page. Check that meta titles and descriptions are written and translated for every page — these are critical for search rankings but easily forgotten during translation.
SEO checks before launch: submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Verify that hreflang tags are correctly implemented on every page. Check that canonical tags point to the correct language version. Ensure that no pages are accidentally blocking search engines (noindex tags should only be on pages you intentionally want to hide). Set up Google Analytics (or your analytics platform) and verify it is tracking correctly on all pages.
Test your site with a crawl tool like Screaming Frog to identify any technical SEO issues: broken links, missing meta descriptions, duplicate content issues, incorrect redirects, and pages with thin content. Run the crawl from the perspective of each language version to catch language-specific issues. Fix all errors before launch.
Privacy policy and cookie consent: is your privacy policy published and accessible from every page? Is the cookie consent banner working and set to require opt-in for non-essential cookies? Are your privacy policy terms accurate and specific to your data practices (not a generic template)? Have you addressed GDPR (EU), CCPA (California), LGPD (Brazil), or other regulations relevant to your target markets?
Legal pages: terms of service, shipping and returns policy, and any disclaimers required by your industry. These should be translated into each language version and reviewed by a legal professional familiar with the target market's laws. Contact information: is your business address, email, and phone number clearly displayed? Many countries require a physical business address on commercial websites. SSL and security badges: are they visible and linking to verification pages?
Finally, do a full end-to-end test from a buyer's perspective. Find someone in each target market who has never seen your site. Give them a task: "Find a product, get a quote, and contact us." Watch them do it without providing any guidance. Note where they hesitate, where they click the wrong thing, and where they give up. Fix those issues before you announce your launch to the world.
Allocate at least two weeks for thorough testing of an export website. The first week covers technical testing (forms, links, speed, mobile, CDN). The second week covers content review, SEO verification, compliance checks, and user testing. Rushing the testing phase to meet a launch deadline almost always results in issues that are more expensive to fix after launch than the delay would have been. If you cannot test everything properly, delay your launch.
Sequentially is safer. Launch your English version first, confirm everything works, then add Tier 1 language versions one at a time. This approach lets you focus testing resources on each version and avoids the complexity of debugging multiple languages simultaneously. It also lets you learn from the first launch and apply those lessons to subsequent ones. The caveat: if your primary market requires a specific language (e.g., Japanese buyers expect Japanese), launch that language version alongside English.
Email deliverability. Many exporters set up contact forms and inquiry systems but never test whether the emails actually reach the intended inbox — they may be blocked by spam filters, blocked by the receiving server's security settings, or silently lost. Test with real email addresses from each target market domain. Also commonly overlooked: time zone handling (inquiry timestamps should be in the buyer's time zone or clearly labelled), phone number format validation (a US number format should not block a German buyer), and currency formatting on product pages.