WordPress Website QA Checklist: How Agencies Test Before Launch

Your client judges your agency by the first time they open their new site. A broken form, a misaligned section on mobile or a slow homepage can undo weeks of good work. That is why every WordPress project needs a QA process that runs before the client sees anything.

This checklist is what we use as a starting point. Adapt it to your projects and run it on staging before every review and every launch.

Design fidelity

• Compare every template with the approved design, side by side.
• Check typography: fonts, sizes, line heights and weights.
• Check spacing, alignment and grid on key sections.
• Check colors, buttons, icons and image crops.
• Check hover, focus and active states.

Responsive behaviour

• Test common widths: small phones, large phones, tablets in both orientations, laptops and large screens.
• Check navigation and menus on mobile.
• Make sure nothing scrolls sideways and no text overflows its container.
• Check images, videos and embeds on small screens.

Browsers and devices

• Test the latest versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.
• Test on a real iPhone and a real Android device, not only in browser tools.

Forms and functionality

• Submit every form and confirm emails arrive in the right inboxes.
• Check validation messages, success messages and spam protection.
• Test search, filters, sliders, tabs and accordions.
• For WooCommerce, place test orders with every payment and shipping method.
• Test integrations: CRM, email marketing, booking tools and analytics events.

Content and editor experience

• Check that all placeholder content has been replaced.
• Check spelling in headings and calls to action.
• Log in as an editor and make a few typical changes: edit text, add a section, replace an image.
• Make sure blocks and fields are clear and hard to break.

The editor experience is often forgotten, but it decides how happy the client is a month after launch. See how we approach custom Gutenberg blocks with that in mind.

Performance

• Run PageSpeed Insights on key templates, on mobile.
• Check image sizes and formats, and lazy loading below the fold.
• Check caching and that scripts load only where needed.

Our guide to Core Web Vitals for WordPress explains which numbers matter.

SEO basics

• Make sure the site is not blocked from indexing on production.
• Check titles, meta descriptions and one H1 per page.
• Prepare 301 redirects from old URLs if this is a redesign or migration.
• Check the XML sitemap and Search Console setup.

Accessibility

• Check color contrast on text and buttons.
• Navigate key pages with the keyboard only.
• Make sure images have meaningful alt text and form fields have labels.

Security and maintenance

• Remove unused plugins, themes and test users.
• Check user roles and strong passwords for admin accounts.
• Make sure backups run and SSL works on every page.
• Update WordPress core, theme and plugins to current versions.

Launch day

• Take a full backup before switching.
• Check DNS, SSL and redirects right after launch.
• Submit test forms again on the live site.
• Check analytics and tracking.

Make QA part of the process, not an afterthought

QA works best when developers check their own work first, and someone else checks it again. If your team does not have time for thorough testing, choose a development partner whose process includes it. At Deviart, every build is tested on staging and compared with the design before it reaches your review, whether it is a Figma to WordPress build or a custom theme.

Talk to us about your next project.