Ecommerce Website Checklist

It's a pre-launch (or periodic audit) checklist for ecommerce sites, covering everything from product information and accessibility to security, performance, and legal compliance — designed to catch gaps before they cost you sales or expose the site to risk.

It confirms every product has a detailed description, product photos, accurate stock levels, and working sizing/colour selection — the core details customers need before they'll buy.

It checks screen reader compatibility, ARIA landmark roles, image alt text, unique page titles/metadata, proper form labels, colour contrast, clear link focus states, and overall WCAG compliance. This ensures the site is usable by people with disabilities and helps avoid accessibility-related legal exposure.

Correct and easy-to-find contact details, a review/rating system, an FAQ page, social media links, clear shipping/returns/refund policies, purchase confirmation and abandoned cart emails, an About page, and a newsletter signup — the elements that build trust and keep customers informed.

It verifies copy has been proofread for spelling, grammar, and factual errors, every page has content (no blanks), images/videos work, placeholder text is removed, and a custom 404 page is in place instead of a default error page.

A favicon is in place, the logo links back to the homepage, navigation works smoothly, and formatting is consistent across all pages — the basics that make a site feel polished and professional.

That shipping rates display during checkout, discount codes apply correctly, cart contents can be edited, prominent payment methods are available, both guest and member checkout are supported, checkout buttons are clearly visible, checkout works across devices, and a detailed confirmation page appears before purchase.

Slow sites lose sales. This section checks that HTML/CSS/JS are minified and combined, images/videos are optimized, GZIP compression is enabled, only necessary fonts are loaded, a CDN/caching is used where appropriate, and overall site performance has been tested.

That the site passes a mobile-friendly test, works properly on mobile devices and tablets, renders correctly in all targeted browsers, shows favicon/touch icons on mobile, and still functions for visitors with JavaScript disabled.

Terms and conditions, a GDPR-compliant privacy policy (for European visitors), a GDPR-compliant cookie policy with a cookie banner, and proper licensing for any external content used on the site.

It confirms the ecommerce platform and infrastructure software are fully updated and patched, a Web Application Firewall is properly configured, no critical/high-risk vulnerabilities are detected, security events are logged, malware/data-leak detection tools are in place, secure areas are blocked from search engines, and default login URLs/usernames and the SSL certificate are properly set.

That analytics tracking is installed, event tracking is set up for key metrics (like purchases or signups), Google Analytics and Search Console accounts are linked, and an XML sitemap is submitted at the site's root.

301 redirects for removed pages, cache expiry settings, clean URL rewrites, consistent URL formatting, a robots.txt file that isn't blocking search engines, W3C-valid HTML/CSS, no JavaScript console errors, and confirming noindex/nofollow tags aren't accidentally hiding pages from search.

That all links, forms, and CTAs work correctly, required fields are validated, form submissions are tracked, forms still work with JavaScript disabled, site search works, form notifications reach the right person, and input validation (character/length limits) is in place.

It's built primarily as a pre-launch checklist, but many sections — especially Security, Performance, Analytics, and Legal — are worth revisiting periodically even after launch, since platforms update, policies change, and new vulnerabilities emerge over time.

Security, Payments, and Functionality directly affect whether customers can safely complete a purchase, so they're the highest priority. Accessibility and Legal compliance are also important since gaps there carry legal risk.