Publishing and Maintenance

Pre-Publish Checklist

Learn to review content, links, forms, accessibility and metadata and publish with fewer defects in this beginner-friendly website development lesson.

Learning outcomes

  • Explain how to review content, links, forms, accessibility and metadata.
  • Complete the guided practice safely.
  • Check that you can publish with fewer defects.

Before you begin

Work on a practice copy, keep filenames lowercase and hyphenated, and create a backup before changing a live website.

Open official guidance ↗

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Open the relevant project page, file or WordPress screen and confirm you are working on a safe practice copy.
  2. Complete a staged checklist.
  3. Inspect the result using browser tools or WordPress Preview; do not publish yet.
  4. Check keyboard use, mobile layout, content accuracy, links, images and privacy where applicable.
  5. Confirm that you can publish with fewer defects, then save a clearly named version or backup.
Ian's practical tip: Preview first, test at desktop and mobile sizes, and keep a recoverable copy before publishing.

Practical activity

Complete a staged checklist. The expected result is to publish with fewer defects.

Completion checklist