Deploy and launch · How to use a skill

launch-website-checklist

Takes a deployed site live on its own domain, covering DNS records, HTTPS, www redirect, security headers, Google Search Console and a final go-live checklist (links, mobile, form, 404, share preview). Use when the user wants to launch a site, connect a custom domain, or run a pre-launch checklist before going live.

Version 1.0 · Updated 2026-10-31

View raw SKILL.md

curl -fsSL --create-dirs 'https://theskillvault.ai/api/skills/launch-website-checklist/raw' -o ~/'.claude/skills/launch-website-checklist/SKILL.md'

curl -fsSL --create-dirs 'https://theskillvault.ai/api/skills/launch-website-checklist/raw' -o '.cursor/skills/launch-website-checklist/SKILL.md'

curl -fsSL --create-dirs 'https://theskillvault.ai/api/skills/launch-website-checklist/raw' -o '.agents/skills/launch-website-checklist/SKILL.md'

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "theskillvault": {
      "url": "https://theskillvault.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Launch a website on its own domain

When to use

• The site is deployed (for example at my-site.vercel.app) and you want it on www.yourbusiness.com.au and announced.
• You want one last check that nothing embarrassing is broken.
• For the first deployment itself, use deploy-nextjs-to-vercel; for launch announcements, use write-launch-posts-prompt.

Handoff

• Reads: the live deployment URL (in README.md from the deploy step), docs/quality-report.md, and lib/site.ts.
• Writes: DNS records at the domain registrar, security headers in next.config.ts, and docs/launch-checklist.md with every item ticked or explained.

Steps

1. Commercial check first: a business site on Vercel needs the Pro plan (US$20 per month per developer seat plus tax, per vercel.com/pricing on 2026-10-31), because Vercel's Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only. Upgrade before pointing a business domain at it.
2. Domain: buy it if needed (.com.au has Australian eligibility rules; an ABN is the usual way to qualify). In Vercel → Project → Settings → Domains, add both yourbusiness.com.au and www.yourbusiness.com.au, and choose which one is primary (www is a common choice); the other redirects to it.
3. DNS: at the registrar, add exactly the records Vercel shows on the Domains page: an A record for the apex domain and a CNAME for www. Copy the values from your project's page rather than from a blog post; they can differ per project.
4. Before changing nameservers (instead of single records), copy every existing record, especially MX and TXT records for email; missing them stops the business's email.
5. Wait for "Valid configuration". Vercel issues the HTTPS certificate automatically. Check http:// redirects to https:// and the non-primary host redirects to the primary.
6. Update site.url in lib/site.ts (and metadataBase) to the final domain, redeploy, and confirm /sitemap.xml lists the real domain.
7. Security headers in next.config.ts via async headers() for source: "/(.*)":

• Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains (add preload only after reading hstspreload.org's requirements)
• X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
• Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
• X-Frame-Options: DENY (or a CSP frame-ancestors 'none')
• Permissions-Policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()
• A Content-Security-Policy is worth adding later; test it in Content-Security-Policy-Report-Only first because a wrong CSP breaks analytics, fonts and forms.

1. Stop the *.vercel.app production URL competing in search: add X-Robots-Tag: noindex for requests whose host is your-project.vercel.app (Next.js headers() with a has: [{ type: "host", ... }] condition).
2. Google Search Console: add a Domain property, verify it with the TXT record Google gives you, then submit https://www.yourbusiness.com.au/sitemap.xml.
3. Go-live checklist, written to docs/launch-checklist.md:

• Every nav and footer link works (no 404s); the 404 page itself looks right.
• Mobile: check on a real phone, in portrait, for text size, tap targets and no sideways scrolling.
• Contact form: send a real enquiry on the live domain and confirm it arrives and the reply-to works.
• Share preview: paste the home page into a chat app and check the title, description and image.
• /privacy is linked in the footer and matches what the site collects.
• Lighthouse on the live URL is no worse than in docs/quality-report.md.
• Favicon, page titles and the business details (phone, address, hours) are correct.
• Analytics records your own visit.

Gotchas

• DNS changes can take time to show everywhere; don't keep editing records while you wait.
• Remove any conflicting old A, AAAA or CNAME records for the same name, or the domain stays "Invalid configuration".
• HSTS is sticky: browsers remember it for max-age. Start shorter (for example one day) if you're not sure every subdomain has HTTPS.
• Keep the old site, or a redirect, running until DNS has switched, so customers never see an error.

References

• Vercel, Adding and configuring a custom domain: https://vercel.com/docs/domains/working-with-domains/add-a-domain
• Vercel, Fair use guidelines (commercial usage): https://vercel.com/docs/limits/fair-use-guidelines
• Vercel KB, Avoiding duplicate content with vercel.app URLs: https://vercel.com/kb/guide/avoiding-duplicate-content-with-vercel-app-urls

Credits

Topic coverage informed by addyosmani/web-quality-skills (https://github.com/addyosmani/web-quality-skills, MIT © 2026 Addy Osmani). The text here is our own.

Example prompt

"Connect my domain to the site on Vercel and run through a pre-launch checklist so I can go live."

Licence: CC BY 4.0. Attribution when you reuse it: From TheSkillVault, https://theskillvault.ai, CC BY 4.0