Two weeks before

Turn on auto-renew and transfer lock for the domainAn expired domain is a total outage plus a ransom negotiation. Set the registrant email to one that isn't hosted on the domain itself.
Verify HTTPS works on both the apex and www, with one redirecting to the otherTest https://example.com and https://www.example.com explicitly. Confirm certificate renewal is automated — expiry is the classic day-60 outage.
Lower DNS TTLs to 300 secondsLaunch-week DNS mistakes get fixed in five minutes instead of a day. Raise them again once things are stable.
Install error tracking and confirm it receives a real eventThrow a deliberate exception in production and watch it arrive. "Installed" and "working" are different claims.
Set up analytics with 3–5 named events that define successSignup, activation, payment. Pageviews alone can't answer "is the product working?" on launch night.
Add external uptime monitoring that pages your phoneExternal — a monitor hosted in your own infrastructure goes down with it.
Publish a privacy policy and terms of service if collecting personal dataAn email address counts as personal data under GDPR and CCPA, and payment providers require published terms and a refund policy.
Set up database backups and perform one restoreA backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup.

One week before

Make a real live-mode purchase with a real card, then refund it if paid productTest cards prove the code; a live charge proves the account — live API keys, webhook endpoints, tax settings, and payout details all differ from test mode.
Verify webhooks for failed payments and disputes are handled if paid productThe unhappy payment paths are where money silently leaks.
Write unique titles and meta descriptions for every public pageThe title tag is your search listing and your browser-tab label; 60 characters that do real work.
Add Open Graph tags with a 1200×630 image, then paste the URL into Slack to checkEvery launch link preview — on X, Slack, LinkedIn, iMessage — is rendered from these tags. Test the render, not the markup.
Add robots.txt and sitemap.xml, and submit the site to Search ConsoleAlso confirms nothing is accidentally set to noindex — a common leftover from staging.
Confirm transactional email lands in the inbox, not spamSignup confirmation and password reset, tested against Gmail and Outlook. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are the difference.
Run a load sanity check at 10x expected launch trafficNot a full load test — one script hammering the homepage and signup flow. A Hacker News front page can send tens of thousands of visits in a few hours, most of them in the first one.
Add rate limiting to signup and any expensive endpointBots find open signup forms within hours of launch, not days.

Freeze deploys of anything not launch-criticalLaunch day is the worst possible day to debug an unrelated change.
Run a fresh-eyes signup on someone else's machineIncognito, no saved state, ideally someone who has never seen the product. Your own browser has been hiding onboarding bugs for months.
Remove test accounts, debug endpoints, and staging credentials from production
Verify the support channel works and someone is watching itSend a test message to the support address and confirm a human sees it. Launch-day replies within the hour convert complainers into fans.
Write the launch posts in advanceThe announcement, the Show HN text, the social posts. Launch-morning adrenaline writes bad copy.

Smoke-test the critical path one final time before announcingSignup, core action, payment. Five minutes, before the traffic arrives rather than with it.
Post the announcements and stay in the threadsFounders answering questions in the comments measurably improves how a launch goes; a link-drop reads as spam.
Watch the error tracker and dashboards through the dayNew traffic exercises paths no test found. Triage in real time — launch-day bugs fixed within hours barely count as bugs.
Confirm real transactions are arriving in the payment dashboard if paid productWatching the code isn't the same as watching the money.
Capture every piece of user feedback somewhere durableLaunch-day feedback is the most honest you will ever get, and it evaporates from your memory within a week.