Scanning a new site before it launches is the cheapest accessibility work you will ever do. Finding a problem in a template before it goes live costs a fraction of what it costs to fix the same problem across a live site with real traffic.
What to do before launch
- Add the staging site as a website. Use the staging URL. You can remove it or update it after launch.
- Scan it. Discovery works on staging sites as long as they are reachable. If staging is behind a server password, allow our scanner or scan the live site once it is up.
- Fix what you find. Template issues are especially cheap to fix at this stage, before there is pressure to ship.
- Scan again to confirm. No wait on paid plans.
What a pre-launch scan catches and what it does not
It catches everything automated testing can find: contrast, missing labels, empty buttons, heading structure, and more. It does not catch things that need a person: whether keyboard navigation works end to end through a checkout, whether error messages make sense, whether the content is actually clear.
If you need a clean bill of health for launch, request an Expert Manual Review on the staging scan before you go live, and factor that timeline into your launch schedule.
After launch
Set a scheduled scan. New content, new templates and third-party scripts all introduce new issues. Catching them monthly is far easier than catching them a year later.