Accept a website project when the agreed pages, content, shared components, functions, integrations, responsive behavior, accessibility checks, performance conditions, analytics, redirects, search foundations, launch steps, ownership transfer, documentation, and recurring responsibilities meet the written scope.

Acceptance is not a search for limitless perfection. It is a documented comparison between the delivered site and agreed behavior. Separate reproducible defects from new preferences, new content, and additional functions.

Quick acceptance packet: approved scope and design, final content inventory, test URLs, role and device list, form destinations, integration accounts, redirect map, analytics plan, issue log, ownership list, launch checklist, handoff documents, and written sign-off.

Start from the signed scope

Use the agreed page list, content responsibilities, designs, functions, integrations, migration, search work, quality checks, launch plan, and exclusions. Do not review from memory or introduce a competitor feature during final testing.

Record each issue with page, steps, expected behavior, actual behavior, device or browser, screenshot where useful, severity, and relationship to the scope.

1. Verify every page and shared component

  • Every launch page exists at the approved address.
  • Navigation, footer, buttons, banners, and repeated components are consistent.
  • Missing, error, confirmation, and empty states behave intentionally.
  • Draft, placeholder, test, and excluded content is not public.
  • Internal links, downloads, phone, email, and external links work.

2. Approve content and evidence

Confirm business names, services, prices where shown, locations, hours, contacts, staff, credentials, reviews, testimonials, claims, project examples, menus, policies, and dates.

Verify the business has permission to publish text, photos, video, logos, reviews, case studies, fonts, and other assets. Fictional portfolio demos must remain clearly labeled and must not be presented as client results.

3. Test forms and customer actions

Submit every form using valid, invalid, duplicate, long, mobile, and spam-like inputs where appropriate. Verify required fields, errors, uploads, consent, confirmation, delivery, routing, reply path, notifications, CRM records, and failure visibility.

Test phone, email, booking, purchase, donation, portal, map, download, application, and other primary actions. A button that looks correct but reaches the wrong location is an acceptance defect.

4. Test integrations and third parties

Verify the correct production accounts, plans, identifiers, webhook secrets, sender addresses, calendars, catalogs, campaigns, locations, and data mappings.

Test success, cancellation, decline, timeout, duplicate, missing permission, provider failure, and retry when they are in scope. Confirm recurring fees and account ownership.

5. Review responsive and browser behavior

Test agreed phones, tablets, desktop widths, browsers, zoom, orientation, long text, large system fonts, menus, tables, forms, media, and sticky elements.

Look for horizontal scrolling, hidden actions, overlapping text, unreadable tap targets, clipped errors, keyboard traps, and content that appears only on hover.

6. Complete accessibility checks

Review semantic headings, page titles, landmarks, link purpose, labels, instructions, errors, keyboard order, focus visibility, skip links, dialogs, menus, color contrast, alternative text, captions, motion, zoom, and document accessibility as included.

Automated tools help find some problems but do not replace keyboard and human review. Qualified guidance may be needed to determine legal or contractual requirements.

7. Verify performance under agreed conditions

Test representative pages on the agreed production or production-like environment. Review image sizes, fonts, scripts, video, caching, layout stability, interaction, and slow-network behavior.

Third-party chat, maps, booking, analytics, ads, and tracking can materially affect speed. Confirm which dependencies are required and who owns future tuning.

8. Confirm analytics and conversion measurement

Verify production analytics account access, consent behavior, page views, primary actions, form success, calls or external links where configured, ecommerce or donation events, filters, internal traffic handling, and privacy boundaries.

Record the baseline and reporting owner. Data collection without someone responsible for review does not improve the website.

9. Check search and migration work

Verify page titles, descriptions, headings, indexability, canonical URLs, structured data where included, sitemap, robots rules, internal links, social previews, and Search Console access.

Compare old and new URL inventories. Test redirects, removed pages, media links, important backlinks where known, and post-launch crawl results. Confirm no staging restrictions remain on production.

10. Verify privacy, security, and recovery basics

Confirm HTTPS, supported dependencies, protected credentials, least-privilege accounts, production access, spam controls, data destinations, retention settings, privacy notices supplied by the client, backups, restore responsibility, monitoring, and offboarding.

Do not place passwords or secrets in the acceptance log. Use the agreed secure access method.

11. Confirm domain, code, and account handoff

The business should be able to identify and access the domain registrar, DNS, repository, source code, hosting, database where applicable, analytics, Search Console, forms, email, payment, booking, CRM, business listings, licenses, backups, and monitoring.

At Vertinus, ownership of the completed code, interface, project-specific deliverables, and domain transfers after final payment. Third-party assets retain their licenses.

12. Review launch and rollback

Confirm final backup, DNS plan, certificates, redirect deployment, production variables, form recipients, analytics, sitemap, cache, monitoring, rollback, responsible contacts, and post-launch check times.

For a replacement site, preserve a recoverable copy of the prior state until the launch is verified.

13. Receive documentation and training

Collect page and content editing instructions, deployment notes, account inventory, third-party list, recurring costs, license notes, backup and recovery instructions, form-routing details, analytics definitions, and support route.

Confirm who owns content updates, domains, certificates, platform upgrades, provider changes, security patches, monitoring, and backups after acceptance.

14. Classify remaining issues

  • Blocking defect: agreed critical behavior is unavailable, unsafe, or materially incorrect.
  • Non-blocking defect: agreed behavior is incorrect but launch can proceed with a documented correction.
  • Content correction: supplied fact or approved text needs adjustment.
  • New request: a page, function, integration, or preference outside the agreed scope.
  • Third-party issue: provider behavior requiring a workaround, escalation, or revised plan.

Assign owner, due date, resolution, retest, and launch effect. Do not hide known items in chat messages.

15. Record acceptance

The sign-off should identify the project, scope version, production URL, review period, accepted date, approver, completed criteria, known non-blocking items, separate changes, ownership handoff, and ongoing service.

If optional Managed Website Care is selected, Vertinus charges $50 per month for hosting, one standard-priced domain, DNS, SSL, monitoring, backups, routine technical maintenance, and deployments. New content and features are billed at $49.99 per hour under a separate approved estimate.

Set expectations earlier with the website design contract checklist, compare the scope through the website proposal scorecard, and protect assets with the website ownership guide.

Send Vertinus your website scope, current staging URL, and unresolved acceptance items. We can turn them into an observable test and handoff list, separating agreed defects from separately estimated additions.