Going Live & Support

Going Live Checklist

April 24, 2026 docsadmin 6 min read

Going Live Checklist

The pre-launch checklist for getting your Best Classifieds marketplace into production. Work through this in order — each section builds on the previous one.

Time estimate: 2–4 hours of focused work, depending on whether you’re migrating data or starting fresh.

1. Content sweep

The WOW Feeder fills the site with great-looking demo content. Replace it before launch.

Pages to rewrite

Page What to do
About (/about/) Replace the demo “local-first marketplace” copy with your actual mission, founder story, location
Contact (/contact/) Real email + business hours + (optional) physical address
Privacy Policy Required by GDPR/CCPA. WordPress has a generator at Settings → Privacy
Terms of Service Required for payments. Cover: prohibited content, refund policy, dispute process

Demo listings

You have two options:

  • Keep demo listings as seed content — they’ll show “real” activity to first visitors. Mark them with a tag like seed-content so you can identify and remove them later.
  • Wipe everything via “Reset all demo data” in the WOW Feeder admin and start with a blank board. Better if you want zero demo bias.

We recommend wiping before launch. A homepage with 48 random listings looks weird if those are clearly not from your area.

Hero copy

Customize → Best Classifieds Options → Hero. The default “Discover what’s nearby” works for many sites. Swap to something specific to your niche if it fits:

  • “Buy and sell used books in Boston.”
  • “Find your next apartment in Pune.”
  • “Trades and services across the Bay Area.”

The <em> italicized word picks up your primary color automatically.

2. Categories audit

Customize the 8 default categories to match your marketplace:

Renaming or removing

  • Rename via Posts → Categories → click the category → change name + slug.
  • Remove unwanted ones (e.g. if you’re vehicles-only, remove Pets, Jobs, Services).

Adding new ones

If your niche needs categories not in the default set (Real Estate Rentals, Boats & Watercraft, Industrial Equipment, etc.), see Categories & Locations for adding them with the right icons.

Category descriptions

Each category has a description field. Write 1–2 sentences explaining what belongs there. The description appears at the top of the category archive — good SEO real estate.

3. Payments configuration [Pro]

If you’re charging for listings:

  • [ ] Live Stripe keys (not test) at Classifieds Pro → Settings → Payments
  • [ ] Live Razorpay keys (if relevant)
  • [ ] Webhooks configured at both gateway dashboards
  • [ ] Currency set correctly at Classifieds Pro → Settings → General
  • [ ] Tax handling configured (if applicable)
  • [ ] Test transactions completed end-to-end (post a listing, pay, verify it goes live, refund it)

If you’re NOT charging (free marketplace):

  • [ ] Disable both Stripe and Razorpay in settings
  • [ ] Delete or hide the paid packages, leaving only the free one
  • [ ] Hide the “Promote” / “Bump” buttons from the dashboard via a setting

4. SEO basics

The theme is search-engine-friendly out of the box, but you should still:

  • [ ] Install Yoast SEO or Rank Math (free is fine)
  • [ ] Set the site title + description in Settings → General
  • [ ] Configure social-share image and meta description per page
  • [ ] Generate an XML sitemap (Yoast/Rank Math does this) and submit to:

– [ ] Google Search Console – [ ] Bing Webmaster Tools

  • [ ] Verify the listing schema is rendering — view source on a listing page, look for <script type="application/ld+json"> containing "@type":"Product" (the theme adds this automatically)
  • [ ] Set canonical URLs (Yoast does this; double-check)
  • [ ] Verify robots.txt isn’t blocking listings (especially if you came from staging)

Listing URLs

  • Free theme: /category/{cat}/{listing-slug}/
  • Pro CPT mode: /listing/{listing-slug}/

Both work; we recommend the CPT mode for cleaner URLs once you have 100+ listings.

5. Performance

A fresh Best Classifieds + Pro install scores ~95 on PageSpeed mobile and ~99 on desktop. To keep it there:

Caching

  • [ ] Install a page cache: WP Rocket (paid, easy) or Cache Enabler (free)
  • [ ] Configure cache exclusions: /post-a-listing/, /my-account/, /checkout, ?bcpro-action=*
  • [ ] Install an object cache (Redis or Memcached) — your host probably offers this

Image optimization

  • [ ] Install EWWW Image Optimizer or use a service like ShortPixel
  • [ ] Convert large images to WebP automatically
  • [ ] Verify lazy-loading is on (WordPress 5.5+ does this automatically; theme is compatible)

CDN

  • [ ] Cloudflare (free tier is plenty for most sites)
  • [ ] Or BunnyCDN for less than $1/mo if Cloudflare is overkill

6. Security hardening

Listing sites attract spammers and scammers. Don’t be casual about this.

  • [ ] HTTPS forced everywhere — your host should do this; if not, install Really Simple SSL
  • [ ] Strong admin password + 2FA via Wordfence, iThemes Security, or any 2FA plugin
  • [ ] Hide wp-admin behind a custom path with WPS Hide Login (you’ve already done this on themeshopsv2)
  • [ ] Limit login attempts (Wordfence / Limit Login Attempts Reloaded)
  • [ ] Disable XML-RPC if you don’t use Jetpack: add_filter('xmlrpc_enabled', '__return_false');
  • [ ] Block PHP execution in /wp-content/uploads/ via .htaccess or nginx
  • [ ] Set up daily database backups (UpdraftPlus is fine)

Spam protection

  • [ ] Akismet API key configured
  • [ ] hCaptcha or Cloudflare Turnstile on the submission form
  • [ ] Classifieds Pro → Settings → Submission → Require approval = ON for first month (review every submission manually)

7. Email deliverability

When listings get posted, payments succeed, or messages arrive, the site sends emails. Make sure they actually arrive.

  • [ ] Configure SMTP via WP Mail SMTP plugin
  • [ ] Use a transactional service: Postmark (recommended), SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES
  • [ ] Set up SPF + DKIM + DMARC DNS records (your transactional provider has docs)
  • [ ] Send a test email; verify it arrives in Inbox (not Spam)

Customize email templates at Classifieds Pro → Settings → Emails:

  • Welcome email (new member registers)
  • Listing approved (Pending → Published)
  • New message received
  • Listing about to expire
  • Listing expired

Required by law in most jurisdictions:

  • [ ] Privacy Policy — generated at Settings → Privacy + customized
  • [ ] Terms of Service — covers what users agree to when using the site
  • [ ] Cookie Notice (EU) — install Complianz (free)
  • [ ] Refund Policy if you charge for listings (link from checkout page)

Linking them: footer column 4 (or wherever your “Stay in touch” widget is). The WOW Feeder’s copyright string includes Privacy + Terms placeholders.

9. Analytics

  • [ ] Google Analytics 4 (free) — install via Site Kit plugin
  • [ ] (Optional) Plausible or Fathom if you want privacy-respecting analytics
  • [ ] Microsoft Clarity for free heatmaps and session recordings (massively underrated)

Configure goal events in GA4 for:

  • New listing posted
  • Successful paid checkout
  • Contact reveal clicked
  • Search performed

10. Final pre-launch test

Run through these as a logged-out visitor on a real device (not just DevTools):

  • [ ] Homepage loads in under 2 seconds
  • [ ] Live search dropdown works (type 2+ chars, see results)
  • [ ] Click a category card → archive loads with listings
  • [ ] Click a listing → single page renders cleanly
  • [ ] “Show Contact Email” reveals the address on first click
  • [ ] [Pro] Click “Post Free Ad” → routed to login or submission form correctly
  • [ ] Sign up as a new user → confirmation email arrives
  • [ ] [Pro] Submit a listing → reaches Pending or Published correctly
  • [ ] [Pro] Pay for a featured slot → Stripe/Razorpay test succeeds → listing goes featured
  • [ ] Switch to a phone → repeat the above; everything responsive

If everything passes, you’re ready. Switch DNS, kill any “coming soon” plugin, announce on socials.

11. Day-1 monitoring

  • Check Classifieds Pro → Pending Listings every few hours and approve in real-time
  • Watch the spam queue (Akismet) — first day is often the noisiest
  • Monitor email deliverability — if welcome emails are landing in spam, fix DNS records immediately
  • Watch Google Search Console for crawl errors

After 7 days, start refining: identify what categories sellers actually use, drop the ones nobody touches, raise prices on the popular packages.

What to do if something breaks

  • Site down (white screen) — disable plugins via SFTP (rename wp-content/plugins/ → plugins-old/), narrow it down
  • Payment failed but listing went live — check Classifieds Pro → Orders, manually refund or correct
  • Admin login broken — wp user create via WP-CLI to create an emergency admin
  • All else — see Troubleshooting

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