Every item on this list exists because something broke in production.
I spent four years running content operations on a large AEM site. In that time, I watched a page go live with the staging cache still warm, a promo banner with last quarter's pricing, and a checkout link pointing at the author environment. Each one had the same root cause: someone eyeballed the page in author preview and hit publish.
Author lies. Publish tells the truth.
So I built a checklist. Not a theoretical one — a "this exact thing burned us" one. I ran it before every publish, and the production incidents dropped off a cliff. Here it is.
1. Content correctness
- All copy matches the approved source document. No placeholder text, no lorem ipsum, no "TK."
- Product names, prices, and specs match the source of truth.
- Dates, times, and time zones are correct and clearly labeled.
- Legal disclaimers and footnotes are present where required.
- Critical: any pricing, offer terms, or claims have written stakeholder approval on file.
2. SEO and meta
- Page title set, unique, under 60 characters. Meta description under 160.
- Canonical URL correct — especially for campaign or duplicated pages.
- Open Graph tags present for anything that will be shared.
- One H1 per page, headings in order, no skipped levels.
- Staging and test pages must NOT be indexable. Launch pages must be.
3. Links
- Every link clicked and verified — internal and external.
- No links to author-environment URLs. If you see
/editor.htmlin a href, stop. - Critical: checkout, cart, and conversion-path links tested end to end.
4. Images and media
- Every image loads at every breakpoint. No broken image icons.
- Alt text on every meaningful image; decorative images marked decorative.
- File sizes sane: heroes under ~300 KB, gallery images under ~200 KB. Check the actual rendition, not the original.
- Correct rendition for each placement — no full-size originals in thumbnail slots.
5. Responsive and cross-browser
- Check at mobile (~375px), tablet (~768px), and desktop (~1440px).
- No horizontal scrolling. Text doesn't overlap anything.
- Checked in your two most-used browsers (usually Chrome and Safari).
6. Accessibility basics
- Color contrast meets WCAG AA for body text (4.5:1).
- Form fields have visible labels, not placeholder-only text.
- Page is keyboard-navigable: logical tab order, visible focus, no traps.
- Videos have captions; audio has a transcript link.
7. Personalization and targeting
- Targeting rules reviewed: which audiences see this, and is the logic right?
- Default (untargeted) experience verified.
- No audience sees content meant for a different audience. The classic: employees seeing the "new customer" offer.
8. Publishing mechanics
- Content activated to the right publish environment — not just sitting in author.
- Scheduled publishes have the correct date, time, AND time zone.
- Dispatcher cache flushed for the changed pages — then verified by loading the page in a fresh session.
- Critical: check on the live URL, not the author preview.
9. Analytics and tracking
- Page views registering. Conversion events firing — test each one.
- Campaign tracking parameters correct on promo links.
- No duplicate page-view tags after template changes.
How to run this without it taking all day
For a major launch, run the full list — budget half a day. For routine updates, run the starred critical-path items plus whatever sections the change touches. A copy change needs sections 1–3. An image swap needs 4–5.
The rule: the checklist scales with the blast radius of the change. A homepage hero gets the full pass. A typo fix gets content correctness and a live-URL check.
And keep a QA log — ticket number, date, who ran QA, pass/fail, issues found. When something breaks in production despite QA, the log tells you whether the checklist failed or the checklist was skipped. Those are very different problems.
This is Chapter 6 of "Adobe Experience Manager Simplified," my plain-language guide to running content operations in AEM — lifecycles, governance, metadata, DAM workflows, Jira intake, launch runbooks, plus 8 copy-paste templates. 38 pages, $39: https://davidverse176.gumroad.com/l/saaok
