Module 7 · 7.4

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Going live and maintenance

Module 7: Being found and hosting · Reading time: 10 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you can move a shop carefully from test to live, follow the first days closely and set up a maintenance routine that keeps your shop safe, up to date and within the rules.

Key concepts: going live, go-live checklist, coming soon mode, clearing test data, live keys, first real order, monitoring, maintenance routine, legal check, person responsible, stand-in

Going live is a moment, not a click

In the WordPress course you took a site live by allowing search engines and sharing the address. With a shop, more is at stake at that moment: from the first order you receive money, you promise delivery and all the rules from module 5 apply. A mistake on day one is a real customer with a real problem.

That is why you work with a go-live checklist: a fixed list you go through, ideally together with someone else, and that you keep for next time (a move, a new shop or a major rebuild).

The checklist before going live

At Theehuis Example the list looks like this, in the order in which they work through it.

Technical

[ ] https works for all addresses, with a redirect to one main address (WordPress course, lessons 3.1 and 3.2)
[ ] PHP version and memory limit as recommended (lesson 7.2)
[ ] real cron job set up, no overdue scheduled actions (lesson 7.3)
[ ] page cache on, with cart, checkout and My account excluded (lesson 6.4)
[ ] backups are running and a restore test has been done (lesson 6.2)
[ ] WordPress, WooCommerce, theme and plugins updated, unused ones removed

Store

[ ] test orders and test customers removed, invoice numbering starts at the right value (lesson 5.6)
[ ] payment provider switched from test mode to live, live keys entered, webhook address correct
[ ] shipping zones, VAT settings and prices including VAT checked (lessons 4.1 to 4.3)
[ ] stock matches what is actually on the shelf (lesson 3.4)
[ ] emails from the shop arrive, with the right sender (lesson 6.1)

Rules

[ ] contact details and, for German customers, the Impressum in the footer (lesson 5.1)
[ ] withdrawal information with model withdrawal form (lesson 5.2)
[ ] withdrawal button: the Order withdrawal function (or your own form) switched on, and a "Withdraw from contract" link in the footer (in Dutch "Overeenkomst herroepen") (lesson 5.3)
[ ] text on the order button changed ("Order with obligation to pay", in Dutch "Bestelling met betalingsverplichting", in German "Zahlungspflichtig bestellen") (lesson 5.4)
[ ] terms and conditions linked at checkout and in the confirmation email; privacy statement and cookie banner in order (lesson 5.5)

Making it visible

[ ] coming soon mode off (WooCommerce > Settings > Site visibility, "Site visibility")
[ ] search engines allowed (WordPress course, lesson 2.4); no noindex on store and product pages (lesson 7.1)
[ ] sitemap submitted in Search Console

The first real order

The best test is a real order placed by yourself, with your own means of payment, right after going live. You then see what a customer sees: the real payment page, the real emails, the real payment arriving at your payment provider. Then refund it through WooCommerce (lesson 6.5) and check that this step works too, including the credit note. Do this test with every payment method you actually offer; a method that worked in test mode may still be missing a setting when live.

Make a backup straight afterwards. That is your first good starting point.

The first weeks: check, don't assume

In the first weeks you see the mistakes that don't show up in a test:

Orders that stay on "Pending payment" even though the customer did pay: a webhook is not arriving (lessons 4.4 and 4.5).
Failed orders in a series with small amounts: possibly card testing (lesson 6.3).
Customers emailing that they got no confirmation: check the sending log or your mail service (lesson 6.1).
Failed scheduled actions under WooCommerce > Status (lesson 7.3).
Error messages in your hosting error log and in WooCommerce > Status > Logs.

Check these daily for the first two weeks. After that, the routine takes over.

A maintenance routine for a shop

The general routine (week, month, quarter, year) is in the WordPress course, lesson 9.4. A shop adds an extra layer:

When	What
Every day (5 minutes)	New orders and their status, failed payments, withdrawals via the button: the 14-day refund period starts (lesson 6.5)
Every week	Updates of WooCommerce and payment plugins, on staging first for major versions (lesson 7.3); scheduled actions and error log; stock of your best-selling products
Every month	Restore the backup as a test; run exercises A6.4 (cache) and A7.4 (shop inspection) from this course again; receive the order emails yourself once
Every quarter	Prices, discounts and the 30-day rule (lesson 5.4); VAT rates and your OSS return (lesson 4.2); payment methods and the Wero transition at your provider (lesson 4.4); users and roles (lesson 6.2)
Every six months	Legal check: are the rules from module 5 still current? Check with the ACM (Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets), your trade association or quality mark, the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration) and, for Germany and Belgium, their supervisory authorities. Update your terms, withdrawal information and privacy statement if anything has changed
Every year	Retention periods and clearing out old data (lessons 2.3 and 5.6); data processing agreements; does your hosting still suit your growth (lesson 7.2)?

Why a six-monthly legal check? The rules for web shops change more often than you think. In 2025 and 2026 alone, the ODR platform disappeared, the withdrawal button arrived, e-invoicing between businesses became mandatory in Belgium and the transition from iDEAL to Wero began. This course describes the situation as of 9 November 2026. Whatever changes after that, you have to keep track of yourself.

Who does it?

A maintenance routine only works if there is a name next to it. For each task, write down who does it, and who does it when that person is ill or on holiday. Record where the passwords, the payment provider keys and your host's contact details are kept (in a password manager, not in an email). A shop that can only run if one person looks at it every day is vulnerable.

At Theehuis Example the owner does the daily check, a web developer does the monthly updates on staging, and the accountant does the quarterly check of VAT and OSS. The six-monthly legal check is a recurring appointment in the calendar.

Summary

Go live with a fixed checklist for technical matters, store, rules and visibility.
Right after going live, place a real order with every payment method, refund it and make a backup.
For the first weeks, check orders, payments, emails, scheduled actions and the error log daily.
Keep a routine from daily to yearly, with a six-monthly legal check.
Put a name and a stand-in next to every task.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise A7.4: Shop inspection. Enter your shop's address, choose your country and, if you like, enter the addresses of your cart and checkout page. The program runs a short version of earlier checks in one go, with at most 25 requests and without ever adding anything to the cart: certificate and redirect from http to https, and whether there is HSTS (as in A6.3); whether it is WooCommerce, the Store API responds and orders and customers are closed via the API (A2.4); whether cart and checkout are not served from the cache (A6.4); whether the homepage links to terms, privacy and withdrawal, and for Germany to an Impressum (A5.1, A5.2, A5.5); whether there is a withdrawal button on the homepage (A5.3); whether visible versions of WordPress and WooCommerce are not out of date (A6.2); and whether xmlrpc.php is closed (A6.2b). For each part you get the strictest colour, with a link to the lesson. The inspection is green if there is no red and at most two oranges, orange if there is no red, and red otherwise.

Exercise D7.4: Your go-live and your routine. Go through the checklist from this lesson for your own shop (or your test shop, if you are not live yet). Tick off: test orders and test customers gone; payment provider on live; coming soon mode off and search engines allowed; a first real order placed and refunded; a backup right after going live; your routine recorded from daily to six-monthly; a name and a stand-in for each task.

Answer: write down your routine as a list (what, how often, who). What went wrong or nearly went wrong with your first real order, and what did you change?

Exercise D7.4: Your go-live and your routine

You do this exercise yourself; no one checks it. Tick off what you've done and mark the exercise as done.

Test orders and test customers removed
Payment provider set to live
Coming soon mode off and search engines allowed
First real order (your own purchase) placed and refunded
Backup made right after going live
Routine recorded (weekly, monthly, quarterly, six-monthly legal check)
Who stands in for me

Your routine as a list: what, how often, who.

What went wrong with the first real order?

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