Blog · Planning a website
A website launch checklist for business owners
The checks I run before any site goes live, written so you can run them yourself on a site someone else built. Most take a minute each, and every one has caught a real problem at some point.
Content
- Your business name, address and phone number are identical everywhere on the site and match your Google listing
- Prices, hours and dates are current, and no page says "coming soon" or still has dummy text
- Every page has a clear heading saying what it's about
- Photos are yours or properly licensed, and show your real business
On your phone
- Open every main page on your own phone, on mobile data, not Wi-Fi
- Tap the phone number, the WhatsApp button and the email address: each should open the right app
- Text is readable without zooming, and nothing spills off the side of the screen
- The menu opens and closes, and every link goes where it says
Forms
- Send a test message through every form and check it arrives, and not in spam
- Check what the visitor sees after sending, and what happens if they leave a field empty
- Make sure the form has spam protection, or you'll find out within days
Policies and trust
- Privacy policy, terms and, if you take payments, refund and cancellation pages are linked in the footer
- Any registration, licence or certification you mention is real and current
- Reviews you show or link to are genuine
Technical basics
- The site opens on https and the padlock shows on every page
- Only one version opens: with or without www, not both as separate sites
- Search engines aren't blocked: check that no "discourage search engines" setting is on and that pages don't say noindex
- A test in PageSpeed Insights on the mobile setting shows no obvious problems. See why is my website slow.
- A custom 404 page appears for an address that doesn't exist
If you're replacing an old site
- Every old page address redirects to the right new page, not all to the home page
- Your email still works after any DNS change
The redesign checklist covers this in more detail.
After launch day
- The site is verified in Google Search Console and the sitemap is submitted. See my Search Console guide.
- Analytics records visits and the actions that matter, such as enquiries
- Your Google Business Profile links to the new site
- You have the logins for the domain, hosting and site admin, in your own name
If you want someone to run this list for you, my website development work includes it as standard, and I can run it on a site someone else built.