Small Business Website Checklist: 15 Must-Haves Before You Launch
Launching a new business website? Use this 15-point checklist covering pages, SEO, speed, trust and tracking to make sure nothing important is missed.
A new website launch is exciting, and that excitement is exactly when important details get missed. We have seen sites go live with contact forms sending to an old email address, no analytics installed and pages still blocked from Google. Use this 15-point checklist before launch, whether you built the site yourself or hired an agency.
Essential pages
1. A clear homepage that states what you do, who you serve and what visitors should do next, all visible without scrolling. 2. Individual service pages for each main offering, rather than one long page listing everything. 3. An about page with real photos of you and your team; people buy from people. 4. A contact page with a form, phone number, email, address, embedded map and business hours. 5. Privacy policy and terms, required if you collect any personal data through forms, and expected by customers and advertising platforms.
Trust and conversion
6. Social proof such as testimonials, reviews, client logos or case studies, placed near your calls to action. 7. A clear call to action on every page, so no page is a dead end. 8. Working forms: submit every form yourself and confirm the email arrives in the right inbox, not in spam. 9. A professional email address on your own domain, which looks far more credible than a free webmail address.
SEO foundations
10. Unique title tags and meta descriptions on every page, written to include the page's main keyword. 11. Search Console and a sitemap: verify your site in Google Search Console, submit your XML sitemap, and double-check that no page is accidentally set to "noindex", a common leftover from development. 12. Correct heading structure, with one H1 per page and logical H2s beneath it, plus descriptive alt text on images.
Speed, mobile and security
13. Mobile testing on real devices. Check every page on at least one iPhone and one Android phone. Tap every button, open every menu, and fill in every form. 14. Performance and SSL. Run PageSpeed Insights and fix major issues, especially oversized images. Confirm your SSL certificate is active so the site loads with HTTPS and no browser warnings, and that the non-www and www versions redirect to a single address.
Tracking and measurement
15. Analytics and conversion tracking. Install an analytics tool before launch, not after, so you have data from day one. Set up goals or events for the actions that matter: form submissions, phone clicks, bookings and purchases. Without this, you will never know which pages and channels actually bring in business.
After launch: the first 30 days
Launch is the beginning, not the end. In the first month, monitor Search Console for crawl errors, watch analytics to see which pages visitors use and where they leave, ask your first customers for feedback, and request Google reviews. Small adjustments in the first few weeks, based on real behaviour, often produce the biggest improvements.
Print it, tick it, launch it
Go through the list one item at a time and do not launch until every box is ticked. Most items take minutes to check, and each one prevents a problem that could quietly cost you customers for months.
Prefer to skip the checklist entirely? Every item above is included as standard in our 7-Day Website Package, tested and verified before your site goes live.
Need help with this? See our Web development service.