The words
Content and contact routes
The usual launch problems are a phone number with a typo, a service you no longer offer, or a form that sends enquiries to an inbox nobody reads.
- Read every word aloud. Check spellings, prices, opening hours and the name of your business. Ask someone who has not seen the site to read it too.
- Test every way to contact you. Ring the number, click the email link on your phone, and send a message through the form. Make sure each one reaches you.
- Check your address and service area. They should match what is on your Google Business Profile and your other listings.
- Check the photos. They should be yours or properly licensed, and each should have a short description (alt text) for people using screen readers.
The devices
Phones and speed
Most people will meet your site on a phone, so start there. Open it on your own phone, on mobile data rather than Wi-Fi. Can you read the text without zooming? Can you tap the buttons with a thumb? Does the phone number call when you tap it?
Then run the home page through Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool. You do not need a perfect score. Look for large images that were never resized, and for anything that makes the page jump around while it loads. For more on slow sites, see what a cheap website really costs.
The basics
The small things people forget
- A page title and description. These are what appear in Google results. Each page needs its own.
- A privacy page. If your forms or tracking collect personal information, say what you do with it.
- A custom error page. Type a made-up address on your site. You should see something helpful, not a blank screen.
- A favicon. The small icon in the browser tab. Without one, the site looks unfinished.
Measuring
Analytics and backups
Decide what you want to know before launch. For most small businesses it is simple: how many people visit, and how many get in touch. Some analytics tools set cookies, which can mean a consent notice. Choose one deliberately rather than pasting in whatever a builder offers.
Ask where backups are kept and how you would get a copy. If the answer is "I'm not sure", sort that out before launch.
Ownership
Who owns the domain
This is the check that costs most to get wrong. Look up who the domain is registered to. It should be you, with your email address on the account and the login stored somewhere safe. If a designer or a friend registered it for you, ask for it to be moved into your name now. How to buy a domain name and keep it in your name walks through it.
Ask where the site itself lives and whether you can have a copy. For more on that, see what a cheap website really costs.
Go time
A checklist to print
- Read everything, including prices, hours and the business name.
- Test every contact route from a phone: call, email and form.
- Check the site on a phone over mobile data, then run PageSpeed Insights.
- Check titles, descriptions, the privacy page and the error page.
- Choose how you will measure visits, and know where the backups are.
- Confirm the domain is in your name, and the login is safe.
If you would like to see what yours could look like before you get to this list, I can build a free preview: one page, with nothing to sign or buy.