Web · 5 min read · October 2026
Before your website goes live
The design is approved, the pages look good, and everyone is eager to launch. This is exactly when small mistakes slip through: a contact form that sends to nobody, a phone number with a typo, a setting that hides the whole site from Google. A short checklist before launch catches almost all of them.
Here are the checks worth running before any small business website goes live, grouped so you can work through them in an hour or two, plus what to watch in the first week.
01
Content
Read every page aloud, slowly, for typos and outdated information. Check phone numbers, email addresses, the address, prices and opening hours against reality. Remove any placeholder text and sample images. Make sure every page has a clear heading and a next step.
Ask someone outside the business to read the main pages too. People who wrote or approved the text stop seeing its mistakes; a fresh reader spots the misspelt service name, the price that does not match the brochure, or the sentence that makes no sense, within minutes. Check the footer and the 404 page as well; they are forgotten most often.
02
Forms and contact
Submit every form yourself and confirm the enquiry arrives in the right inbox, not spam. Check the confirmation message or thank-you page. Tap every phone number and WhatsApp button on a phone and make sure they open correctly, with the right number and prefilled message.
Test from a phone on mobile data, not only from the office computer.
03
Mobile and browsers
Open every page on at least two phones, one Android and one iPhone if possible, plus a laptop. Check that menus open and close, text is readable without zooming, buttons are easy to tap and nothing overflows the screen sideways. Rotate the phone too.
04
Speed
Run the main pages through PageSpeed Insights. Check that images are resized and compressed and that nothing unnecessary loads on every page. Open the home page on mobile data and see how quickly the first screen appears.
05
Search basics
Make sure search engines are allowed to index the site; staging sites often have indexing switched off, and the setting is easily forgotten. Every page should have a unique title and description. Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console. If this replaces an old site, test the redirects from old addresses to new ones.
06
Tracking
Confirm Google Analytics is installed on every page and receiving data, and that form submissions, WhatsApp clicks and phone taps are tracked as key events. Link Analytics and Search Console. Make sure both are owned by your business account.
07
Legal and trust
Privacy policy linked in the footer and near forms. Terms, refund or cancellation policies if you sell online. Correct business name and registration details where relevant. HTTPS working on every page with no warnings. Copyright year in the footer.
08
Accounts and handover
Domain, hosting, email, analytics and Search Console in your name, with logins stored safely. Automatic backups running, with a copy stored off the server. Admin access handed over. A short note on how to update content and who to call when something breaks.
The first week after launch
Launch is not the finish line. In the first week, watch for enquiries arriving, check Search Console for errors, review Analytics to see that visits are being recorded, and ask a few customers or friends to use the site and tell you anything confusing.
Test every form, every button and every page on a phone before anyone else does.
Update your Google Business Profile, social media bios, email signatures and WhatsApp Business profile with the new website link once you are confident everything works.
Launch checklist
- Content. Proofread, details checked, placeholders removed.
- Forms and buttons. Tested end to end, on a phone.
- Mobile. Two phones, a laptop, menus and buttons working.
- Speed. Images compressed, first screen fast on mobile data.
- Search. Indexing on, titles set, sitemap submitted, redirects tested.
- Tracking. Analytics and key events working.
- Trust. HTTPS, privacy policy, correct details.
- Accounts. In your name, backups running, logins safe.
Print this list or copy it into a document, tick each item and keep it. It is also a useful checklist after any major update to the site.
Quick answers
What should I check before launching a website?
Content accuracy, forms and contact buttons, mobile display, speed, search engine indexing, titles and sitemap, analytics tracking, HTTPS and legal pages, and that all accounts are in your name with backups running.
Why is my new website not showing on Google?
Common reasons include indexing switched off from the staging stage, no sitemap submitted, or simply that Google has not crawled it yet. Check Search Console.
What should I do after my website launches?
Watch enquiries, Search Console and Analytics for the first week, gather feedback from real users, and update your website link everywhere it appears.
Related reading
Launched properly, not just published.
Every website I build goes through this checklist before launch, and I watch it with you for the first week. Send me your site if it launched without one, and I'll run the checks.