You’ve spent weeks (maybe months) getting your website ready. The design looks great, the copy is written, and you’re itching to hit publish. But before you do, there’s a real danger of launching with something broken, missing, or quietly costing you customers — and you won’t know until it’s too late. I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count: a beautiful site goes live with a contact form that doesn’t send emails, or a homepage that takes nine seconds to load on mobile. This checklist exists so that doesn’t happen to you.
Work through these 20 points before you launch. Some will take five minutes, others might take a day — but every single one matters.
1. Your Contact Details Are Easy to Find
This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many sites bury the phone number at the bottom of the About page. Your name, phone number, email address, and location (if relevant) should be visible without scrolling on your homepage. Put them in the header or footer at minimum. If you want people to get in touch — and you do — make it effortless.
2. Every Form Has Been Tested
Fill out every form on your site yourself and make sure the confirmation lands in your inbox. Test this from a different device, not just the one you built the site on. A surprising number of contact forms break silently — the user sees a “thank you” message, but nothing arrives. Check your spam folder too, and if you’re using a third-party form tool, verify the notification settings are correct.
3. Your Site Works Properly on Mobile
More than half of all web traffic now comes from smartphones. If your site looks broken, loads slowly, or has buttons too small to tap on a phone screen, you’re losing customers before they’ve read a single word. Nielsen Norman Group research consistently shows that poor mobile experiences drive users away immediately. Test your site on an actual phone — not just a browser resize — and on a couple of different screen sizes if you can.
4. Page Speed Is Acceptable
Slow sites kill conversions. Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights and aim for a score above 70 on mobile. If images are dragging you down, compress them before uploading. A good rule of thumb: no image on your site should be larger than 200KB unless it’s a full-screen hero. Smashing Magazine has an excellent guide on front-end performance if you want to go deeper.
5. Your SSL Certificate Is Active
If your site shows “Not Secure” in the browser address bar, visitors will leave — and rightly so. An SSL certificate encrypts the connection between your site and your users. Most good hosting providers include one for free these days. Check that your URL starts with https:// and that there are no mixed content warnings (where some page elements still load over http://). MDN Web Docs has a clear explanation of why this matters if you want the technical background.
6. Basic SEO Is in Place
You don’t need to be an SEO expert on day one, but you do need the basics covered. Every page should have a unique title tag and meta description. Your homepage should clearly describe what you do and where you do it. Images should have alt text. If this is new territory for you, my guide to SEO basics for beginners walks through exactly what to set up without drowning you in jargon.
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Every page needs a unique title tag (shown in the browser tab and search results) and a meta description (the short summary under your link in Google). Keep title tags under 60 characters and meta descriptions under 160. Write them for humans, not just search engines.
Image Alt Text
Every image should have a descriptive alt attribute. This helps search engines understand your content, and it’s essential for users who rely on screen readers. W3Schools has a straightforward guide on how to write alt text properly if you’re unsure of the format.
A Clear URL Structure
Your URLs should be readable and descriptive. /services/web-design is better than /page?id=47. If you’re using a platform like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace, check your URL settings before you launch — changing them later can cause broken links and lost rankings.
7. Your Branding Is Consistent
Your logo, colours, and fonts should look the same across every page. If your header uses one shade of blue and your buttons use another, it creates a subconscious sense of untrustworthiness. In my experience, the sites that convert best aren’t always the flashiest — they’re the ones that look like someone thought it all through. If you’re choosing web fonts, Google Fonts offers hundreds of free, high-quality options that load efficiently.
8. Your Content Is Proofread
Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors undermine trust instantly. Read every page out loud — you’ll catch things your eyes skip over. Then get someone else to read it too. Pay particular attention to your homepage headline, your About page, and any service descriptions. These are the pages people judge you on.
9. You Have a Privacy Policy
If you collect any personal data — even just through a contact form — you legally need a privacy policy in most countries. This is especially true if you’re targeting UK or EU customers under GDPR. There are free generators online, but make sure it accurately reflects what data you collect and how you use it. Link to it in your footer.
10. Analytics Is Set Up
You need to know who’s visiting your site, where they’re coming from, and what they’re doing once they arrive. Google Analytics (or an alternative like Plausible or Fathom if you prefer something privacy-focused) takes about 15 minutes to set up and will give you invaluable insight from day one. Don’t launch without it — you’re flying blind otherwise.
11. Your Images Are Optimised
Large, uncompressed images are the most common reason small business websites load slowly. Before uploading any image, resize it to the maximum dimensions it’ll actually be displayed at, then compress it. Tools like Squoosh or TinyPNG will reduce file sizes by 60–80% with no visible quality loss. CSS-Tricks has a useful overview of the nuances of handling images on the web if you want to understand what’s happening under the hood.
12. You Have a Clear Call to Action on Every Page
What do you want visitors to do? Call you? Fill in a form? Buy something? Every page should have one clear, prominent next step. Not three competing buttons — one. When I work with clients, this is often the biggest conversion improvement we make: removing the noise so the important action stands out.
13. Your 404 Page Is Friendly
At some point, someone will land on a page that doesn’t exist — whether through a mistyped URL or a broken external link. Your 404 page should acknowledge the error, reassure the visitor, and give them somewhere sensible to go. A blank screen or a server error message is a dead end. A helpful 404 page keeps people on your site.
14. Social Media Links Work
If you’ve linked to your Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn profile, click each link yourself and make sure it goes to the right place. Check that links open in a new tab so visitors aren’t navigated away from your site. While you’re at it, make sure your profile photos and bios on those platforms match your current branding.
15. Your Favicon Is Set
The favicon is the tiny icon that appears in browser tabs. It’s a small detail, but a missing favicon looks unfinished. It’s usually just a small square version of your logo — 32x32 pixels is a standard size. Most website platforms let you upload this in the site settings.
16. Browser Compatibility Has Been Checked
Your site should work in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge at minimum. Most modern sites behave consistently across browsers, but it’s worth a quick check — particularly if you’re using any unusual CSS features. MDN Web Docs’ browser compatibility tables are invaluable for checking which CSS properties are widely supported.
17. You Have a Backup System in Place
Before you launch, make sure you have a way to back up your site. If you’re on WordPress, a plugin like UpdraftPlus handles this automatically. If you’re on a hosted platform, check what backup options are included. Losing your site because of a hosting issue or an accidental deletion is entirely avoidable — but only if you’ve set this up beforehand.
18. Your Hosting Can Handle Traffic
If you’re expecting a surge of visitors — from a launch campaign, a press mention, or an ad spend — make sure your hosting plan can cope. Shared hosting is fine for most small business sites, but if you’re planning anything that might drive significant traffic quickly, talk to your host about what your plan can handle.
19. Legal Pages Are in Place
Beyond the privacy policy, consider whether you need terms and conditions, a cookie notice, or a returns policy (if you sell products). These aren’t just legal requirements in many cases — they also build trust with customers who want to know you’re a legitimate business. A cookie banner may also be required depending on what tracking you’re running and where your visitors are based.
20. You’ve Read Your Own Website As a First-Time Visitor
This is the one most people skip, and it’s possibly the most important. Close all your open tabs, open your site in an incognito window, and read through it as if you’ve never seen it before. Ask yourself: Is it obvious what this business does within five seconds? Do I know how to get in touch? Would I trust this company with my money? If the answer to any of those is uncertain, fix it before you launch.
Ready to Launch — or Ready for a Fresh Start?
Going through this checklist honestly takes time, but it’s time well spent. A site that’s technically sound, clearly written, and easy to use will outperform a flashy one with cracks in the foundation every single time. If you’re building a new site and want it done properly from the start, take a look at my web design services to see how I work with small businesses.
And if you’ve worked through this list and realised there’s more to fix than you have time for, I’m happy to help. Get in touch for a free quote — no sales pressure, just an honest conversation about what your site needs.