The Small Business Website Launch Checklist

Before you launch: content

Content is the #1 reason launches get delayed. Write it first, design around it.

• Homepage headline that names who you help and how
• About page with real photos and a real story
• Services page listing every service you actually sell
• Pricing page or 'starts at' guidance — visitors hate hunting
• Contact page with phone, email, address, and hours
• Legal: privacy policy, terms of service, cookie notice if you serve EU visitors

Before you launch: technical SEO

Miss these and you'll spend months wondering why nobody finds you.

• One unique H1 per page
• Title tag under 60 characters, with keyword + location
• Meta description under 160 characters
• Sitemap.xml submitted to Google Search Console
• Robots.txt allowing indexing (not blocking your whole site — very common mistake)
• Canonical tags on every page
• Schema.org LocalBusiness or Organization markup
• OpenGraph tags for social sharing
• Favicon and Apple touch icon

Before you launch: performance

Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal. Also, slow sites lose leads.

• PageSpeed Insights mobile score 90+
• Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5s
• Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1
• All images compressed and served in modern formats (WebP/AVIF)
• No render-blocking scripts above the fold
• Lazy loading on below-the-fold images

Before you launch: conversion

A pretty site that doesn't convert is a very expensive brochure.

• Primary CTA visible above the fold on every page
• Phone number clickable on mobile (tel: link)
• Contact form that actually delivers to a monitored inbox
• Thank-you page for tracking form conversions
• Social proof: reviews, testimonials, or logos of past clients

Before you launch: analytics + tracking

If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.

• Google Analytics 4 installed and receiving data
• Google Search Console verified
• Conversion goals defined (form submissions, phone clicks)
• Google Business Profile linked

After you launch: first 30 days

Launch is the start, not the finish.

If you want this done for you at a small-business price, our cheap website design service ships a launch-ready site in 5–7 days from $299.

• Announce to your email list
• Update every business listing (Yelp, Google, Facebook, industry directories)
• Ask your best 10 customers for a Google review
• Check Search Console weekly for indexing issues
• Post at least one new page, blog, or update per month for the first 6 months