A launch checklist for a small business website

Get the name and extension right

Pick a name customers can say on the phone, and take the extension your market trusts. Register it for two years and switch on auto-renew before you build anything.

The six pages that matter

Home, services, pricing or quote request, about, contact, and one proof page (cases, reviews, gallery). Everything else can wait until the first pages earn traffic.

Make contact effortless

Phone number and messaging link in the header, working form on the contact page, and business hours written out. Every extra click between interest and contact costs you leads.

Speed and mobile first

Most local traffic is mobile. Compress images, keep one font family, and test the site on a mid-range phone before launch, not after.

Basic SEO before launch

One clear H1 per page, a unique title and description per page, readable URLs, a sitemap submitted to Search Console, and your business listed on the local map service.

Trust signals

Real address or service area, privacy page, terms page, and a visible name behind the business. Small sites lose deals to anonymity more often than to design.

After launch

Check Search Console weekly for indexing errors, watch which pages get contacted from, and improve those first.