Before you launch: a business website checklist

Key takeaway

Test the complete customer journey on a real phone, including where an enquiry goes after someone submits it.

Make the next step obvious

Open your homepage as someone who has never heard of the business. Can they tell what you offer, who it is for and how to contact you? Use clear service descriptions and a relevant call to action. Confirm that contact details, operating information and commercial wording match how your business actually works.

Review on a real mobile device

Read key pages and complete the main actions on a phone. Check that menus open, text remains readable and buttons are easy to use. Try a narrower screen as well as a larger one. A desktop preview can help find layout issues, but it cannot replace actually using the site on a device.

Follow every enquiry to its destination

Submit a test enquiry and confirm that the intended person can receive and respond to it. Check required fields, invalid email addresses and confirmation messages. If the website opens an email draft rather than submitting to a server, say that clearly. Avoid presenting a success message for a message that has not been delivered.

Check search and sharing basics

Give important pages descriptive titles and summaries. Make internal links usable and keep the structure understandable. Check what appears when a page is shared with a colleague. If the new website replaces an existing one, review the old addresses and agree which redirects are needed to preserve useful paths.

Confirm ownership and access

Record who controls the domain, DNS, hosting and source files. Agree how administrators are added or removed and where the handover information will be kept. Business-critical accounts should remain accessible to the authorised owner rather than depending entirely on one person who might later change roles or leave.

Agree the first follow-up

Choose who checks enquiries, broken links and reported problems after launch. Keep a copy of the approved content and a list of known follow-up tasks. Schedule a review of real usage before adding more features. The first useful improvement often comes from watching where visitors need clearer information or a simpler next step.

Your next-step checklist

Review homepage and service descriptions
Test navigation and enquiries on a real phone
Confirm email or form delivery with the receiving team
Check page titles, links and sharing previews
Record domain, hosting and source-code ownership
Assign someone to review issues after launch

Put this guide to work.

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