— Free checklist
Small-Business Website Pre-Launch Checklist
Everything to verify before a new website goes live — the unglamorous checks that catch broken forms, missing privacy notices, and slow phone load before your customers do. Work through it the day before launch and go live with confidence instead of crossed fingers.
Inside the checklist
- Content and proofreading 6
- Mobile and responsive 6
- Speed and images 5
- SEO basics 6
- Accessibility 6
- Security and forms 6
- Legal and privacy 6
- Backups and ownership 5
- Post-launch monitoring 5
The full checklist
Content and proofreading
- Every page has been read out loud once to catch the typos your eye skips over.
- Your business name, address, phone, and hours are correct and identical on every page.
- Prices, dates, and any “coming soon” notes are current — no leftover placeholder text.
- Every link goes where it should, and none lands on a “page not found”.
- Contact and booking forms have been submitted as a test, and the message actually arrived.
- Photos load right-side up, are not stretched, and credit anyone who needs crediting.
Mobile and responsive
- You opened the site on your own phone — not just a shrunk browser window — and tapped through it.
- Text is readable without pinching to zoom, and buttons are big enough to tap with a thumb.
- The menu opens, closes, and works on a touchscreen, not only with a mouse.
- Nothing runs off the edge of the screen or forces sideways scrolling.
- Forms are usable one-handed on a phone, with the right keyboard for email and phone fields.
- You checked it on an older or smaller phone, not only the newest one in the office.
Speed and images
- The home page loads in under three seconds on phone data, not just office Wi-Fi.
- Large photos have been resized and compressed — a print-resolution image has no place on a web page.
- Images use a modern web format so they download quickly without looking blurry.
- Nothing on the page jumps around as it loads while you are trying to tap a button.
- You tested the speed from a phone, not only from the fast computer that built the site.
SEO basics
- Every page has its own clear title that reads well in a browser tab and a search result.
- Each page has a short description written for a human, not stuffed with keywords.
- Page addresses are short and readable, not a string of numbers and symbols.
- A sitemap exists and has been submitted to Google Search Console.
- Analytics is installed and recording visits, so you can see what happens after launch.
- The old test or staging site is blocked from search so it cannot compete with the real one.
Accessibility
- Every image that carries meaning has alt text describing it for screen readers.
- Text has enough contrast against its background to read in daylight on a phone.
- You can reach every link and button using only the keyboard, with a visible focus outline.
- Headings are in order — one main heading per page, then sections beneath it.
- Buttons and links say what they do, not “click here” floating with no context.
- Any video has captions, and nothing flashes or auto-plays sound without warning.
Security and forms
- The address starts with https:// and shows a padlock on every page, not just the home page.
- Forms have spam protection, so your inbox does not fill with junk the day you launch.
- Form submissions arrive over a secure connection and land somewhere you actually check.
- Admin logins use strong, unique passwords with two-factor turned on.
- The software running the site is up to date, with no known holes left open.
- No draft pages, private notes, or test data are reachable by guessing a web address.
Legal and privacy
- A plain privacy note tells visitors what you collect and why — a legal expectation under Canada’s PIPEDA.
- If you use cookies or analytics, visitors are told, in language a normal person can read.
- You only collect the personal information you genuinely need, and you say where it goes.
- Terms or conditions are in place if you sell, book, or take payments through the site.
- Any photos of people, or content you did not create, are yours to use.
- A real contact method is on the site so a visitor can reach a human about their data.
Backups and ownership
- A backup of the finished site has been taken and stored before you flip it live.
- You hold the logins to the domain, the hosting, and the site itself — not only your developer.
- You know who renews the domain and hosting, and when, so neither lapses by surprise.
- The source files for the site are saved somewhere you can find them again.
- You have it in writing that the finished site and its accounts belong to you.
Post-launch monitoring
- You will check the site the morning after launch on a phone you did not test it on.
- A monitor or a simple reminder tells you quickly if the site goes down.
- You know who to call when something breaks, before you actually need them.
- You have a plan to read the analytics after a couple of weeks, not let it pile up unseen.
- A date is on the calendar to review updates, backups, and broken links every few months.
Stuck on anything you found?
If a line on the list is keeping you up at night, that is exactly the kind of thing we fix. Write us two paragraphs and we reply within one business day.