The checklist

Contact details

  • Phone number, email address, and physical address (if applicable) are correct on every page they appear
  • Contact form actually sends to an inbox you check regularly, test it yourself before launch
  • Business hours are accurate, particularly if they differ from a previous website or listing

Mobile and technical basics

  • Site loads properly and looks right on a phone, not just a desktop screen, test on your own phone directly
  • Every button and link actually works, including ones added late in the build process
  • Site loads at a reasonable speed, a slow loading site loses visitors before they see anything

Search engine basics

  • Every page has a unique title and meta description, not a duplicate or default one
  • A sitemap exists and is submitted to Google Search Console
  • Images have descriptive alt text, particularly on your homepage and key service pages

Trust and credibility

  • Genuine reviews or testimonials are included somewhere visible, not buried on a separate page
  • Any claims made (years in business, number of clients, qualifications) are accurate and up to date
  • A privacy policy is in place, particularly if the site collects any personal data through a form

Tracking and measurement

  • Analytics (such as Google Analytics) is installed so you can see how many people visit and what they do
  • Goals or conversions are set up if possible, so you can see how many visitors actually enquire or buy

Final check

  • Ask someone outside the business to look at the site fresh and tell you honestly what's confusing or unclear
  • Check the site on a different device and browser than the one it was built on, small display issues are easy to miss otherwise

Why this matters

A surprising number of small business websites launch with broken contact forms, missing analytics, or duplicate page titles simply because no one ran through a final check before going live. None of these individually are disasters, but together they can mean weeks of a new website quietly underperforming before anyone notices.

FAQs

How long should a pre-launch check take?

For most small business websites, working through a list like this properly takes somewhere between thirty minutes and an hour, well worth it against weeks of a live site with an unnoticed issue.

Who should do the final check, me or my web designer?

Ideally both. A designer will usually check technical items as standard, but you're the one who knows if the phone number, opening hours, and business claims are actually correct, so a final read through from you is still worth doing.

What's the single most commonly missed item?

Testing the contact form by actually submitting it and confirming the email arrives. It's easy to assume it works because it was built correctly, but a small settings error can silently break it without any obvious sign on the site itself.