SMB Website Checklist: 25 Items Before Launch

Why we wrote this list

The most common problem we find on freshly launched sites is not bad design — it is forgotten details. A missing favicon, a contact form that emails nobody, a phone number that is not tappable on mobile. None of them is a major error; together they make a site useless.

The 25 items below are our own pre-delivery checklist. Print it and tick it off; if you work with an agency, send them the same list.

Technical (1-9)

1. Mobile responsiveness — no horizontal scrolling at 360 pixels wide. 2. Under three seconds to load on mobile. 3. A valid SSL certificate with http redirecting to https. 4. Broken link check, internal and external. 5. Correct heading hierarchy — one H1 per page. 6. A unique meta title and description for every page. 7. sitemap.xml ready and submitted to Search Console. 8. A correct robots.txt that is not accidentally blocking the whole site. 9. Favicon and social share image (og:image) defined.

Item nine looks minor, but a link shared on WhatsApp that appears without a preview directly reduces click-through.

Content (10-18)

10. A value proposition understandable in five seconds on the homepage. 11. A separate page per service — a single “Our Services” page is not enough for Google. 12. A real team photo on the About page, not stock imagery. 13. References or completed work. 14. Frequently asked questions. 15. Blog infrastructure in place. 16. Character-set check for Turkish letters, especially in headings. 17. A proofreading pass. 18. A clear call to action at the end of every page.

We are insistent about item twelve: visitors want to see who they will be working with. A team section built on stock photos is worse than none at all.

Trust and conversion (19-25)

19. The phone number is tappable on mobile. 20. The WhatsApp link works and points at the right number. 21. The contact form has been tested — when it is submitted, does an email actually arrive? 22. Address and map. 23. Data protection notice and privacy policy. 24. Cookie notice. 25. Google Analytics and Search Console installed, with the accounts in your name.

Item twenty-one is the one skipped most often. A form that prints “sent” on screen does not mean the email arrived. On launch day, send yourself a test submission and check your inbox — including the spam folder.

The first week after launch

Finishing the list is the beginning, not the end. Do these three things in week one.

Check in Search Console whether your site is indexed. Paste your homepage into the URL inspection tool; if it does not say indexed, request indexing.

In Analytics, look at where your first visitors leave. An unexpected page with a high exit rate has a problem on it — usually a slow image or a button that does not work.

Finally, put the site in front of three people you know without explaining anything. If they cannot answer “what does this company do?” within five seconds, your homepage needs rewriting.

Who ticks the boxes

Half of these items belong to your agency and half to you. It is normal for whoever built the site to sign off the technical ones (1-9), but review the content and trust items yourself. Nobody else can verify that the copy is accurate, the phone number is current and the team photo is genuine.

Build the habit of a signed handover sheet as well. Keep the completed list on file. Six months later, when someone asks why something is missing, that piece of paper makes everyone’s life easier.