7 Things Every Business Website Should Have Before You Launch It

In this post you’ll learn the 7 important things that every business website should have before you launch it. If you are making a website for your business, or if you have just finished it, then use this post as a checklist.

Many people are in a hurry to launch the website. The design is ready, the content is added, and they say “ok, lets make it live”. But after launch they realise that something was missing, like the contact form was not working, or the website was not opening properly on mobile. Then they have to fix it again, and sometimes the first impression is already gone.

So before you press that launch button, lets check these 7 things one by one.

What we’ll cover in this post.

1. A clear message on the homepage.
2. Mobile friendly design.
3. Fast loading speed.
4. Working contact options.
5. Trust elements.
6. Basic SEO setup.
7. SSL, backup and tracking.

1. A clear message on the homepage.

When a visitor opens your website, he should understand 3 things in few seconds. What you do, who you do it for, and what he should do next.

So in the top section of your homepage, add:

• A simple heading that tells what your business does.
• One or two lines of description.
• A button like “Contact Us” or “Get a Free Quote”.

Don’t write something vague like “Welcome to our website” or “Best solutions for you”. It tells nothing. Write it like you are explaining it to a person standing in front of you.

2. Mobile friendly design.

Most of the visitors will open your website on their phone, so this is not optional. Before launch, open your website on a real phone (not only on the desktop browser) and check each page.

Check these things:

• Text is readable without zooming.
• Buttons and links are easy to tap.
• Images are not going outside the screen.
• Menu is opening and closing properly.
• Forms are easy to fill on a small screen.

If you are coding it yourself, make sure you have added the viewport meta tag and used media queries in your CSS. If you are using WordPress, check the mobile preview and then test on a real device also.

3. Fast loading speed.

Nobody likes to wait for a website. If it takes too long, the visitor will go back and open another website.

Before launch, test your website on Google PageSpeed Insights. Some basic things that can improve the speed:

• Compress the images before uploading.
• Don’t use very large images where a small one is enough.
• Remove extra plugins, scripts and fonts that you don’t need.
• Use a good hosting.

You don’t need a perfect score of 100. But if your score is very low then you must fix it before launch.

4. Working contact options.

This is the most important thing, because the whole purpose of a business website is that people can contact you.

Make sure you have:

• Phone number (clickable on mobile).
• Whatsapp link or button.
• Email address.
• Contact form.
• Your address and Google map (if you have a physical shop or office).

And now the most important part, test everything. Fill the contact form yourself and check that the mail is reaching you. Click on the phone number and whatsapp button on your phone and see that they are opening correctly. Many times the form looks fine but the mail is going to spam or not coming at all.

5. Trust elements.

People will not contact you if they don’t trust your website. Specially if they don’t know your business before.

So add these things before launch:

• About page with your story, and real photos of you or your team.
• Customer reviews or testimonials (even 2 or 3 is fine in the beginning).
• Your work, projects or product photos.
• Privacy policy page and terms page (specially if you are collecting data through forms).
• Complete business details like name, address and contact info.

If you are new and don’t have any reviews yet, then ask your first few customers, friends or people who have used your service to write something. Don’t write fake reviews, it is easily noticed and it can harm your business.

6. Basic SEO setup.

You don’t have to be an SEO expert, but some basic things should be done before launch, because it is easier to do it in the beginning than later.

• Add a unique title tag and meta description on every page.
• Use only one H1 heading on a page, and use H2, H3 for other headings.
• Add alt text to your images.
• Use clean and simple URLs, like yoursite.com/services instead of yoursite.com/page?id=23.
• Create a sitemap and submit it in Google Search Console.
• Create your Google Business Profile if you are a local business.

Also check that the setting “discourage search engines from indexing this site” is turned off, if you are using WordPress. Many people keep it on during development and forget to turn it off after launch. Then the website never shows in Google and they don’t understand why.

7. SSL, backup and tracking.

This one is about the technical side, but it is very important.

SSL certificate. Your website link should start with https and show a lock icon. Without it, the browser shows a “Not secure” warning and visitors will be scared to use your website. Most hosting companies give free SSL, so just activate it.

Backup. Make sure you can restore your website if something goes wrong. Take a full backup before launch, and set up automatic backups after that. You will thank yourself later.

Tracking. Add Google Analytics and Google Search Console, so you can see how many people are visiting, from where they are coming and which pages they like. Without this you are just guessing.

Final pre-launch checklist.

Copy this list and tick each one before going live.

1. Homepage clearly tells what you do.
2. Website looks good on mobile.
3. Speed is tested and images are compressed.
4. Contact form, phone and whatsapp are tested.
5. Reviews, about page and policy pages are added.
6. Title, meta description and alt text are added.
7. SSL, backup and analytics are set up.
8. All links and buttons are checked (no broken links).
9. Spelling mistakes are checked on every page.
10. Search engine indexing is turned on.

If you complete this list then your website is ready to launch. It will not be perfect, no website is perfect on day one, and you can keep improving it after that. But at least the basic things will be in place.

This may not be the complete list, something may I missed to add in it. So if you have any question or suggestion, feel free to write them in the comment section.