Website Launch Checklist

Launching your small business website is a monumental milestone—and DoneDeploy is here to ensure you get every step right. By following this refined, SEO-optimized checklist, your site will attract more visitors, build credibility, and lay a foundation for long-term growth.

1. Set Clear Goals and Understand Your Audience

• Define your website’s main objectives: lead generation, sales, bookings, or brand awareness.
• Build a detailed profile of your ideal customers—tailor design, tone, and content to solve their specific problems.
  
  

2. Assess the Competition and Establish Your Advantage

• Analyze your competitors’ top pages, keywords, and design choices.
• Identify market gaps and emphasize what makes your business unique—highlight DoneDeploy’s fast, easy deployment process when possible.

3. Conduct Focused Keyword Research

• Select your primary keyword: small business website launch checklist.
• Gather secondary keywords: “SEO website launch,” “small business site deployment,” “website launch checklist,” “how to launch a website.”
• Naturally integrate these into:
  • Headings (H1, H2s)
  • Opening paragraph
  • Image alt attributes
  • Throughout the body text

4. Use Purposeful Platform & Hosting

• Choose a reliable CMS (WordPress, Shopify, Wix) aligned with your technical skillset and business goals.
• Prioritize hosting providers with industry-leading speed, uptime, and security.

5. Design for Mobile First, Speed and Accessibility

• Select or design a fully responsive, mobile-ready template.
• Compress images, use modern formats, and minimize code for optimal performance.
• Install an SSL certificate for HTTPS and follow accessibility best practices for all content.

6. Build Clear Navigation and Intuitive User Paths

• Structure menus simply and logically.
• Insert breadcrumbs and use strategic internal links to connect all crucial pages (including other DoneDeploy posts or features).

7. Craft Original, High-Impact Content

• Write clear, valuable content answering real questions from your audience.
• Use a single H1 (with the primary keyword), and organize with concise H2s/H3s.
• Break up text with bullet lists, visuals, screenshots, and infographics—add DoneDeploy screenshots where possible.
• Optimize every image with keyword-relevant filenames and descriptive alt-tags.

8. Perfect On-Page SEO

• Place the primary keyword in the meta title (under 60 characters), meta description (140–160 characters), H1, URL, and early in the body text.
• Structure URLs to be short, hyphen-separated, and free of unnecessary words: /small-business-website-launch-checklist.
• Use self-referencing canonical tags to avoid duplicate content.
• Link internally to related DoneDeploy resources and externally to trusted industry references.
  
  

9. Implement Advanced Schema Markup & Metadata

• Add BlogPosting or Article schema to boost search features; for pages with testimonials or product showcases, add Review or Product schema.
• Set up Open Graph and Twitter Card tags for richer link previews on social media.
• Ensure the new post is included in your XML sitemap and resubmitted via Google Search Console.

10. Complete Technical SEO Steps

• Double-check robots.txt to allow crawling of your blog and prevent crucial pages from being blocked.
• Create 301 redirects for any changed or removed URLs to pass authority and avoid broken links.
• Remove or avoid “noindex” meta tags on pages intended for search indexing.

11. Set Up Analytics and Conversion Tracking

• Install Google Analytics 4 and connect to Google Search Console.
• Rigorously test:
  • Forms and CTAs
  • Shopping carts or appointment tools
  • All outbound links and file downloads
• Confirm social sharing buttons display correct link previews.

12. Announce and Engage

• Publicly launch through email, social media, and business partnerships.
• Prompt site visitors to share, leave feedback, and provide testimonials—feature these for heightened social proof.

13. Maintain Content Growth and SEO Momentum

• Regularly publish new blog content that answers top industry FAQs and provides actionable insights.
• Refresh existing pages based on analytics and keyword trends (e.g., update old stats, refine sections).
• Monitor search rankings and user behavior, using the data to guide ongoing improvements.