TECHNICAL SEO
A Business Website Launch Checklist: Speed, SEO and Enquiries
From mobile screens to sitemap checks, here is what to test before sharing your website with customers.
Start with the customer journey
Before publishing, test the simplest task a visitor needs to complete. Can someone recognise your offer in a few seconds, find the service they want and contact you without hunting through menus? Verify that important buttons, navigation links and forms work on actual small screens, not just a wide desktop preview.
Keep headings meaningful. The primary page heading should explain the page’s purpose; the page title and description should accurately reflect the content. Put the business’s real contact channel in an easy-to-reach location, and avoid forms that look as if they have sent a message when they only created a preview.
Check Core Web Vitals and page speed
Google’s Core Web Vitals focus on Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). As practical targets, aim for LCP at or below 2.5 seconds, INP at or below 200 milliseconds and CLS at or below 0.1 for the 75th percentile of real visits. A lab Lighthouse score is useful for diagnosis, but it is not the same as measured field performance.
Give images appropriate dimensions, compress large assets, load below-the-fold images lazily and avoid blocking the first paint with unnecessary styles or scripts. Check the homepage and a representative service page in both mobile and desktop modes using PageSpeed Insights.
Cover essential technical SEO
Each indexable page should have its own descriptive title, an accurate meta description, a self-referencing canonical URL and internal links from relevant pages. Generate an XML sitemap with the preferred public domain. Check that robots.txt does not accidentally block important pages, and make sure unknown URLs return a real HTTP 404.
Structured data can describe an organisation, services or articles, but it should reflect visible, truthful content. Do not invent an address, awards, customer reviews or opening hours just to fill a schema template. Google's Search Central documentation provides current specifications.
Verify accessibility and reliability
Use appropriate alternative text for informative images and empty alternatives for decoration. Ensure keyboard users can reach links and controls, and use visible focus styles. Check contrast and text scaling, respect reduced-motion preferences and review any dynamic content that opens or closes on interaction.
Confirm HTTPS is active, the primary domain redirects consistently and the website serves fonts and assets without errors. If the contact form uses email or WhatsApp, test what happens after each interaction, including failed or cancelled sends.
After publishing
Submit the sitemap through a verified Search Console property and inspect important pages for indexing issues. Keep a record of changes, measure real traffic and improve pages based on unanswered customer questions. A good launch is a tested starting point, not the end of website maintenance.
See our website development approach and website cost guide for related planning advice.