Small Business Website Checklist: What to Check Before Launch

A painter in Tuscany finally gets the new website finished on a Thursday night. Friday morning it's live, the link goes on the truck magnets, and the first week is quiet. Two weeks later a customer mentions they "filled out the form a while ago." The form was sending to an old email address nobody checks.

That's the kind of thing a small business website checklist catches. Launch problems are rarely about design. They're about plumbing: forms, phone links, Google settings, tracking and who owns what. Below is the list we'd run through before any small-business site goes live in Calgary, in the order that matters most.

01Leads: forms, calls and where they go

Start here, because this is the part that costs you money when it breaks. A slightly off colour is a cosmetic problem. A form that delivers to nowhere is a revenue problem you won't notice for weeks.

• Submit every form yourself. Use a real name and a real email, then confirm the message arrives in the inbox someone actually reads, not a spam folder.
• Check the confirmation. After submitting, the visitor should see a clear "thanks, we'll be in touch within X" message, not a blank page or the same form again.
• Tap every call button on a phone. Make sure it opens the dialler with the right number. One wrong digit in a link is easy to miss on a desktop.
• Check the number is the same everywhere. Header, footer, contact page and Google Business Profile should match, unless you deliberately use a tracking number.
• Test the email address links. If you list an email, tap it and confirm it opens a new message to the right address.
• Look at spam protection. A form with no protection fills with junk. A form with an aggressive puzzle loses real customers. Aim for something invisible.

02Phones first: the mobile check

Most people who find a local service business will see the site on a phone, often in a parking lot or on a job site with patchy signal. Check the site the way they'll see it, not on a big monitor at the office.

1. Turn off Wi-Fi. Load the homepage on mobile data. If it takes a long time to show anything useful, fix speed before launch. Our guide to why website speed matters covers the usual culprits.
2. Check the first screen. Without scrolling, can a stranger tell what you do, where you work and how to contact you?
3. Use it one-handed. Buttons should be big enough to hit with a thumb and not so close together that you tap the wrong one.
4. Open the menu. Make sure it opens, closes and every link goes somewhere real.
5. Try an older phone if you can. A site that runs fine on the newest model can stutter on a three-year-old Android.

03Content: the details that make you look careless

Visitors forgive plain design. They're less forgiving of a site that looks unfinished, because it makes them wonder whether the work will be unfinished too.

Placeholder text and old details

Search every page for "Lorem ipsum", "Your text here", "Sample" and the template's default company name. Check that the year in the footer is current, the hours are right and the address matches your Google Business Profile exactly.

Service areas and services

List the services you actually want more of, and the areas you'll actually drive to. If you don't want jobs in Strathmore, don't put Strathmore on the site. If Airdrie and Cochrane are where your best work comes from, say so clearly.

Photos

Replace stock photos of smiling strangers with real photos of your team, your trucks and your work where you can. Make sure image files aren't huge. A 6 MB photo straight from a phone will slow every page it sits on.

Spelling and names

Read the site out loud, or have someone who didn't write it read it. Check the spelling of your own business name, staff names, product brands and Calgary community names. "Mckenzie Towne" versus "McKenzie Towne" matters to people who live there.

04Google: make sure it can find you

A surprising number of new sites launch invisible to Google because a "discourage search engines" setting from development never got switched off. These checks take ten minutes.

If you're replacing an old site, redirects are the item most often skipped. Old addresses may have links from directories, suppliers or old emails. Sending them to the new equivalent pages keeps that value. For the bigger picture on ranking, see our local SEO guide for Calgary businesses and our Google Business Profile guide.

05Tracking: know what's working from day one

If you don't set up tracking at launch, you lose the first months of data, which is exactly when you'd want to know whether the new site is doing better than the old one.

• Analytics installed. Google Analytics or a simpler privacy-friendly tool, recording visits on every page.
• Form submissions tracked. Each successful form send counts as a conversion, not just a page view.
• Call clicks tracked. Taps on the call button are recorded so you can see which pages drive calls.
• Ads connected. If you run Google Ads, conversions from the site feed back into the ads account so it can optimise for leads.
• Search Console linked. So you can see which searches show your site.

06Ownership, access and legal pages

This is the section nobody enjoys, and the one that causes the most pain a year later. Before launch, confirm who controls each piece and that you have your own logins.

• Domain registered in your name or your company's, with your email as the account contact.
• Hosting or builder account you can log into, or a clear written arrangement if your developer hosts it.
• Google accounts (Analytics, Search Console, Business Profile, Ads) owned by you, with the developer added as a user.
• Logins stored safely in a password manager, not a sticky note or one person's head.
• Privacy page that explains what your forms collect and why. Alberta's PIPA generally applies to private businesses; check the current requirements with the provincial privacy commissioner's office.
• Consent on any marketing sign-up. If you plan to send promotional emails or texts, Canada's anti-spam law (CASL) applies, so check the current CASL guidance before adding a newsletter box.

We wrote a full explainer on who owns your website, domains, hosting and logins, including what to ask before you sign anything.

A website you can't log into isn't really yours. It's something you're renting from whoever has the password.

07Launch day and the first two weeks

Pick a launch time when someone can watch for problems. A Tuesday morning beats a Friday night. Then run a short follow-up routine.

1. Re-test the forms and call buttons on the live address, not the staging version. Settings sometimes change in the move.
2. Search your business name on Google after a few days and check what shows up.
3. Tell your existing customers. Update email signatures, social profiles, quotes and invoice templates with the new address.
4. Check Search Console after a week for crawl errors or pages Google couldn't reach.
5. Look at the first leads. Did they come in through the form, the phone or Google Business Profile? That tells you what to improve next.

If you're launching on a tight timeline, our guide on what to prepare for a 48-hour launch pairs well with this list.

08Where Sidekick fits

If you built your own site on a builder, you can run this whole checklist yourself in an afternoon, and you should. When we build a website and Google Ads setup ($1,285 CAD plus GST), this list is part of the job: tap-to-call, tracking, the Google Business Profile link and accounts set up in your name. If you'd like a quick opinion on a site you already have, book a free 10-minute call.

Frequently asked questions

What should I check before launching a website?

Check that forms deliver, call buttons dial the right number, pages load fast on a phone, Google is allowed to index the site, tracking is installed and every account is in your name. The full checklist is above.

How do I know if Google can see my new website?

Add the site to Google Search Console, submit your sitemap and use the URL inspection tool on your homepage. If it says the page is blocked by 'noindex', the setting from development is still on.

Do I need a privacy policy on a small business website in Alberta?

If your site collects personal information through forms, you should explain what you collect and why. Private-sector businesses in Alberta are generally covered by PIPA, so check the current rules with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta.

How long after launch will my site show up on Google?

A brand-name search often works within days once the site is indexed. Ranking for competitive service searches takes longer and depends on your content, reviews and Google Business Profile. See our local SEO guide.

Should I keep my old website live until the new one launches?

Yes, keep it live until the switch, then redirect old page addresses to the matching new pages so you don't lose links or bookmarks.