Your New Website Checklist: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to launch? Not so fast. Most of the problems I see on a live website trace back to something that got skipped before the build ever started. Here's what actually needs to be in place, and why each piece matters.

1. Business Basics

Before anything else: a registered business name, a domain you own, hosting secured, a business email set up, and an active SSL certificate. This is the foundation everything else sits on — skip a piece here and you're building on sand. An SSL certificate especially gets overlooked, but a browser flagging your site as "not secure" is one of the fastest ways to lose a visitor's trust before they've read a word.

2. Pages You Need

Decide which pages your site actually needs before you build any of them. List every page, name them clearly (Home, About, Services, Contact), and think through whether you need a gallery, an FAQ, testimonials, shop pages, or a booking/quote request page. Know which of those belong in your main menu. Write a short note on what each page will actually include — that one habit saves hours of guessing later.

3. Website Content & Assets

This is usually where projects stall. Your About Me or Our Story, your services, your product list, your photos, your testimonials — all of it needs to exist before a designer can build around it. Add licensing or certification details, the areas you serve, an FAQ section, warranty or guarantee info, and a written privacy policy. A site built without this content ready ends up full of placeholder text that never gets replaced.

4. Branding & Style

Fonts and color palette selected. Hero or banner images chosen. And — genuinely useful — list two or three websites you like, with notes on what you like about them. That reference list does more to align expectations than almost any other part of this process.

6. Lead Generation

A quote request or contact form set up. A booking or consultation tool if that fits your business. A newsletter signup is optional, not required. Testimonials, trust badges, or certifications visible where visitors will actually see them.

7. SEO & Analytics

The point of this step is simple: make sure your site can actually be found and tracked. Keywords chosen. Meta titles and descriptions written. Alt text on every image. Google Analytics connected. Google Search Console and your sitemap submitted. None of this is complicated, and all of it gets skipped constantly.

8. Budget Planning & Readiness

Set your ideal budget before you start getting quotes, not after. Review this checklist and be honest with yourself about whether you're actually ready to begin — building it yourself or hiring help. Know what you'll do yourself versus what you'll outsource, and have a timeline in mind.

Want to go deeper?

The download

We built a full printable version of this checklist — all eight sections, checkboxes included, notes space at the end — so you can actually work through it instead of just reading it. Download the checklist here.

If you get through it and you're still not sure where to start, that's exactly what I'm here for.

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