Website launch checklist for your brand

Is building a website challenging and exhausting? The truth is, it is really simple. There is no need for you to check a thousand tabs and get panic attacks. We’ve got the best practices for you in this blog so you can build a credible site, quickly and effortlessly.

Your complete website launch checklist

1. Goal

The first step for you to take is to identify why you need a website. The goals can be different, and so are the results from them. You might want the viewers to know you better, to sign up to your service, to buy your service, to talk to you, or even to shop a product of yours. A goal is like your north star, and everything on the site should support it.

2. Domain

Your brand needs a name, and so does your website. But what if the name you want for your brand is too long, too difficult, or taken by another brand on the internet? You need to choose a unique name. But it does not end with securing your domain name only.

Point that domain to your site by updating the domain name system (DNS) so both the main address and the “www” version go to the same place. Turn on a security certificate (SSL) so every page loads with the padlock (https), and make the site automatically redirect to one chosen version, either with “www” or without it. Set up your email hosting, too.

3. Platform

You need a platform to launch your website. Choose a platform that matches your team’s skills and capacity. In case you want to do it yourself without a developer, select a managed, no-code builder that bundles hosting, security, backups, software updates, a global CDN, image optimisation, and a safe draft-to-publish workflow.

WEMASY has a DIY Website Builder with pre-built templates to help you build your site quickly and launch it fast. We are the fastest static website builder, and your site can load quickly. Just sign up, build, and launch in no time.

4. Sitemap

Once you have decided on a platform to build and launch your website, you need to plan what you need to show your audience. For this, you will need to create a sitemap - the map of your site that helps users journey well and helps you to show up in a better position on the search engine.

Sitemaps have more than one benefit

• For website owners, it helps in building a website and planning the navigation without any broken links.

• For visitors on the website, site maps guide them like a map, telling them where to find what.

• For the search engines, a sitemap helps the crawlers understand your site better and index and rank it.

5. Content

When you have a sitemap ready, you need to plan what your communication to the viewers will be. Write the content according to the end goal of your brand. Write in plain language and answer real questions: what you do, who it is for, how it works, price, proof, and the next step. Include call to actions in all the main pages. Plan your home page, service and product pages, and more that benefit the users and, in turn, benefit you.

6. Design

Along with content comes your visuals. Visuals work to make your website attractive, and also with image SEO. Make sure you have a small design system to start with. Plan the brand colors and one accent, one headline font, one body font, spacing, and more. Get the right visuals that convey the right message and plan the content hierarchy in the visuals too.

7. Accessibility

Your website must be accessible to everyone who comes to it. Come up with meaningful alt text, visible focus states, and a keyboard navigation plan. Accessibility is not just for the specially challenged people. It is for anyone who visits your website. Make sure you talk to them in the language they know. Use multilingual translators.

8. Data collection

Your website has no value if it does not help you collect and convert leads. You need to have a good form builder to collect leads, enquiries, sign-ups, purchases, and support requests. While building these forms, use clear labels, a strong button, and tell users what happens next. Make sure you also build helpful errors and a friendly success message. The forms should work perfectly on a phone.

9. Speed of your website

The speed of your website is important for both Technical SEO and for your visitors. Your site should open fast, even on a basic phone. Use small image files, load videos and big pictures only when people scroll to them, and remove anything that slows the page but doesn’t help the visitor.

10. SEO

As you prepare to launch your website, start preparing to make it noticeable on the search engines as well. Use clear page titles, short web addresses, and simple headings. Link related pages to each other and tell the site engines about your site using its free “Search Console” so new pages are found quickly.

Is keyword research important at this phase? Technically, the search engines will get to know your website by the type of topics and niches you speak about through your content. Focus on getting the site live with the right content and then start optimising for keywords based on its performance.

11. Analytics tool

You need to track the performance of your website once it goes live. To do that, you will need an analytics tool that gives you the right data and insights. Using this, you can make decisions to improve your website. Get ready to check these numbers weekly so you can fix what slows people down.

When you share links in ads or posts, label them so you know where visitors came from. At times, you will need to use more than one tool to get all the information you need. WEMASY has its Analytics & Insights tool that gives you all the website metrics you need in one place.

12. Security

Your website will be credible when you keep it secure for both you and your users. Use HTTPS on every page, take automatic backups, and set an alert if the site goes down. Ask only for the data you truly need and store it safely. Set up email authentication so confirmations land in the inbox, not spam. Limit access to trusted people, use strong passwords, and remove old logins you no longer need.

With WEMASY, you will get automatic daily backups, uptime alerts, spam-safe forms, email deliverability setup, and simple user roles.

Final changes

The important step before launching your site is to test it well. Test every page, every form, every call to action button, every visual, and more. Check that your phone number, email, address, and opening hours are correct and easy to find on mobile.

Read key pages out loud and fix typos. Make sure images load cleanly. Pages should open fast, buttons should be easy to tap, and text should be easy to read. If anything feels slow or confusing, fix it before it goes live.

This website launch checklist is all you need to understand how easy it is to launch your website. WEMASY makes it effortless for you to take it live. Your audience is already paying attention. You just need an online home to bring them in. If you’re ready to move from “we should have a site” to “our site works,” start with WEMASY’s Websute builder.