What Should a New Business Website Include? A Launch Checklist

Most first websites contain both too much and too little. Too much in the sense of pages nobody reads and features nobody uses. Too little in the sense of the plain information a potential customer needs before they’ll pick up the phone.

This is the launch checklist we use to help new businesses make sensible choices. Some items need time or paid tools; many simply need a clear decision before design begins.

A note up front: nothing here guarantees you’ll rank on Google. Search results depend on competition, your market and a great deal outside anyone’s control. What these items do is give a new site a sound starting position, so that the content and reputation you build afterwards has something solid underneath it.

The essentials

Say what you do, above the fold, in plain words

The first thing on the page should tell a stranger what you do and who you do it for. Not a slogan. A sentence.

“Accountancy for Dundee trades and small limited companies” works. “Empowering your financial future” does not, because it describes nothing and could belong to any of four hundred firms.

Add where you work, if location matters to your customers. For most local businesses it matters a great deal.

Services, separately and specifically

One page listing everything can be enough at the beginning. Separate service pages become useful when each offer needs its own explanation — what’s included, who it’s for and how a customer can enquire.

If you can publish fixed prices or starting prices accurately, they can help visitors judge fit. When work is scoped individually, explain how quoting works and what information you need first. Don’t invent a price range just to fill the space.

Contact details that work on a phone

Phone number as a clickable tel: link, so tapping it dials
Email address visible as text, not hidden behind a form alone
Address and directions if customers visit your premises; a map can help, but it need not be embedded
Opening hours, including whether you answer outside them
Response time you’ll actually meet — “we reply within one working day” is a commitment, so only write it if it’s true

Make the preferred contact route easy to find on every page. That may be a phone number, email address, booking link or a clear project questionnaire, depending on how you actually work.

An enquiry route that you’ve tested end to end

A form is one option, not a requirement. A static website can instead invite a visitor to email, call, message you, or complete an on-device questionnaire and share its PDF. Whatever you choose, test the full journey before launch:

Can the visitor understand what happens after they enquire?
Does the message or document actually reach the right person?
Can someone use it on a real phone, including on mobile data?
Is there a clear fallback if the preferred method fails?
If you use a form, are required fields limited to information you genuinely need, and is spam handled?

Avoid promising a response time unless you can maintain it.

Trust

A website’s job, for most businesses, is to convert a stranger’s cautious interest into an enquiry. That’s a trust problem more than a design problem.

Real business information

If you trade as a UK limited company, there is a legal dimension as well as a trust one. Your website must show the full company name (including Limited or Ltd), registered number, registered office address and where the company is registered. Check the rules that apply in your jurisdiction if you are based elsewhere. VAT-registered businesses must show their VAT number on VAT invoices; whether it should also appear on the website depends on the business and applicable rules. UK Companies House guidance

Beyond the legal minimum, explain who runs the business, where you operate and any registrations, memberships or insurance relevant to your work. Use names and photographs when the people involved are comfortable being shown; do not imply a larger team than you have.

Photographs of the actual business

Generic stock photography rarely explains what your business actually does. If you use it, do not present it as your team, premises or completed work.

Where appropriate, use photographs of your premises, team, products, vehicles or completed jobs. Good daylight and a recent phone can be enough. Ask permission before publishing identifiable people or client property, and gather the images early enough that the site can be designed around what you actually have.

Evidence of work, where you have it

Useful forms of evidence include:

Case studies — the problem, what you did and what changed.
Testimonials or reviews — genuine feedback used with permission where required.
Client or partner logos — only when you have permission.
Before and after photos — useful for visual work such as trades, landscaping or salons, with appropriate consent.

If you are brand new and have none of this, do not fabricate it. Explain your experience honestly and build evidence as real work is completed.

A Google Business Profile

This sits outside the website and is useful for eligible businesses that meet customers in person, either at their premises or in a service area. Online-only businesses generally are not eligible. If you qualify, keep the profile accurate and consistent with the contact details on your site. Google Business Profile eligibility rules

Practical launch checks

Mobile

Many visitors will use a phone. Check on a real device, not just a narrowed browser window:

Text readable without zooming
Buttons and links large enough to tap accurately
No horizontal scrolling
Forms usable one-handed, with the right keyboard appearing for email and phone fields
Phone numbers and addresses tappable

Accessibility

This is easier to build in than to retrofit, and it overlaps almost entirely with plain good practice:

Text contrast strong enough to read in sunlight
Informative images have useful alternative text; decorative images are marked as decorative
Form fields have real labels, not just placeholder text that vanishes when typing
The site is navigable by keyboard alone, with a visible focus outline
Headings used in order, describing structure rather than chosen for size
Video captioned if you have any

These checks make the site usable for more people. Some also help search engines understand its content, but accessibility and SEO are not the same thing. W3C accessibility guidance

Speed

Compress images before upload and serve them in a modern format. Don’t load a dozen third-party scripts. Limit custom fonts to one or two weights. Test on a mid-range Android phone over mobile data rather than on office broadband.

A well-built static site can be fast because pages are pre-built, though images, scripts and hosting still matter. If you’re weighing up your options, our article on static websites, CMS platforms and headless options goes through the trade-offs.

Search visibility groundwork

This is the foundation, not a ranking strategy:

Every page has a unique, descriptive title and meta description
A clear main heading that tells visitors what the page is about
Readable URLs — /services/tax-returns, not /page?id=47
An XML sitemap for a multi-page site, with important pages checked in Google Search Console
Search Console set up; analytics only if useful to you, with an appropriate privacy and consent setup
HTTPS enabled, with a consistent preferred domain and appropriate redirects
An Open Graph image, so shared links don’t look broken on LinkedIn and WhatsApp
A custom 404 page that helps people rather than stranding them
Important public content present in crawlable HTML or otherwise confirmed visible to search engines

These checks reduce avoidable technical barriers; they do not guarantee indexing or rankings. Google can render JavaScript, but pre-rendered content is often simpler for crawlers and visitors. Continue by publishing genuinely useful information grounded in what your customers ask and what your business knows firsthand. Google SEO Starter Guide · Google JavaScript SEO guidance

What can wait

Launching without these is normal. Adding them later is straightforward.

A blog. Start one when you have useful questions to answer and someone who can maintain it. An old article can still help readers if it remains accurate; freshness for its own sake is not the goal.

A CMS. If content changes rarely and one person handles updates, an editing interface may add complexity without much benefit. Regular publishing by a non-technical team can make a CMS worthwhile. We’ve written about how to make that call in detail.

Booking systems. A phone number or enquiry route may be enough at first. If bookings are central to the business from day one, choose a suitable off-the-shelf tool rather than delaying a core customer journey.

Customer accounts and logins. This is the largest single step in cost and complexity, and the point where a website becomes an application — with a database, personal data obligations and a permanent security responsibility attached. Our article on website versus web application covers when that’s genuinely warranted.

Live chat, pop-ups, newsletter signups. Fine later. At launch they mostly add clutter and slow the page.

Multiple languages. Add them when you can support customers in those languages and keep translated content accurate.

An elaborate design system. Five good pages beat fifteen half-finished ones.

Before you approach a developer

Have these ready and you’ll get better quotes, faster, from everyone you speak to.

Examples communicate visual preferences more clearly than vague adjectives. A genuine deadline also helps a developer distinguish launch essentials from later additions.

Tell us about your project

If you’re planning a new site or a complete redesign, tell us what your visitors need to understand and do. We’ll use your answers to propose a suitable scope, including a simpler static site when that is enough. We build new websites and complete rebuilds; partial repairs of legacy code are outside our scope.

Describe your project →

What Should a New Business Website Include? A Practical Launch Checklist