Guide
Get ready to put it online
The checks worth making before anyone else sees the site.
Difficulty: intermediate
1. Read every word out loud
Placeholder text survives to launch more often than anything else. Reading aloud catches what skimming does not.
Check for lorem ipsum, for Your Company Name, and for any phone number or address that is not yours.
2. Use the site as a stranger would
Go through the one thing you want people to do, from the top, without using anything you know.
Land on the home page, find the price, and send an enquiry. Time it.
3. Check what it looks like when shared
A link posted to WhatsApp or LinkedIn shows a title, a description, and an image. Without them it looks broken or fake.
Add a page title, a description, and a sharing image, then show me how the link will look when someone posts it.
4. Make sure every form goes somewhere
A contact form that silently discards messages is worse than no form, and it is a common launch day discovery.
Submit the enquiry form as a real visitor would and confirm the email actually arrives.
5. Ask what happens next
Find out who can change the site and what it costs before you need to know urgently.
Tell me where this is hosted, what it costs, how I change the text myself, and what I do if it goes down.
Launch problems are rarely dramatic. They are a form that goes nowhere, a placeholder phone number, and a link that looks broken when shared.
The last step is the one people skip and regret. Find out how to change your own words before you need to change them.