How to Launch and Promote Your New Website: A Checklist

To launch and promote a new service business website, protect your rankings first with 301 redirects, Search Console and GA4, and test every form and link. Then personally tell your referral partners and past clients, email your list, and update your link everywhere, from your Google Business Profile to your email signature.

You finally have a website you're proud of. It's live, it looks right, and it actually sounds like you. Then a week goes by and... nothing much changes. Same number of enquiries, same referrals, same quiet inbox.

Here's the thing. Most launch advice is written for online shops: countdown timers, launch discounts, "10% off your first order". That's not how established service businesses win work. Your clients come through people who already trust you, and through Google when someone searches for exactly what you do. So your launch should focus on those two things.

This is the checklist I use with my own clients.

What should you do before your new website goes live?

Before launch, protect what you've already built. Redirect your old pages, connect Google Search Console and GA4, and test every form and link. A beautiful new site that loses your old Google rankings or sends enquiries to a dead inbox isn't a win.

Set up 301 redirects

If any page addresses are changing, map every old URL to its closest new page with a 301 redirect. This tells Google the page has moved permanently and passes on most of the ranking value. Skip it and people clicking old links (and Google) hit a 404 page. It's the single most common launch mistake I see.

Connect Search Console and GA4

Make sure Google Search Console is verified for your domain and submit your sitemap on launch day. That helps Google find your new pages faster. Then check GA4 is installed and recording visits, so you have a baseline from day one. If you need a hand, here's how to set up Google Analytics.

Test the boring stuff

• Submit every form and check the enquiry lands in the right inbox (and not spam).
• Click every button and menu link, on your phone as well as your laptop.
• Check your booking links, phone number and email address are all current.
• Make sure each page has its own title and meta description.

Who should you tell first when your website launches?

Tell the people who already send you work: past clients, referral partners and your professional network. They're the ones most likely to pass your link on, and a new website gives them something easy to share.

Your referral partners

Accountants, other practitioners, the GP who sends you clients, the business coach who mentions your name. Send each of them a short personal message, not a mass email. Tell them what's new, who you're best for now, and include the link. If your positioning has sharpened, this is the moment they learn how to describe you properly. It's one piece of a proper referral system that doesn't rely on luck.

Past and current clients

A simple email works well: here's the new site, here's what I focus on now, and I'd love it if you passed it on to anyone who'd be a good fit. No discount needed. This is also a natural moment to ask happy clients for a review (here's why reviews matter so much for service businesses).

Your email list

If you have one, send a short launch email that points people to one or two key pages, not just the homepage. Your new services page or a new case study gives them a reason to click.

Where should you update your website link?

This is the bit everyone forgets, and it's where a lot of your quiet, ongoing traffic comes from.

• Google Business Profile. Update your website link, services and description. If you use UTM tags on the link, you can see in GA4 how many visits come from your profile. More on this in local SEO for Australian service businesses.
• LinkedIn. Update the website on your personal profile and company page, add the site to your Featured section, and write a launch post that talks about who you help, not just "we have a new website!".
• Your email signature. Every email you send is a small promotion. Make sure it links to the new site (and to your booking page, if you have one).
• Directories and associations. Professional bodies, industry directories, local business listings, podcast guest pages. Check your details are the same everywhere.
• Social bios. Instagram, Facebook, anywhere you have a profile.

Should you run ads when your website launches?

Maybe, but not straight away. I ran Google and Meta ads for a large university for about seven years, and the lesson I took from it is that ads amplify what's already working. They don't fix a site that isn't converting yet. Give your new site a few weeks of real visitors first, see which pages people enquire from, then decide whether paid traffic is worth it.

What should you do in the first 90 days after launch?

• Watch the Pages report in Search Console. It shows which pages Google has indexed and flags anything it couldn't. Fix 404s and redirect errors early.
• Check your enquiries. Are the right people getting in touch? If you're still getting wrong-fit enquiries, your copy may need a tweak.
• Keep it alive. Add a new case study, update a service page, publish a useful post. A site that's left alone slowly goes stale.

If you'd rather someone else kept an eye on all of this, that's exactly what my Site Success Plans are for: Webflow maintenance plus ongoing SEO and AEO care, so your site keeps working after launch day.

A launch isn't one big moment. It's a week of telling the right people, a month of fixing small things, and then steady care after that.