What happens after your new website launches?

Collect a clear handover

• Domain ownership and renewal details in an account you control.
• Hosting and email account responsibilities, including separate subscriptions.
• Agreed website files, content and access after final payment.
• A record of third-party licences and any limits on transferring them.
• A walkthrough of the important customer journeys and update process.

Keep recovery contacts and account ownership current. If somebody leaves the business, review their access. A working website is easier to maintain when these details are recorded before a problem occurs.

Test the actions that matter

Submit a legitimate test enquiry with the owner’s agreement and confirm that it reaches the intended mailbox. Check the confirmation message, reply address and spam folder. If you use booking or payment tools, test them through the provider’s approved process.

Try the menu, telephone and email links on a phone. Check important pages with a keyboard and confirm that a visible error explains what to correct in a form. Repeat key checks after changes to DNS, forms or integrations; a page looking correct does not prove message delivery.

Match care to the website platform

Our optional hosting is £25 per month, standard care is £99 per month and enhanced care is £179 per month. The care plans include stated checks and a limited allowance for small edits. They do not include unlimited development or an ongoing search campaign.

A static brochure site and a site running a CMS have different maintenance needs. The agreement confirms the platform, backups, recovery arrangements and updates that apply. See the care scope, including reply targets and how extra work is agreed.

Help search engines discover the useful pages

Keep a sitemap containing the canonical pages you want indexed and link it from robots.txt. Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools can help identify crawl and indexing issues in an account you control.

Google explains that a sitemap helps discovery but does not guarantee crawling or indexing. Search visibility also depends on the usefulness of the content and the wider market. Publish service information that answers customer questions, then improve it as the business changes.

Give the right people a route to the site

Link the website from your existing business profiles, email signature and relevant professional listings. Share a guide that answers a real question in a community where it is welcome. Ask partners to link to useful resources when they genuinely help their audience.

Avoid buying unrelated links or publishing large numbers of repetitive articles. Google’s helpful-content guidance prioritises material that benefits the intended reader. A practical guide explaining a purchasing decision is more useful to your business than a large volume of visits with no interest in the service.

Measure useful enquiries

Record where each enquiry came from, which service it concerns and whether it fits your scope and budget. This turns traffic reporting into a business decision. Review search impressions, clicks and useful enquiries together instead of treating one isolated number as success.

Start with a baseline and a short list of pages to improve. If a guide receives relevant visits but nobody takes the next step, review its connection to the service and contact journey. If visitors enquire about work you do not offer, clarify the page before chasing more traffic. Discuss care and launch support.