How To Launch a Website In 2025

Key takeaways: 

• Plan out your website ahead of time. Prelaunch planning takes time, but it makes you more mindful of what you put into your site. This way, you’ll leave less room for error and ensure your website is in top shape when it’s time to launch. 
• SEO should be part of your website development strategy right from the start. Do your keyword research and use those keywords strategically—in your headers, meta descriptions, URL slugs, and content blocks. 
• Think of your site visitors when creating engaging content. Use a mix of content types, like blog posts, tutorial videos, infographics, and testimonials. These will keep them engaged, and you can easily repurpose them for your social media as well. 

Launching a website is both exciting and overwhelming. There’s a lot to figure out, and it’s easy to feel unsure about what to do first. It’s a big step, but you’re on the right track. 

A strong website is the foundation of any modern business. In fact, 73% of small businesses already have one. It’s one of the best ways to tap into a global market. 

Excited? Let’s dive into the step-by-step guide to launching a website your audience will love. 

Your 11-step website launch checklist 

Here are the steps to launching your dream site: 

1. Make your pre-launch plan 
2. Buy a domain name 
3. Create your website’s sitemap 
4. Select your website builder 
5. Choose a hosting provider 
6. Design your website 
7. Develop a content strategy 
8. Enhance for search engine optimization (SEO) 
9. Test your site regularly 
10. Prepare your analytics setup 
11. Launch and promote your website 

For you to be fully equipped, we’ve broken each step in the next sections. 

1. Make your pre-launch plan 

It’s tempting to jump straight into creating your website, but it’s not practical. Websites, like anything online, need regular updates to grow, stay relevant, and meet the ever-evolving needs of your audience. 

To map out a solid foundation for your website, you’ll need to: 

• Define your website’s purpose 
• Identify your target audience 
• Create a brand voice chart 
• Set your business metrics 

Define your website’s purpose 

Every website needs a core topic. It helps give your site direction, making it easier to focus your efforts, prioritize tasks, and track progress. You may already have a general idea of what you want but putting it into writing will make everything clearer. To get started, ask yourself these questions: 

• What topics or interests will your website cover? 
• What action do you want visitors to take? Are you aiming to sell, share content, or something else? 
• What problems are you looking to solve with your website? 
• What value will your website offer to your visitors? 
• What’s your unique selling point (USP)? What do you have to offer that others do not? 
• What emotions do you want to evoke in your visitors? 

Take the time to think long and hard about each question. These questions will help you clarify your website’s goals and direction.  

Identify your target audience 

Your target audience are those who will benefit most from your website. They’re the most likely to become potential customers too, so it’s best to tailor your content to meet the needs and interests. 

To define your target audience, you can: 

• Use surveys and polls. These help you gather insights on interests, problems, and where your audience spends their time. You can conduct them yourself or search for existing data online. 
• Tap into social media. You’re likely sharing a niche with many others online. Observe how others position themselves — who they address and who interacts with their posts the most. 
• Look at top competitors. Big brands didn’t get to the top by accident. They’ve figured out who to market to and how to do it. Learning from them can provide valuable inspiration. 

Once you’ve gathered this data, ask yourself: What problems does your target audience face? Where do they spend most of their time? What are their key interests? 

Create a brand voice chart 

A brand voice chart helps you define how your website should sound. It’s not only about choosing tone words; it’s also about understanding how to use them when you write. 

To create one, start by choosing three to four tone words that describe your brand. These should reflect how you want to come across to your audience. Then, add short notes on what each word means in your context, and a few example phrases that match the tone. 

Here’s a simple example: 

Tone	What it means	Example phrases
Friendly	Casual and approachable, like a helpful peer	“Need help? Just let us know.”   “We’ve got you.”
Confident	Clear and assured, without sounding pushy	“Here’s exactly what to do next.”
Calm	Steady and relaxed, not salesy or high pressure	“Take your time. You’re in control.”
Helpful	Focused on being useful, not overly promotional	“Here’s a guide to walk you through each step.”

Set your business metrics 

Business metrics are like signposts on your journey to success. They serve as markers that allow you to effectively evaluate the performance of your website and marketing efforts. 

It’s best to set them before you even start so you know where you’re headed and which areas you need to adjust or improve. Here are a few of the things you can measure: 

• Traffic source. Understanding where your visitors are coming from is vital. This helps you determine which of your marketing efforts are the most effective and where to focus your resources. 
• Number of pages read per session. Knowing how many pages visitors interact with helps you gauge whether your content is engaging enough to keep them exploring your site. 
• Conversion rates. This is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as a purchase or a form submission. If this is low, you might need to adjust your calls to action or pop-ups. 
• Keyword rankings. This metric determines where your site ranks for the keywords you’re targeting. Good rankings are a key indicator of your SEO strategy’s success and directly impact your website’s visibility. 
• Social shares. A high number of shares shows that your content speaks to your audience and has the potential to bring in more organic traffic to your site. 
• Returning visitors. This shows if your content and site design are good enough to encourage repeat visits. A low percentage of return visits could mean that you need to ramp up your marketing efforts or site content. Try building a community, newsletter, or polishing your content to better engage users.
• Customer lifetime value. This metric tells you the total revenue you can expect from a single customer over time. Once you have a few loyal customers, you can use it to identify those with the most value to your business and tailor your marketing to similar individuals.

Make sure you monitor these with your analytics setup. This way, you’ll have all the data you need to understand what’s working and what’s not.

In doing so, you make informed decisions and focus your efforts on the areas that will have the biggest impact on your website’s success.

2. Buy a domain name

Your domain name is how both readers and search engines will find your website online. Ideally, it should reflect what your business is all about to make it memorable and easy to find.

What matters most is choosing a domain that is:

• Short and easy to spell. Choose a name that’s easy to remember and avoid using hyphens, numbers, or double letters.
• Brandable. Your domain should represent the brand and be easy to market. Even if it’s symbolic, it should still be memorable and connected to your business.
• Using popular extensions. Extensions like .com, .org, and .io are common and trusted. While using lesser-known extensions can make you stand out, most visitors will by default remember websites that use more common domain names.

How to choose your domain name

Choosing a domain is easier said than done. You might even come up with a great idea, only to find it’s already taken. To avoid this, keep your options open. Here’s how you can do that:

1. List all the relevant keywords that describe your business or brand.
2. Experiment with alliteration, wordplay, or even other languages to create unique domain ideas. You could also try using an AI domain name generator for more creative options.
3. Check availability, then run the domain by friends, family, or colleagues to see how it resonates with them. 
4. Once you find the perfect domain, register it right away!

Domain registration tip:

Consider purchasing alternatives of your registered domain. Though not a hard and fast rule, it’s better to be safe. Keep variations like common misspellings and similar domain names to prevent damage to your brand name that leads to potential traffic loss.

3. Create your website’s sitemap

A sitemap is a blueprint for your website’s structure. It helps both you and search engines understand the relationships between pages, images, videos, and other content.

Here’s how you can create your sitemap manually:

1. Plan the layout. Start by planning the layout for each page, focusing on where key elements like text, images, and calls to action will go. If you’d like, you can use wireframes to visualize how everything fits together. Don’t forget to include any functional features you might need, such as forms, booking calendars, or contact sections.
2. Understand the user’s mental framework. Readers already have a mental note or cognitive framework for how they expect to navigate a website. Make sure your sitemap aligns with this understanding, creating an intuitive flow. Run your sitemap through your mind, and have friends or family do the same to get an outside perspective.
3. Gather your content. List all the pages and content categories you want on your website. Your basic pages and sections will likely include:
   • Home
   • About Us
   • Products/Services
   • Contact Us
   • FAQs
4. Follow the “one page, one task” rule. Every page on your website should have one clear purpose. Doing this will guide users effectively and prevent confusion.
5. Sketch it out. Use paper, a whiteboard, or digital tools like Gliffy or Figma to create a visual representation of your site’s structure. Imagine how users will navigate your site and what makes sense logically.
6. Organize pages. Group related pages together and show how they link to each other, creating a hierarchy. This helps both users and search engines understand the flow of your content.
7. Label and number. Add labels and numbering to sections for clarity and easy reference.

Benefits of a sitemap

Though the concept is simple, it takes time to create one. However, a good sitemap can:

Enhance the user experience

You won’t know where your website can improve until you see it through the eyes of a potential customer. A sitemap helps you do just that.

It removes personal bias and makes it easier to pinpoint areas that need improvement. Even small changes, like shifting a button slightly, can make affect user satisfaction.

Help with indexing for search engines

With billions of websites online, search engines need an efficient way to crawl and index pages. Submitting a sitemap helps search engines find your site more quickly and accurately. It ensures that your content gets indexed properly, improving your site’s chances of ranking.

Ensure proper indexing of media content

Crawlers can struggle with indexing media like videos and images. A well-structured sitemap directs crawlers to this content, ensuring it’s properly indexed and appears in relevant search results, such as video or image search.

4. Select a website builder

Creating a new website has never been easier, thanks to the many website builders available today. However, with so many choices, picking the right one can be overwhelming. To find the perfect website builder for your needs, here are a few key things to consider:

• User-friendliness
• Flexibility
• AI tools
• Integration capabilities
• Accessibility
• Search engine optimization (SEO) tools

User friendliness

Look at the website you want to build. The website builder you use should make it easy to create and manage your site. A good user-friendly builder will have a clean interface and intuitive tools that reduce the learning curve.

Flexibility

The website builder you choose should offer a variety of ways to customize and build your site. Apart from having a drag-and-drop editor, many find it useful to work on a builder that also has pre-designed customizable templates. That way, you can either build from scratch or start off with a template.

AI tools

Though you can get by without them, AI tools can help you get your business online quickly. These tools aren’t just about speed; they’re also great for overcoming creative hurdles. An AI domain name generator can suggest fresh ideas if your desired domain is taken, and an AI writer can help you overcome writer’s block.

Integration capabilities

This refers to the ability to connect your website with other services and applications (e.g., social media, professional email, payment gateways). A website builder with strong integration capabilities will be scalable, making it easy to grow your business website fast.

Accessibility 

Today’s digital landscape is all about inclusion. Your website should reflect this by being accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities. Choose a builder that supports features like keyboard navigation, alt text for images, and high-contrast color schemes. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) tools 

SEO tools help your website rank higher in search engine results. A good website builder will provide these tools to help you improve your online visibility. 

5. Choose your hosting provider 

Once you have a website builder, the next step is choosing a hosting provider. A good hosting service will ensure your website is fast, secure, and reliable. Here are the key factors to consider: 

Performance 

A hosting provider’s performance directly impacts your website’s speed and reliability. Look for a host that offers a high uptime guarantee, typically 99.9% or higher, to ensure your site is almost always available to visitors. Other factors like server speed, bandwidth, and storage space all contribute to a smooth user experience.

Security 

A secure hosting provider offers robust features to safeguard your site and its visitors. Key security services often include:

• Secure socket layer (SSL). An SSL certificate creates a secure, encrypted connection between a visitor’s browser and your website. While an SSL certificate is technically optional, major search engines will label websites without one as “Not Secure,” which can significantly harm user trust and your site’s search engine rankings.
• CodeGuard. This is a cloud-based backup and restore service that automatically performs daily backups of your website’s files and databases.
• SiteLock. SiteLock is a comprehensive website security solution that actively protects your site from malware and vulnerabilities. It performs daily scans to detect and remove malicious code and provides a web application firewall (WAF) to block bad traffic.

6. Design your website

You probably already have an idea of how you want your website to look, but it’s best to solidify this vision. Here are the steps you can take to lock in your web design:

1. Start with a mood board
2. Create a wireframe
3. Build your website

Step 1. Start with a mood board

A mood board is a collection of colors, fonts, images and textures that reflect how you want your website to look and feel. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s simply a space to experiment and gather ideas that match your brand’s personality.

You can start by playing around with: 

• a few colors that feel like your brand 
• one or two fonts that match the tone you’re going for 
• images, patterns or design styles that capture the mood you want your site to convey 

You can build your mood board using a tool like Canva, Milanote, or even just a blank doc or folder where you collect visuals. It’s a creative snapshot of your brand and a helpful reference when it’s time to start designing. 

Here’s an example of what a simple mood board might look like: 

Step 2. Create a wireframe 

A wireframe, like your sitemap, is a visual blueprint of your website. The only difference is that this is per page. Think of it as the skeleton of your web page.  

To start, list down the pages your website will have. You can follow your sitemap to make sure you don’t miss any page. Don’t forget to mark where each key element (e.g., navigation menus, images, buttons, and text blocks) will go 

Step 3. Build your website 

As you build, remember to: 

This is where you bring your brand identity to life, using your mood board and wireframe as a guide. It’s time to start adding content, customizing the design, and making your site functional. 

• Use the colors, fonts, and imagery from your mood board to create a cohesive look and feel. 
• Follow the layout and structure you created in your wireframe to ensure a logical flow. 
• Fill your pages with engaging, well-written copy and high-quality images. 
• Integrate any necessary tools or features, like contact forms, eCommerce functionality, or social media links. 

Building your website is a process of bringing all your ideas together into one live, functional site. By following the steps you’ve already taken, you can build a website that is not only visually appealing but also effective and easy to use. 

7. Develop content strategy 

Your website’s content is just as important as its design. While design grabs attention, content gives your website substance and keeps visitors engaged. 

You might have already thought about this during your web design process, but if you’re looking for more ideas, here’s a list of content you can add to make your site even better: 

• Blog posts or articles. These are a great way to show off your expertise. Feature topics that matter to your audience, share tips, and provide insights that will keep them engaged and coming back for more. 
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Think of this as a way for visitors to quickly find the answers they need. 
• Tutorial videos. A video explaining how to use your product or offering a sneak peek into what you provide can be incredibly effective in keeping users hooked. It’s a powerful way to demonstrate your course or product’s value in real-time. 
• Infographics and charts. When you have complex data, presenting it visually with infographics or charts makes it easier for visitors to digest. It’s a quick way to get important points across without overwhelming them. 
• Photo galleries or portfolios. A well-curated gallery or portfolio gives visitors a sense of your style while showcasing your past projects. It’s a powerful way to help them connect with your brand on a deeper level. 
• Customer testimonials and success stories. Nothing builds trust like hearing from real customers. Sharing success stories and testimonials gives your visitors social proof and reassures them that your product or service is the real deal. 
• Interactive quizzes or polls. Quizzes or polls are a fun and engaging way to interact with visitors. They make your website more dynamic while helping you gather valuable data to tailor content and offerings for your audience. 

Once you’ve identified which content types you’re going to add, consider noting which content needs regular updates. Information can and will change, and your readers will certainly look forward to the latest trends, events, and insights.  

Build an editorial calendar 

An editorial calendar will keep you organized by helping you plan out your content creation and posting schedule. It can cover anything from weeks to months of content and should include: 

• Content types. Note the format for each piece of content, whether it’s a blog post, video, or infographic. This helps you plan resources and keep your content diverse. 
• Content topics. These are the specific ideas you want to cover. You can create as many as you like, but make sure your content follows a logical or chronological order to make it easy for your readers to follow. 
• Deadlines. Set dates for content completion and publication. This way you stay on track and keep a consistent posting schedule.  Status. Track progress with labels like “in progress,” “ready to publish,” or “published.” Updating the status of tasks keeps you on top of your workflow. 
• Distribution channels. Keep in mind that each channel (social media channels, email, landing pages) has its own format. By noting this in your content calendar, you ensure the right content format is used for each platform. 

8. Enhance for search engine optimization (SEO) 

Optimizing your website for search engines helps your site rank higher in search results, making it easier for potential visitors to find you. By focusing on SEO, you can increase your website’s visibility, attract more traffic, and establish your brand as a credible resource in your industry. 

Here’s are SEO practices you can use for your site: 

• Conduct keyword research 
• Create your own meta data 
• Format your website structure 
• Make your website mobile-friendly 
• Create a backlink strategy 
• Use internal links where you can 
• Optimize for the technical elements of SEO 
• Use SEO tools 

If you’d like to explore these practices more, we’ve covered them in more detail below.  

Conduct keyword research 

Before you start creating content, it’s important to conduct keyword research. This involves identifying the words and phrases your audience uses when searching for information related to your business and incorporating them into your content. 

In doing so, you make it easier for search engines to understand your website, helping it rank for the topics your audience is actively searching for. 

Create your own meta data 

Have you ever searched for something and found an answer in the search results, only to click the link and not find the content or title you expected? Those are your meta title and description. 

While search engines can generate their own or pull from your existing content, creating your own makes the process easier and ensures your content is represented accurately in search results. 

Format your website structure 

Your website’s structure should be well-organized and intuitive. This helps visitors and search engines easily navigate your content. A logical hierarchy (e.g., Homepage -> Categories -> Individual Pages) ensures a smooth user experience. 

Make your website mobile friendly 

People spend over 4 hours a day on their phones, and if your website isn’t optimized for smaller screens, you’re missing out on valuable traffic. Fortunately, many website builders automatically accommodate mobile optimization in web development, but you’ll still need to compress images and videos, use an API, and adjust other design elements that can’t be auto configured. 

Create a backlink strategy 

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Backlinks are a powerful signal of trust and authority, and a high-quality backlink profile is a key factor in ranking well. To build your strategy, focus on creating high-quality content that other websites would like to link to. 

Use internal links where you can 

Internal links connect one page of your site to another. They make it easy for search engines to understand the structure of your site and pass authority between your pages. 

When you write new content, look for opportunities to link topics to relevant pages on your site to create a strong web of interconnected content. 

Optimize for the technical elements of SEO 

This focuses on the behind-the-scenes elements of your website that affect how search engines crawl and index it. 

• Robots.txt. This is a file that tells crawlers which pages or website files on your site they should or shouldn’t access. 
• XML sitemaps. An XML sitemap is a list of all the pages on your website. It tells search engines how to find and crawl all of your content more efficiently. 
• Canonical tags. A canonical tag is a snippet of code that tells search engines which is the main version of a page. This prevents duplicate content issues. 

Use SEO tools 

Managing all these elements can be a lot of work. Fortunately, there are many tools that can help with your SEO efforts. Google Analytics can track your website traffic, while platforms like Ahrefs or Semrush can help with keyword research, competitor analysis, and backlink tracking. 

9. Test your site regularly 

Studies show that people spend an average of 54 seconds on a website, and that’s even accounting for slower loading sites. If your site performs poorly, visitors will likely leave it for another website without even fully exploring it yet.  

This is why it’s essential to regularly test your site, especially as it grows. You may not realize when your current hosting package needs an upgrade. To help you stay on top of everything, here’s what to test for: 

• Load speed. It’s a good practice to ensure your web pages load under 2 seconds. People tend to leave after 3, so checking pages with media attachments like videos and music is especially important, as they can significantly increase loading time. 
• Total number of website visitors. This tells you how many people are coming to your website. If the number exceeds what your hosting plan can support, it’s a clear sign you should consider an upgrade. 
• Bounce rate. This is the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing just one page. If your bounce rate is high, you may need to adjust your content or site design to encourage visitors to explore more of your site. 
• Usability. Make sure your site is easy to navigate and that page scrolling is smooth. A user-friendly design reduces frustration and encourages visitors to stay on your site, which can lead to better engagement. 
• Functionality. Ensure all buttons, menus, and pop-ups are responsive and work correctly. Broken or non-responsive elements are a major cause of poor user experience and can cause visitors to leave your site immediately. 
• Compatibility. Check that your site looks good on different devices and loads properly in various web browsers to provide a consistent experience for all users. 
• User feedback. Gather feedback from real users to identify potential issues and areas for improvement. This helps you catch things that metrics alone might miss. 

Testing tools you can use for your site  

These are some of the tools you can use to help with your testing:  

• Google PageSpeed Insights. For performance analysis. 
• WebPageTest. For detailed website speed and performance tests.  
• BrowserStack. For cross-browser and cross-device testing.  
• Lighthouse (Chrome DevTools). For performance, accessibility, and SEO audits.  
• Usersnap. For user feedback and bug tracking.  

10. Prepare your analytics setup 

Web analytics provides valuable insights into how visitors interact with your site. This allows you to understand user behavior, improve your marketing strategies, and optimize performance. 

To help you with your analytics, you can use tools like: 

• Google Analytics. The most widely used tool for tracking website traffic, user behavior, and conversions.
• Google Search Console. Helps you monitor your site’s performance in Google search results and fix technical issues. 
• Hotjar. Provides behavioral analytics through heatmaps, session recordings, and user feedback polls to help you visualize how people are using your site. 

You could always set these up after your launch but it would be a waste to miss out on all the data you could collect from your site’s first few days online.  

11. Launch and promote your website 

A successful website launch requires more than just making your site live. It involves strategic planning and creative promotion to build buzz, attract your initial audience, and to keep your website on their minds. Avoid major holidays or events for your launch date. Instead, launch on a business day to immediately address any technical issues, and remember to account for time zones to reach your target audience. 

Also, make sure to promote your site, before and after the launch. Here are a few marketing strategies you can use: 

• Social media campaigns. Build anticipation with teasers, countdowns, and behind-the-scenes content. Consider hosting a live launch event or partnering with influencers for a shout-out. 
• Interactive content. Engage your audience directly with contests and giveaways to create a buzz. You can also use quizzes and polls to gather feedback and make your site more interactive. 
• Direct marketing. Announce your launch to your existing subscribers with an email marketing campaign that includes an exclusive preview of your new site. 
• Community engagement. Start a forum or a group to build a community around your brand. You can also host webinars and workshops related to your niche to position yourself as an expert. 
• Cross-promotions. Collaborate with other businesses or brands in your niche through affiliate programs or co-hosted events and meetups to reach a wider audience. 

The time to launch is now 

Now that you know what you need to consider when launching your own website, all that’s left is to get started. When you’re ready, we’ll be with you every step of the way. 

With our AI-powered website builder, you have all the tools and templates you need to launch your website with confidence. Begin your journey today and turn your ideas into a thriving online presence. You’ve got this! 

Frequently asked questions