Website launch day checklist for small businesses

Launch day is the day your domain stops pointing at the old site and starts pointing at the new one. Done in the right order it takes an hour or two of actual work: write down your current settings, make only the changes the new site needs, then check that the site, the forms and your email all work on your real address. Do it on a quiet weekday morning, not on a Friday afternoon or in your busiest week.

Before you start: pick the time and gather the logins

Choose a morning early in the week when you will be around for the rest of the day. If something needs fixing, you want your provider and your registrar's support line open, not closed for the weekend.

Have these open in front of you:

The login for your domain registrar, the company where your domain name is registered.
The login for wherever your email is hosted (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, your old host).
The instructions from your new website provider: exactly which records to change, and to what.
The login for your Google Business Profile.

If you are not sure where your domain is registered, how to find where your domain is registered shows you how before the day.

Step 1: Save a copy of your current DNS records

DNS is the address book that tells the internet where your website and your email live. Your registrar (or sometimes your old host) has a page listing these records, usually under a heading like "DNS", "DNS records" or "Manage DNS".

Before you change anything, take screenshots of that whole page, or copy every line into a document. Pay special attention to records marked MX. MX records tell the world where to deliver your email. If they get deleted or changed by mistake, your email stops arriving, often without any error you would notice.

That screenshot is your way back. If anything goes wrong, you can put every record back exactly as it was.

Step 2: Make only the changes the new site needs

Your new provider will ask you to do one of two things:

Change one or two records, usually an "A" record for the bare domain and a "CNAME" record for the www version. Edit or replace just those. Leave everything else, especially MX and TXT records, alone.
Change your nameservers, which hands the whole address book to a new company. If you do this, every record, including your email ones, must exist at the new company first. Check that your MX records are there before you switch.

If your registrar has a guide on our site, follow it step by step: GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace and others are listed at connecting your domain. For the general picture, read connecting your domain to a new website.

After you save the change, it can take from a few minutes to several hours to reach everyone, because computers around the world keep the old answer for a while. How long a domain change takes explains why. During that window some people see the old site and some see the new one. That is normal.

Step 3: Check the site on your real address

Once the new site appears on your domain on your own phone (try mobile data rather than Wi-Fi, which sometimes holds the old answer longer), check:

Both versions of the address: yourcompany.com and www.yourcompany.com. Both should open the new site.
The padlock next to the address in the browser. The security certificate for your domain is sometimes issued a little after the switch. If you see a warning, wait half an hour and try again before worrying, and tell your provider if it persists.
A few old page addresses. Type in three or four addresses from your old site, like your old services page. Each should open the matching new page, not "page not found".
The phone numbers: tap one from the live site.

Step 4: Test the forms and your email on the live site

You tested the forms on the preview; test them again now that the site is on your domain, because some form settings depend on the address.

Send one message through the contact form and find it in your inbox.
From a personal address (a Gmail or Yahoo account), send an email to your business address. Make sure it arrives.
Reply to it from your business address. Make sure that reply arrives too.

If email has stopped, go back to your screenshot from step 1 and compare the MX records. MX records and why changing your website can break email explains what to look for.

Step 5: Update the places that point at your site

The new site is live, but some links elsewhere may still point at old pages or old booking tools.

Google Business Profile: check the website link, the booking or appointment link, and the menu link if you have one. Make sure each goes to the right page on the new site.
Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, Nextdoor and directory listings: check the website link on each.
Your email signature, if it links to a specific page.
Any ads you run, which may link to a landing page that moved.
Google Search Console, if you use it: check that your property still shows as verified and submit the new site's sitemap (your address followed by /sitemap.xml).

Step 6: Do not cancel the old site yet

Leave the old hosting or builder plan in place for a few weeks. Download or save a copy of anything you might need later: text, photos, a list of page addresses, form submissions. Cancel only after you have lived with the new site for a while and are sure nothing still depends on the old account, particularly email. Some old plans bundle email, and cancelling the plan cancels the mailboxes.

The launch day checklist

Quiet weekday morning chosen; logins and instructions ready.
Screenshot of every DNS record saved, MX records noted.
Only the records the new provider asked for changed.
New site opens with and without www, with the padlock.
Old page addresses forward to their new pages.
Live contact form tested; message received.
Email in and out tested from an outside address, again in the evening.
Google Business Profile links checked; social and directory links updated.
Old site left running, with a copy saved.

For what to watch in the weeks after, see the first month after a new website launches. If you are not at launch day yet, you can see your site rebuilt first and switch only when you are happy with it.