What a website needs before launch, beyond "it looks good"
A working contact method, a clear reason to get in touch, a mobile-friendly layout, basic on-page SEO, and someone who can actually update it — those matter more than most design details.
It's easy to spend most of a website project on how it looks, and understandably so — it's the most visible part of the work. But a good-looking site that doesn't actually convert visitors into enquiries, or that nobody can update once it's live, hasn't really done its job.
A short list of things worth checking before launch: does it work properly on a phone, not just a laptop? Is there an obvious way to get in touch, and an obvious reason to? Do the page titles and headings actually describe what's on the page, in language a search engine (and a person) would recognise? And critically — can someone on your team actually log in and change a phone number or a price without calling a developer?
None of these are exciting to think about compared to colour schemes and hero images, but they're disproportionately responsible for whether a website actually generates enquiries or just sits there looking presentable.
Design matters — first impressions are real. It just shouldn't be the only thing checked off the list before a site goes live.