A website only gets one good launch. In 2026, going live is still the moment when oversights cost the most: a contact form that quietly fails for three weeks means just as many lost enquiries, and vanished business for a Swiss SME. At Digital Swiss Agency in Geneva, we run the same list before every launch, always in the same order. Here it is in full — technical, content, SEO, Swiss legal, analytics — so that your launch becomes a non-event, which is another word for a success.
Technical: Six Non-Negotiable Checks
None of these are visible from the homepage, but they are what keeps the site standing on the day traffic actually arrives.
- The SSL certificate is active, with no warnings. Every page must load over HTTPS, images and scripts included. A single element served over HTTP is enough to trigger the "not secure" warning in the browser, and to drive part of your visitors away.
- Redirects are clean. Pick one canonical version (with or without www) and 301-redirect the other. If you are replacing an old site, redirect every legacy URL to its equivalent: this is the number one source of traffic loss after a redesign.
- Speed holds up. Aim for under 2.5 seconds to display the main content on mobile over 4G. Compress images to WebP, enable caching, remove unused scripts. Every second gained often improves your conversion rate.
- Mobile rendering is validated on real phones. On a Swiss local website, a large share of visits comes from a mobile device. Test on a recent iPhone and a recent Android, thumb-first, in portrait — not only in the browser simulator.
- Forms genuinely send. Run a real test submission to the destination inbox, check the spam folder, verify sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and provide a clear confirmation page after submission.
- Automatic backups are running. Daily backups of both files and database, with a restore tested at least once before launch. A restore you have never attempted is not a backup: it is a hope.
Content: Five Points Judged in a Few Seconds
Visitors decide very quickly whether to stay. These five checks prevent the most visible blunders.
- No placeholder text remains. Search the entire site for "Lorem ipsum", "to be completed" or "coming soon", including footers, thank-you pages and automated email templates, which nobody ever proofreads.
- Contact details are accurate and clickable. Phone number in international format (+41 …), a live email address, and a postal address strictly identical to the one on your Google listing. An address mismatch directly damages your local visibility.
- Every page pursues a single goal. One page, one expected action. If your homepage offers seven equivalent choices, it offers none. The primary button must be visible without scrolling.
- Images are light, named and honest. Rename files before uploading, add descriptive alt text, and favour real photos of your team or your work: they convert markedly better than stock libraries.
- Copy has been proofread by a human. A typo in a heading costs more credibility than a missing page. Have someone who did not write the site read it, ideally out loud.
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SEO: Six Settings to Exist from Day One
A site invisible in search engines is an overpriced brochure. These settings belong before launch, never six months later.
- Every page has a unique title and meta description. Allow 50 to 60 characters for the title and 150 to 160 for the description, including the main keyword and the city when you serve a local audience.
- The heading structure is logical. One H1 per page, then properly nested H2 and H3 headings. That structure helps search engines as much as it helps people using a screen reader.
- The site is indexable. Uncheck the "discourage search engines" box inherited from the staging site, review robots.txt, and make sure no important page still carries a noindex tag left over from development.
- The XML sitemap is generated and submitted. Submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools on day one. It is free and it can speed up indexing.
- Local structured data is in place. Local business markup with name, address, phone and opening hours improves how you appear in search results and in answers generated by AI assistants.
- The Google Business Profile is aligned. Same name, same address, same number as the website, with the link pointing to the right page. It remains the highest-return lever for a Geneva-based SME.
If these settings feel unclear, we build the SEO basics (titles, descriptions, page structure, speed, submission to Google Search Console) into every website design project in Geneva, and the work can continue with SEO in Geneva.
Swiss Legal: Four Frequently Forgotten Obligations
This is the section companies discover last, usually when the first unpleasant letter arrives. Have your specific situation reviewed by a lawyer: the points below are a starting point, not legal advice.
- Legal notices are complete. Swiss unfair competition law requires any business offering electronic commerce to clearly state its identity, postal address and a direct means of contact. Plan a dedicated page, reachable from the footer.
- The privacy policy is up to date. The revised Federal Act on Data Protection, in force since September 2023, requires you to explain what data you collect, why, and which countries it travels to. Add the European layer if you serve clients in the EU.
- The cookie banner is honest. Analytics and advertising scripts must stay blocked until the visitor consents, and declining must be as easy as accepting. A decorative banner that loads everything upfront protects nobody.
- Prices and terms comply. Display prices in Swiss francs, all taxes included, state whether you are VAT-registered (the CHF 100,000 annual turnover threshold), and publish your terms and conditions with the applicable law if you sell online.
Analytics: Four Connections to Make Before, Never After
Data you failed to collect cannot be recovered. These four items must be operational on launch day.
- The measurement tool is installed on every page. Google Analytics 4, Matomo or Plausible: it matters little, as long as the code is present everywhere, including confirmation pages, and anonymisation is enabled.
- Conversions are defined. Form submitted, phone number clicked, WhatsApp clicked, quote requested. Without those events you will know how many people visit, never how many pay.
- Advertising tags are installed and tested. If campaigns are planned, install and verify your Google Ads and Meta tags before the first franc is spent. A CHF 1,500 campaign without tracking is CHF 1,500 of lost learning.
- A 30-day review is scheduled. Block the date in the calendar today, with one simple dashboard: sessions, source, conversions, landing pages. Without a deadline, nobody ever looks at the numbers.
Launch Day: The Right Order of Operations
Launch on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, never on a Friday evening. The sequence that works: switch the DNS, verify the certificate, run the full primary journey on mobile and desktop, submit a test form, confirm that analytics records the visit, then submit the sitemap in Search Console. Then plan 48 hours of active monitoring: that is when the last remaining issues surface, the ones preparation never revealed.
What Skipping the Checklist Actually Costs
A full pre-launch review typically takes half a day to a full day. Compare that with the real cost of a failed launch: months of lost visibility after a redesign without redirects, an advertising budget spent without tracking, or an unplanned corrective rebuild. Our website design and redesign quotes always include pre-launch testing, precisely because it costs far less than the repair.
Print this list, tick all 25 points, and go live only when everything is green. A successful launch goes unnoticed: the site works, the enquiries arrive, and you move on to what comes next.