Startup website checklist: what your site needs before you send people to it

A good startup website checklist is short: a home page that says in one sentence what you do and for whom, a page that shows how the product works, honest proof, a pricing page or a clear way to ask about price, a real person to contact, and pages that load fast and work for everyone. This do-it-yourself guide is for founders about to launch or start selling, whatever website builder you use.

Three decisions to make before you touch the design

Most weak startup websites are not badly designed. They are unclear, because the founders have not agreed on three things.

1. Who the site is for. Pick the one visitor who matters most right now. "Operations managers at small physiotherapy clinics" gives you someone to write for. "Businesses of all sizes" does not.
2. The one sentence. What it is, who it is for, and what it replaces: "Staff scheduling for small clinics, so the manager stops building next week's rota in a spreadsheet." If you cannot write it yet, read our guide on how to position a SaaS product first.
3. The one action. Book a demo, start a trial, join the waitlist or send a question. Choose one for this stage and use the same words for it on every page.

If your name, logo and colours are not settled either, our startup branding guide covers the minimum brand kit to have before launch.

The pages a startup website needs

Copy this table into your plan and tick each row.

A blog can wait until you have real customer questions to answer.

The home page, section by section

Read your home page as a stranger arriving from a link. Within one scroll they should know what this is, whether it is for them, and what to do next.

1. Headline. The outcome, in your customer's words. Not "The future of work, reimagined" but "Build next week's clinic rota in one sitting".
2. Subheadline. Who it is for and how it works: "Scheduling software for small physiotherapy and dental clinics."
3. Main action. One button with a plain label, such as "Book a 20-minute demo". Add a line like "No card needed" only if it is true.
4. The product. A real screenshot, a short silent clip or a photo of the device.
5. The problem and how it works. Two lines on life before your product, then three steps. If you need seven, the explanation is the problem.
6. Proof and common questions. See below, then the four or five doubts you hear on sales calls.
7. The main action again, in the same words as at the top.

A quick test: show the top of the page to someone outside your industry for five seconds, then ask what you do. If they cannot say it back, rewrite the headline before anything else.

Proof when you do not have many customers yet

Small proof that is true works better than big proof that is borrowed. Use what you have:

• A named early user. One sentence in their words, with their name, role and type of business, approved by them.
• A short pilot story. Who tried it, what they needed, what you changed, what happened. If you did not measure the outcome, describe it in words.
• The founders' background. "Built by a former clinic manager who did the rota by hand for years" shows you understand the problem.
• Visible progress. A changelog with dates shows the product is alive and someone is listening.

Never show a company's logo because one person there tried your free trial, and never write a testimonial for a customer. Visitors notice.

Pricing page basics

Whether to show prices is your decision, but you can reason it through. If a customer could buy without talking to anyone, show the price. If every deal depends on size and setup, explain what the price depends on and how to get a quote quickly. Either way, a good pricing page:

• Names plans after who they are for, such as "Single clinic" and "Group of clinics".
• Says in plain words what each plan includes and what it does not, and marks the usual starting point.
• Explains trials, billing, cancelling and what happens to the customer's data if they leave.
• Shows the currency and whether tax is included. Tax rules differ by country, so check with an adviser.

Speed, accessibility and search basics

These are not polish for later. A slow page, or one that needs a mouse, loses people before they read your headline.

Speed. Run your home, pricing and signup pages through Google PageSpeed Insights on the mobile setting. Do not chase a perfect score. Fix what it flags, which is usually oversized images, a heavy background video, too many fonts, or chat and tracking scripts added and forgotten.

Accessibility. The W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the official reference. Start with checks anyone can do: alt text on meaningful images, enough contrast (watch light grey text), every link and button usable with the keyboard alone, visible labels on form fields, headings in a logical order, captions on videos.

Search. Give each page its own title and description and one clear main heading, using the words people would actually type. The Google SEO Starter Guide is the official place to learn more. We do not sell SEO as a service; these basics are well within a founder's reach.

Your startup website checklist before launch

Copy this list and go through it the day before you share the link.

• Message. A stranger can repeat what you do and for whom.
• Action. One main action, with the same words everywhere. Every form reaches an inbox someone reads, and you have tested it.
• Proof. Every quote, logo and name is real and approved. Screenshots show the current product.
• Pricing. Prices or a clear explanation. Trial, billing and cancelling explained.
• People. Founders named, with real photos, and an email address, not only a form.
• Phone. Every page checked on a real mid-range phone, on mobile data. Buttons are easy to tap.
• Technical. Key pages tested for speed, images compressed, accessibility basics checked, every page with its own title and description.
• Basics. Privacy and terms, a favicon, a sharing image for links, no broken links, no placeholder text.
• Language. If your team writes in Vietnamese or another language first and the site is in English, a fluent reader has checked the main pages.

Common mistakes

• Writing for investors on a customer page. "AI-powered platform for the future of healthcare" may suit a pitch deck. A clinic manager wants to know whether it fixes her rota.
• Competing buttons. "Book a demo", "Start trial" and "Join our community" side by side leave visitors choosing nothing.
• Rewriting the message every week. Change it when customers teach you something, not because you are tired of it.

Where we can help

The hard part is usually the thinking behind the words: who you are for, what you replace, how you sound. At Bunchasake the website is one of the touchpoints we build after listening, positioning and identity, so the message and the look come from the same decisions, with your approval after each step. See our page on brand building for growing businesses. Once it is live, see our guide to founder-led content on LinkedIn.