Your site is live. Here's your first ten days.

The site going live is not the finish line. It's the starting line, and the first ten days are when a website either becomes part of how your business works or becomes a thing you paid for once and forgot. The difference is a handful of small moves, none of which take more than twenty minutes, all of which compound. This is the plan, day by day, with the exact clicks, the exact words, and a worked example of what the ten days are worth.

Before day one: the ten-minute test

Don't announce anything until you've used the site the way a stranger would. Ten minutes, on your own phone, wifi off.

1. Tap the phone number. Your phone should offer to dial. If it opens nothing, the number isn't a link; that's fix number one.
2. Tap the address or directions button. Maps should open with your shop pinned, not a competitor two doors down and not the old address.
3. Fill in the contact or booking form with your own details and send it. Then check the inbox it's supposed to reach. Check spam too. If nothing arrives in five minutes, the form is broken, and a broken form is invisible: nobody tells you it failed.
4. Read the hours, prices, and services out loud. Anything that's wrong, out of date, or sounds like someone else wrote it goes on a list.
5. Open every page and every language if you have more than one. Tap every button. Note anything that doesn't do what it says.

Send the list to whoever built the site before you tell a single customer. If we built it, that list is what the monthly plan is for, and the fixes happen the same week, or the same day on Premium.

Days 1 to 3: point everything at it

Right now, dozens of places on the internet describe your business, and most of them link to nothing, or to an old page. Spend the first three days making every one of them point at the new site. Here's where the link goes, and where to click.

• Instagram. Open your profile, tap Edit profile, tap Links, then Add external link. Paste the site address and give it a title like "Book" or "Menu." Save.
• Facebook page. On your page, go to About (or Edit details under the cover photo), find Website, paste the address, save. While you're there, check the hours and phone match the site.
• WhatsApp Business. Open the app, tap the three dots (or Settings on iPhone), then Business tools, then Business profile, and paste the address into Website.
• Google Business Profile. Search your business name on Google while signed in, tap Edit profile, then Contact, then Website. Paste and save. This is the most important one; it's the link people see before they've ever heard of your site. If you never finished your profile, here's the 20-minute setup.
• Email signature. On your phone's mail app: Settings, Mail, Signature. On Gmail on a computer: the gear icon, See all settings, scroll to Signature. Add your name, the shop, the phone, and the site address on its own line.
• Apple Maps, review sites, neighborhood apps, and any industry directory you're listed on: log in to each, find the website field, paste. If you can't log in, use the "suggest an edit" link most of them have.
• The physical world. Business cards, the sign in the window, the receipt footer, the appointment reminder text. Anywhere your phone number is printed, the site address can go next to it.

Then text your ten best customers. Not a mass blast, ten individual messages, with one line each: "Hey, we finally have a real website. Would you take a look and tell me honestly what you think? (link)." The word "honestly" is what gets you replies you can use.

A website nobody links to is a sign facing the wrong way.

Days 4 to 7: collect proof

By now the ten customers have replied. Read their messages for two things: what they liked (that's your best seller talking; put it higher on the page if it isn't already) and what confused them (that's a fix). Then use the momentum.

• Ask three happy customers for a Google review. In person, at the end of a good visit, while the ask feels natural. Have the review link ready: on your Google Business Profile, tap Ask for reviews and copy the short link, then keep it in your notes app so you can text it in five seconds. The exact words are below, and the longer version is in how to get Google reviews without begging.
• Post the site once, on Instagram and Facebook, with your favorite photo from the shoot and one plain line: "New website. Hours, prices, and booking are all there now: (link)." Don't write a paragraph. Pin the post if the platform allows it.
• Put the link in the saved reply you send to new inquiries on WhatsApp or text. "Thanks for reaching out! Prices and booking are here: (link). What day works for you?"
• Watch which page people mention. If three people say "I didn't know you did beard trims," that service was buried. Move it up.

Days 8 to 10: close the loop

The last three days are about making the site a habit for you and your staff, not just a thing that exists.

1. Send yourself a second test form and make a second test call. Forms and buttons that worked on day one sometimes break when a setting changes. Confirm both arrive.
2. Read the whole site out loud one more time, with everything you learned from the ten customers. Send the final list of small changes to whoever maintains it.
3. Print the QR card and put it by the register. Any free QR generator will make a code from your review link or your site address; print it on card stock, "Scan to book" or "Scan to leave a review," and tape it where people wait to pay. A second one on the mirror or the waiting-room table.
4. Brief the staff in two minutes. Everyone who answers the phone should know the site address and what's on it, so "how much is a fade?" becomes "thirty dollars, and all the prices are on the site if you want to see the rest."
5. Set the monthly reminder. One photo a month to your Google profile, one review ask a week, and a two-minute glance at the site for anything that's changed. Fifteen minutes a month, forever.

What the ten days are worth

Here's the arithmetic, with numbers you should replace with your own. Say your average first visit is worth $40 and a customer who comes back is worth $40 a month for a year, so a new regular is worth about $480. Over the ten days you texted ten customers, three left reviews, you posted once, and every profile now links to a site where the phone number is tappable and the prices are visible.

Say all of that brings in two new customers in the first month, and one of them stays. Put your own average against that, across a year rather than a first visit, and compare it with the plan: $5,988 a year on Essential, $11,988 on Complete. For a practice turning over $600,000 or more the ten days of work usually pay for several months of the plan before the first month is out, and the site is still there working in month two.

On the cost side, count your changes. The day-one test list and the day-ten list together might be six small fixes: a wrong price, a typo, a service moved up, a new photo, a form email changed, a holiday hour added. Basic includes five changes a month, so you'd use five in month one and one in month two, or pick Growth for the first month at $45 and move down. Either way, the launch fixes fit inside the plan you're already paying for; there's no extra invoice for finishing your own site.

The launch is ten small moves. The habit is fifteen minutes a month.

What to say

Four short scripts cover every conversation in the ten days. Change the words to sound like you, but keep them this short.

The text to your ten best customers (day 1): "Hey (name), it's (you) from (shop). We finally have a real website. Would you take a look and tell me honestly what you think? (link). No need to reply if you're busy, but I'd love your take."

The review ask, in person (days 4 to 7): "Glad you liked it. Could I ask a favor? A Google review really helps a small place like this. I can text you the link right now; it takes about a minute." Then text it while they're standing there.

The reply to a new inquiry (from day 4 on): "Thanks for reaching out! Prices and booking are here: (link). What day works for you?" Save it as a quick reply in WhatsApp Business (Business tools, Quick replies) so it's one tap.

The staff briefing (day 8): "The website's live at (address). Hours, prices, and booking are on it. When someone calls asking about prices, answer the question, then tell them the rest are on the site. If a customer says something on the site is wrong, write it down and give it to me the same day."

Common mistakes

• Announcing before testing. The first customer to try the form finds it's broken. Fix: ten-minute test first, announcement second.
• Updating Instagram and nothing else. Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, and the review sites still point at the old page. Fix: go down the day 1 to 3 list and tick each one off.
• A mass blast instead of ten personal texts. Group messages get ignored; ten individual ones get ten honest replies. Fix: ten names, ten messages, one line each.
• Asking for reviews by email a week later. The moment has passed. Fix: ask in person at the end of a good visit and text the link on the spot.
• Treating the launch list as done. Prices change, hours change, and nobody updates the site. Fix: a fifteen-minute monthly habit and a monthly plan so changes are a text message. Here's why that matters.
• Leaving staff out. The phone still gets "what are your hours?" and nobody mentions the site. Fix: the two-minute briefing on day 8, and the address written on a card by the phone.

The ten-day checklist

• Phone number, directions, and form tested on my phone with wifi off; the test form arrived.
• Site link updated on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp Business, Google Business Profile, email signature, Apple Maps, and any directory I'm on.
• Ten personal texts sent to my ten best customers, and their replies read for likes and confusions.
• Three happy customers asked for a Google review in person, with the link texted on the spot.
• One launch post on social media with a real photo and the link, pinned.
• Quick reply with the site link saved for new inquiries.
• Second test form and test call done on day 8.
• Final list of small fixes sent to whoever maintains the site.
• QR card printed and placed by the register.
• Staff briefed on the address and what's on the site.
• Monthly reminder set: one photo, one review ask a week, a two-minute look at the site.

When we launch a site, this plan comes with it: the test is done before we hand over, the profile link is set, and the day-one and day-ten fix lists are what the monthly plan covers. Tell us about your business if you'd like the site to start with, or read the three buttons every local site needs to check yours has them.

Questions owners ask

Should I run ads to announce the site? Not in the first ten days. Ads send strangers to a page you haven't tested on customers yet. Do the ten days first, fix what they surface, then decide. Most small shops get more from the ten texts and the QR card than from a first ad budget.

What if a customer says the site is wrong about something? Thank them, write it down, and send it to whoever maintains the site the same day. That's the best feedback you'll ever get for free, and fixing it fast turns that customer into someone who feels heard.

I don't have ten customers I could text. Then text five, or three. The number matters less than the fact that they're real people who'll answer honestly. Family counts if they're customers.

Does the launch plan change if my site is in fourteen languages? Only in that you should test every language version on day one, and text customers in the language they use with you. The link is the same; the site shows them their language.

What happens after day ten? The fifteen-minute monthly habit, and the monthly plan handling changes. If you want a longer view of what to keep doing, reviews and a complete Google profile are the two habits that keep paying.