You’ve spent weeks building your Showit website. You’ve customized every detail, tweaked the colors, uploaded your photos, and written your copy. It looks gorgeous on your screen and now you’re ready to hit that publish button. But before you do – review this Showit launch checklist and avoid all the most common mistakes.

I’ve seen dozens of beautiful Showit websites go live with preventable mistakes that make them look unfinished or unprofessional. Things the designer didn’t even realize were wrong until a client pointed them out three weeks later.

The worst part? Most of these issues take 10 minutes or less to fix—if you catch them before launch.

Here are the 8 things every Showit website needs before going live. Trust me, future you will thank you for taking 30 minutes to run through this Showit launch checklist now.

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1. Your Mobile Design is Actually Finished

This is the #1 mistake I see with new Showit users.

Showit gives you separate desktop and mobile designs—which is amazing for control, but also means your mobile site won’t automatically look good just because your desktop site does.

What to check:

• Open every single page on your phone (or use Showit’s mobile preview)
• Is all your text readable without running into other elements?
• Are buttons actually tappable (not overlapping or too small)?
• Do images look intentional (not awkwardly cropped or stretched)?
• Is any content accidentally hidden on mobile that should be visible?

The trap: Designing everything on desktop and forgetting mobile exists until launch day. Then you realize half your mobile site is broken and you’re scrambling to fix it.

Pro tip: Design mobile first, then desktop. Or at minimum, switch back and forth constantly while building.

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2. Every Link Actually Works (No 404 Errors)

Nothing screams “amateur” like clicking a button that goes nowhere.

What to check:

• Click every single button on every single page
• Test all navigation menu links
• Check footer links
• Test any “Read More” or “Learn More” buttons
• Make sure portfolio links work
• Verify your contact form actually submits

Common mistakes:

• Buttons that aren’t linked to anything yet
• Links pointing to placeholder pages you forgot to create
• Old links from the template that don’t apply to your business
• Email links with typos (mailto:yourname@gmial.com)

How to fix: Block out 20 minutes and click through your entire site like you’re a visitor. Open every link. Fill out every form. Catch the broken stuff now.

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3. Pages You’re Not Using Are Actually Unpublished

Most Showit templates come with WAY more pages than you need right now. Portfolio pages, service pages, freebie pages—all kinds of options.

If you’re not using them yet, they need to be unpublished.

Why this matters:

• Google indexes pages you didn’t mean to show
• Visitors find incomplete pages through search
• Your site looks unfinished
• Confuses your navigation structure

What to check:

• Go through your pages list in Showit
• Anything you’re not actively using? Unpublish it
• Placeholder pages? Unpublish them
• “Coming soon” pages? Unpublish them (or actually finish them)

You can always publish them later when they’re ready. But having half-finished pages live makes your whole site look sloppy.

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4. Every Page Has a Unique Title

This is invisible to visitors but critical for Google (and for looking professional in search results).

What page titles are: The text that shows up in your browser tab and in Google search results.

The mistake: Every page says “Home” or uses your template’s default titles like “About – Business Name.”

What to check:

• Go to each page’s SEO settings in Showit
• Make sure every page has a unique, descriptive title
• Suggested Format: “Page Name | Your Business Name”
• Examples:
  • “Custom Showit Web Design | Studio Mooregan”
  • “About Morgan | Studio Mooregan”
  • “White Label Showit Development | Studio Mooregan”
• Don’t forget to also add a share image!

Why this matters: Google shows these in search results. Generic titles make you look unprofessional and hurt your SEO.

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5. Every Page Has a Meta Description

Meta descriptions are the short preview text that shows up under your page title in Google search results.

The mistake: Leaving them blank, so Google just pulls random text from your page.

What to check:

• Go to SEO settings for each page
• Write a compelling 150-character description for each page
• Include what the page is about and why someone should click

Example:

• Bad (blank): Google shows random text
• Good: “Custom Showit websites for established creative businesses. Professional design without agency prices. Launch in 4 weeks.”

Pro tip: This is your chance to convince someone to click YOUR result instead of your competitor’s. Make it count.

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6. Each Page Has Only ONE H1 Tag

This is a technical SEO thing that most people don’t think about. However if I had to pick the most important thing in this entire Showit launch checklist… it might be this!!

What H1 tags are: The main heading on each page (usually your big title at the top).

The rule: One H1 per page. That’s it.

The mistake: Using H1 for multiple headings because “it looks bigger.”

What to check:

• Look at your text hierarchy on each page
• Your main page title should be H1
• Section headings should be H2
• Subsections should be H3
• Never use more than one H1 per page

Why this matters: Google uses H1 to understand what your page is about. Multiple H1s confuse search engines and hurt your SEO.

How to fix in Showit: Select your text, look at the formatting panel, make sure only your main title is set to H1.

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7. Your Favicon is Uploaded (Not Just a Blank Square)

Your favicon is the tiny icon that shows up in browser tabs next to your page title.

The mistake: Forgetting to upload one, so visitors see a generic blank square or default Showit icon.

What to check:

• Look at your browser tab—do you see your logo or brand mark?
• Or do you see a generic placeholder?

How to fix:

• Upload a square version of your logo (minimum 512×512 pixels)
• Go to Site Settings in Showit and upload your favicon
• Test it by opening your site in a new tab

Why this matters: It’s a small detail, but it makes you look professional and established. Blank favicons scream “I just launched and don’t know what I’m doing.”

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8. Your Forms Are Actually Connected (And You’ve Tested Them)

You have a beautiful contact form on your website. But is it actually sending you emails?

The mistake: Assuming your form works without testing it.

The Showit-specific gotcha: Your button looks like it submits the form because your call to action says “submit” or “send”, but if you didn’t check the “Submit Form” box in the button’s click action settings, nothing happens when people click it. They’ll click submit, nothing will happen, and they’ll leave thinking your site is broken. Or worse – that you ignored them!

What to check:

First, make sure the button is actually set to submit:

• Click on your submit button in Showit
• Look at the right panel under “Click Actions”
• Is “Submit Form” checked? If not, your form doesn’t work
• This is the #1 reason contact forms fail on Showit sites

Then, test the whole flow:

• Fill out your contact form yourself
• Use a different email address (not the one it’s sending to)
• Click submit and make sure the confirmation message shows
• Check that you receive the email
• Check your spam folder if you don’t see it

Common issues:

• “Submit Form” box not checked on the button (most common!)
• Form connected to wrong email address
• No confirmation message not showing after submit

Pro tip: Make sure that the email field in your form is set to “Reply to”. This way when you get an inquiry you can reply directly to the lead in the same email thread.

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The 30-Minute Showit Launch Checklist

Here’s how to run through the entirety of the Showit launch checklist efficiently:

10 minutes: Click through your entire site on desktop. Test every link, every button, every form.

10 minutes: Open your site on your phone. Check every page for mobile issues.

10 minutes: Go through SEO settings for each page. Check titles, meta descriptions, H1 tags. Unpublish unused pages. Upload favicon if needed.

Bonus 5 minutes: Have someone else look at your site and click around. Fresh eyes catch things you miss.

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Why This Matters

You only get one chance to make a first impression.

A visitor who clicks a broken link doesn’t think “Oh, this must be a mistake.” They think “This business isn’t professional.”

A potential client who finds an unfinished placeholder page doesn’t give you the benefit of the doubt. They assume you’re not ready for their project.

Google doesn’t care that you “just forgot” to add meta descriptions. It just ranks you lower than competitors who got the details right.

The good news? All of these issues are quick fixes. But they’re SO much easier to catch before launch than after you’ve already sent your website link to everyone in your network.

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Ready to Launch the Right Way?

If you’re building your site from scratch, this Showit launch checklist is essential.

But here’s the thing: when you start with a professionally designed template, most of these details are already handled.

The SEO structure is set up correctly. The mobile design is fully optimized. The page hierarchy is already in place. You just need to customize it with your content.

That’s exactly how I build my Showit templates—with all the technical details done right from day one, so you can focus on making it yours instead of troubleshooting SEO settings.

Check out my Showit templates →

Already have a site built and want to make sure it’s launch-ready? I also offer website audits and quick fixes to get you live confidently.

Let’s make sure your site is ready →