A client once showed me her new website, proud of the design. It looked great — until I tried to call her business from the site. No phone number anywhere. No WhatsApp link. No contact form. A beautiful website with no way for customers to reach her.
Here’s the checklist I wish every business owner had before going live.
The basics (non-negotiable)
- Mobile-friendly design — test on your phone, not just your laptop. Over 80% of Rwandan internet users are on mobile
- SSL certificate — your URL should show https://, not http://. Chrome marks non-SSL sites as “Not Secure”
- Fast loading — under 3 seconds on mobile data. Test with Google PageSpeed Insights
- Clear business name and what you do — visible within 1 second of landing
- Contact information — phone, WhatsApp, email, location. Clickable on mobile
Content essentials
- Services or products page — what you offer, with enough detail for someone to decide
- About page — who you are, why you exist, why someone should trust you
- Pricing information — even ranges. “Contact us for pricing” loses 70% of visitors
- Real photos — of your work, your team, your space. Not stock photos
- Call-to-action — every page should tell the visitor what to do next: “Book Now”, “Get a Quote”, “WhatsApp Us”
Technical must-haves
- Google Analytics (or any analytics) — if you can’t measure visitors, you can’t improve
- Google Business Profile — claim it and link it to your website
- SEO basics — unique page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure
- Working links — click every link on your site. Fix broken ones
- Favicon — the small icon in the browser tab. Without it, your tab shows a generic icon
Bonus points
- Customer testimonials or reviews
- FAQ section addressing common questions
- A blog or insights section for SEO (you’re reading one right now)
- Social media links
- Privacy policy page (required if you collect any user data)
No website is perfect at launch. But getting these 15 items right means you’re ahead of 90% of small business websites in Rwanda. If you’re starting from scratch, services like Kisimenti build all of these into their standard packages — nothing to configure yourself.