Most arguments about websites happen before anyone has a URL. Colours, references, “can it look like this”. The expensive ones happen after: nobody has Search Console, the form goes to a freelancer who has gone quiet, and the only person who can change a price is on holiday.
Launch is a handover. If you cannot log in, measure, and change a sentence — or name who can — you did not buy a site. You rented a moment.
I am Harry Ashton. I ship the build and I am still reachable after it. Hashton is a Nottinghamshire studio — the same rule whether the brief came via website design in Nottingham or further into the East Midlands. This is what I treat as done, and the questions I expect you to ask.
If you cannot see the visits, you have a poster. Photo: Pixabay / Pexels.
Handover is a pile of keys, not a PDF of the homepage
On the week a site goes live I want a short list in your hands — not a film.
Domain and DNS. The domain is in an account you control, or you have a documented path to move it. DNS records are written down. If the builder keeps the only registrar login, you do not own the name. You have a favour.
Hosting. You know where the site lives and how to get a copy off it. Hosting can sit in your account or mine. Either way there is an export path. A host that dies when a subscription dies is a lease.
Repository. Custom work should be in a repo you can access. Another engineer should be able to take over without guessing. I default to custom code — typically Next.js — for that reason. It is in services. Theme soup with no export is how you pay for the same site twice.
CMS, or an honest “there isn’t one”. Someone can say who changes copy, and with what. If the answer is “email Harry”, that is fine until it is not — as long as we said so. If the answer is “the CMS” and nobody has a login, you have a moving part with no owner.
Analytics and Search Console. You can sign in. The property matches the live host. You are not waiting for me to forward a screenshot of last month.
Contact path. A form or a booking flow that lands somewhere you read. A test submission from a private window. JavaScript off still offers a way to reach you.
Redirects and sitemap. Old URLs 301 to the new ones. /sitemap.xml lists the pages that exist, on the host people actually use. Canonicals do not fight the redirect. I have written that fight up in If it has no URL and the Nottingham found notes.
Proof as pages. Work you are proud of has a path. Proof and EO Charging are URLs. Yours should be too.
If a freelancer’s handover is a ZIP of images and a hope, you are the support rota.
Analytics are for you, not for my deck
A site nobody can measure is a poster. Analytics are so you can log in, not so I can send a vanity PDF.
What I care about after launch is dull and useful:
- Are people reaching the service URLs, or only the homepage?
- Is the contact path used?
- Which host are they on — and does it match the canonical?
- Do Search Console coverage and the sitemap agree, or are we indexing a leftover?
I will not invent a conversion rate. I will not promise a graph if you post twice a week. I will make sure you can see the visits and the queries you actually get.
Search Console is the one I will argue for even if you refuse a marketing suite. It tells you what Google fetched, what 404’d, and what people typed. That is how you decide the next page.
Access should be yours. Shared logins in a contractor’s personal account get lost. Use the business email. Add me as a user if you want me to look. Do not make me the owner of your measurement. If you collect anything, say so in language a human can read. I will not drop five tracking pixels in the head and then bill you to make the page fast.
Edits: who types, who ships, what is a new job
The week after launch, someone will want to change a number, a photo, or a paragraph the solicitor disliked. Good looks like knowing which of those is a five-minute edit and which is a new URL.
You edit when we agreed a CMS and you have been shown it. If you do not have a CMS, you send me the sentence. Many East Midlands brochure sites need two contact changes a year, not a platform. Hardcoded pages are cheaper until they are not.
I edit when the change is structure: a new service slug, a redirect, a form, a component. That is build work, scoped, not smuggled into “can you just”.
A new page is a new page. Adding “now also covering Leicester” is not a footer tweak if you want it to rank. Search still needs a document.
Email is enough as a channel. A ticket system you will never open is not. A broken form is urgent; a new testimonial is not. I do not disappear when the invoice clears. I also do not pretend unlimited design time was in the launch price. I will not publish a retainer band here I cannot honour on your site.
Who owns the CMS — and who should
Ownership decides whether you have an asset.
You should own the domain and registrar account, the content, the design files you paid for, the repo if the site is custom, and the CMS project if there is one — not a seat inside my personal dashboard. I can hold hosting, deploy keys, and staging temporarily, with a written export.
“We host it for you” is fine when it includes a way out. It is not fine when the only copy is a page builder on a contractor’s licence.
If you need to edit often, we pick the lightest CMS that matches how you work. If you do not, we skip it. A CMS nobody logs into is another thing that can break on a Thursday.
A Wix or Squarespace site is editable and hard to leave. WordPress is leaveable and easy to fill with plugins. Custom code is leaveable if the repo and the docs exist. I will tell you which trade-off you are buying.
What “done” looks like on a Tuesday
A week after launch I want you to be able to do all of this without me in the room:
- Open the live host you chose and see the pages you paid for.
- Log into analytics and Search Console.
- Change, or request, a factual edit and know when it will land.
- Name the person who owns the CMS — you, me, or nobody because there is not one.
- Hand the repo or the export to another engineer if you need to.
If you cannot do those, we are not finished, even if the homepage looks like the design. A Figma file is not a website. A launch email is not a handover. Production still means you can change it on a Tuesday — drafts sit unpublished with a slug until they should be public.
Questions people ask once the site is live
Written as Q&A on purpose — short enough to reuse later, long enough to be an answer.
Do I need a CMS to change a phone number?
No. A five-page marketing site is often faster as real pages until you are editing every week. If you do need a CMS, I pick the lightest fit for your workflow. A CMS that nobody opens is just another moving part. We will say who types before we invent a platform.
What analytics will I get?
You get access to the property, not a monthly vanity PDF I control. I want Search Console on the live host, and analytics you can log into with a business email. I will not invent benchmarks. I will help you read whether service URLs and the contact path are used.
What if a form breaks on a Thursday?
Ordinary support, not a new brand project. I do not disappear when the invoice clears. You will know whether the fix is a ticket or a rebuild. The contact path should have been tested with JavaScript off at handover.
Can I add a new service myself?
If we installed a CMS and the new service is a page of copy, yes, with a slug we agree. If it needs a new template, schema, or a redirect from an old URL, that is my work. Adding a town to a footer is not a location page. Search still needs a document.
Will you keep working on SEO after it is live?
Technical SEO ships in the build: semantic HTML, titles, one host, a sitemap of real URLs, performance, accessibility. A content programme is a different scope. If you want more pages, we list the URLs. I will not sell monthly “SEO” with no addresses. See If it has no URL.
How do we decide what is in a care arrangement?
Broken form, certificate, redirect, downtime — ordinary. New pages, new integrations, a redesign — scoped. I will not publish a retainer price here I cannot honour on your URL. We agree the model on a call, after I have seen the live site.
Should the Google Business Profile change at launch?
Yes, if the website URL or trading name changed. Same name, same URL, same phone once you publish one. Point the profile at the site, not a leftover Wix or Instagram. I will not invent a street to fill the pack.
What should I bring if something feels “off” after launch?
The URL, what you expected, and which login you cannot find. Search Console helps. I would rather see a messy week-two list than a polite “all good” and a silent form. Book a slot or email me.