Domain, email and forms: the three things that break on every site launch
A site is "live" when a stranger can find it, send you a message, and you receive it. Each of those has a failure mode we see on almost every launch.
Domain
The site works at its temporary address and not at yours. Cause: DNS records pointed at the old host, or the new host never told it to expect your domain. Check: open yourbusiness.com on your phone with wifi off. If it shows the old site, the DNS hasn't moved. If it shows an error, the new host doesn't know the domain yet.
Your domain has a website but no mailbox, so forms sent to [email protected] go nowhere, and every booking confirmation bounces. Check: send a test email to the address on your site from a different account. No reply in five minutes means it isn't set up. The fix is either a real mailbox (Google Workspace) or free forwarding (Cloudflare Email Routing) to the inbox you already use.
Forms
The form says "thanks" and nobody gets it. Causes: it's sending to an address that doesn't exist, the spam filter ate it, or the form was never connected. Check: fill out your own form with a made-up name. If you don't have it in two minutes, your customers' messages are going into the same void.
What we do on every launch
Domain switched and verified on a phone off wifi. A real mailbox or forwarding on your domain. A test submission on every form, received, before we call it live. A test booking with a real card, refunded. Then we hand you a one-page guide.