The 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business
A step-by-step, end-to-end checklist for launching and growing an online business — from niche selection and branding through SEO, marketing, payments and fulfillment. Every point below explains why it matters, what happens if you skip it, what to actually do about it, and where to go deeper.
Launching an online business involves far more than picking a product and opening a store. This checklist walks through 101 individual action points, organized into 13 practical categories, that together cover the foundation, technical setup, SEO, marketing, and operations of a modern online business. If you want an even broader checklist that extends beyond e-commerce into full small-business operations, see the 220-Points Comprehensive Checklist for Small Businesses.
Each point below is broken into four parts: Importance (why it matters), Why You Need to Consider It (the risk of skipping it), Recommendation (what to actually do), and, where relevant, Further Reading (a related Exceediance article or a trusted external resource).
Table of Contents
- 1–3. Foundation & Planning
- 4–9. Technical Setup
- 10–18. Visual & Content Assets
- 19–23. Core Pages & Policies
- 24–30. Search Engine Optimization Foundations
- 31–42. Technical SEO & Performance
- 43–45. Communication & Payment
- 46–51. Social Media Presence
- 52–57. Search Engine Integration
- 58–70. Advanced Tools & Features
- 71–84. Advertising & Marketing
- 85–100. Operations & Fulfillment
- 101. Strategic Mindset
Foundation & Planning
Points 1–3
Before you touch a website builder, get the strategic groundwork right. These three points decide whether everything you build afterward has a stable base.
1. Niche Selection
Importance: Your niche is the foundation everything else in this checklist is built on — it determines your audience, your suppliers, your marketing angle, and ultimately your margins.
Why You Need to Consider It: Picking a niche on gut feeling alone, without validating demand or competition, is one of the most common reasons new online stores stall before they ever gain traction.
Recommendation: Shortlist niches where your interest, expertise and real market demand overlap. Research target audiences, study competitors, and confirm there’s room to grow before you commit.
Further Reading:
External resource
2. Business Plan
Importance: A business plan turns a vague idea into a document you can actually execute against — it forces clarity on your market, financials and operating model.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without one, decisions get made reactively, funding conversations stall, and it becomes difficult to tell whether the business is actually on track.
Recommendation: Draft a plan covering market analysis, organizational structure, marketing and sales strategy, funding needs and risk management. Treat it as a living document you revisit as the business evolves.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
3. Business Name
Importance: Your business name is a permanent piece of brand identity — it shows up on every invoice, ad and search result from day one.
Why You Need to Consider It: A name that’s hard to spell, already trademarked, or too close to a competitor’s can force a costly rebrand later, along with lost SEO equity and brand recognition.
Recommendation: Brainstorm several options that reflect your brand’s tone, check domain availability, run a trademark search, and test the name with a handful of people in your target audience.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
Technical Setup
Points 4–9
Domain, hosting, legal registration and the first visual identity pieces — the infrastructure decisions that are expensive to reverse later.
4. URL / Domain Name
Importance: Your domain is your permanent address online; it shapes first impressions, word-of-mouth recall and typed-in direct traffic.
Why You Need to Consider It: A hard-to-spell, overly long, or close-match domain (think ‘Fakebook’) quietly bleeds traffic to typos and confuses people trying to recommend you by word of mouth.
Recommendation: Keep it short, easy to spell and easy to remember. Avoid close matches to existing brands. Tools like Lean Domain Search can speed up brainstorming.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
External resource
5. Hosting Purchase
Importance: Hosting is the physical foundation your entire site runs on — it directly affects uptime, page speed and how well you can scale.
Why You Need to Consider It: A cheap, unreliable host causes downtime during your busiest sales moments and slow load times that quietly push visitors to competitors.
Recommendation: Compare providers on uptime guarantees, security, support quality, control panel usability, server locations and value for money before committing.
6. Favicon Design
Importance: The favicon is a small but constant brand touchpoint — it appears in every browser tab and bookmark, reinforcing recognition.
Why You Need to Consider It: A missing or generic favicon makes a site feel unfinished or untrustworthy next to competitors’ tabs in a crowded browser window.
Recommendation: Once your logo is finalized, generate a favicon quickly using a free tool such as favicon.io.
Further Reading:
External resource
7. Branding and Colors
Importance: Consistent brand colors build recognition and convey personality before a visitor reads a single word of copy.
Why You Need to Consider It: Inconsistent or poorly chosen colors make a brand forgettable and can even work against the emotional tone you’re trying to set (e.g., using red for a calming wellness brand).
Recommendation: Define a small, deliberate color palette that reflects your brand personality and apply it consistently across the site, packaging and social assets.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
External resource
8. Business / Brand Registration / Licensing
Importance: Formal registration and licensing establish your business as a legitimate legal entity, which protects both you and your customers.
Why You Need to Consider It: Operating without proper registration risks fines, an inability to open business bank accounts or payment gateways, and personal liability for business debts.
Recommendation: Research your jurisdiction’s requirements, register your business name, obtain the necessary licenses, and protect your brand with trademarks where applicable.
9. Logo Design
Importance: Your logo is the single most reused visual asset of your brand — on the site, packaging, invoices and every social profile.
Why You Need to Consider It: A weak or generic logo undermines perceived professionalism, even when the product itself is strong.
Recommendation: Hire a designer on a platform like Fiverr, design it yourself in Canva, or use an AI image generator if you have a clear creative brief.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
Visual & Content Assets
Points 10–18
The look, feel and structural pages of your site. This is where visitors form their first impression in under three seconds.
10. Graphics for Website
Importance: Strong visuals create a positive first impression and hold attention long enough for visitors to explore further.
Why You Need to Consider It: Stock-photo clutter or inconsistent visuals make a site feel generic and can undercut trust in the brand.
Recommendation: Develop a cohesive set of graphics aligned to your brand identity, and reuse the same visual language across every page.
11. Graphics for Blogs
Importance: Blog visuals break up long text, illustrate key points and keep readers scrolling instead of bouncing.
Why You Need to Consider It: Wall-of-text blog posts have measurably higher bounce rates and lower time-on-page, which also hurts SEO signals.
Recommendation: Design or commission graphics that align with your brand and directly support the point being made, rather than generic decoration.
12. Product Pictures
Importance: Product photos are usually the first — and sometimes only — impression a shopper gets of what they’re buying online.
Why You Need to Consider It: Poor-quality or inconsistent product images are one of the biggest drivers of cart abandonment and return requests, since buyers feel misled.
Recommendation: Invest in consistent lighting and backgrounds across your catalog, show multiple angles, and add lifestyle shots so customers understand scale and use.
13. Website Platform
Importance: Your platform choice (WordPress, Shopify, Magento, etc.) determines how easily you can customize, scale and maintain the site long-term.
Why You Need to Consider It: Switching platforms after launch is expensive and risky — it can mean lost SEO rankings, broken integrations and weeks of migration work.
Recommendation: Choose a platform based on ease of use, plugin/app ecosystem and support quality for your specific business needs, and keep it updated for security and performance.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
14. Website Theme Selection
Importance: The theme shapes your overall aesthetics and user experience, and needs to work well with your chosen platform.
Why You Need to Consider It: A poorly coded or unsupported theme can slow the site down, break on mobile, or conflict with essential plugins.
Recommendation: Choose a responsive, well-supported theme that matches your brand, then customize colors, fonts and layout to reflect your identity.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
15. Development of Main Page
Importance: The homepage is the first impression for most visitors and needs to orient them within seconds.
Why You Need to Consider It: A cluttered or slow-loading homepage with no clear call-to-action loses visitors before they ever see your products.
Recommendation: Design clear navigation, highlight key products or promotions, and optimize for fast loading and mobile responsiveness.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
16. Products Catalogs
Importance: A well-organized catalog helps customers find what they want quickly, which directly affects conversion rate.
Why You Need to Consider It: Disorganized categories and thin product descriptions frustrate shoppers and push them toward competitors with clearer navigation.
Recommendation: Group products into logical categories, write detailed descriptions, and add search and filter options to speed up discovery.
17. Header Design
Importance: The header is visible on every page and is often the first navigational element a visitor interacts with.
Why You Need to Consider It: A cluttered or confusing header makes it harder for visitors to find what they came for, increasing bounce rate.
Recommendation: Keep the header clean, with a clear navigation menu, your logo, and optionally a short tagline for context.
18. Footer Design
Importance: The footer is valuable real estate for trust signals — contact details, policies and secondary navigation.
Why You Need to Consider It: An empty or missing footer leaves visitors without an easy way to find contact information or legal pages, which can quietly erode trust.
Recommendation: Include contact information, essential legal pages and a copyright notice, and keep the footer consistent across every page.
Core Pages & Policies
Points 19–23
The functional and legal backbone of the site: the store itself, your policies, and the pages that build trust.
19. Setup – Store
Importance: This is the functional core of an e-commerce business — product listings, payment and checkout all have to work flawlessly together.
Why You Need to Consider It: Any friction here — broken checkout steps, missing product details, unclear pricing — converts directly into lost sales.
Recommendation: Populate the store with accurate product data and images, integrate secure payment gateways, and test the entire purchase flow end-to-end before launch.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
20. Setup – Privacy Policy
Importance: A privacy policy builds trust and is a legal requirement in most jurisdictions that handle customer data.
Why You Need to Consider It: Operating without one risks regulatory penalties and signals to privacy-conscious customers that you’re not handling their data responsibly.
Recommendation: Clearly state what data you collect, how it’s used and protected, and how customers can manage their preferences. Update it whenever your data practices change.
21. Setup – Blog Page
Importance: A blog gives you a scalable way to publish content, support SEO and engage your audience between purchases.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without a blog, you rely entirely on paid channels or existing traffic — there’s no compounding organic content asset building over time.
Recommendation: Set up a dedicated blog section and publish consistently on topics your target audience is actually searching for.
22. Setup – Contact Us
Importance: A visible contact page reassures customers that a real business — and real support — is behind the website.
Why You Need to Consider It: Hard-to-find contact information is a common reason shoppers abandon a purchase, especially for higher-value items.
Recommendation: Include a contact form, email address and phone number, list business hours, and respond to inquiries promptly.
23. Setup – Vision & Mission
Importance: A vision and mission page builds an emotional connection by communicating the purpose behind the brand, not just the products.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without it, the brand can feel transactional and interchangeable with any other store selling similar products.
Recommendation: Articulate your values clearly and use relatable language; share achievements or community initiatives that reinforce your commitment.
Search Engine Optimization Foundations
Points 24–30
Keyword research, analytics and a healthy supply chain — the groundwork that determines whether anyone finds (and can keep buying from) your store.
24. Keywords for Each Product
Importance: Keyword research aligns your product pages with the exact terms customers are typing into search engines.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without targeted keywords, product pages compete blindly and often fail to rank for the searches that would actually convert.
Recommendation: Use a keyword research tool to find high-intent, relevant terms for each product and weave them naturally into titles and descriptions.
Further Reading:
External resource
25. Configure Statistics
Importance: Analytics turn guesswork into data-driven decisions about what’s actually working on your site.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without tracking in place, you can’t tell which pages convert, where visitors drop off, or whether marketing spend is paying off.
Recommendation: Set up analytics tools to track traffic, conversion rate and engagement, and build dashboards around the metrics that matter most to your business.
26. Business Analytics
Importance: Ongoing analytics review turns raw traffic data into strategic decisions about product, pricing and marketing.
Why You Need to Consider It: Businesses that only glance at analytics occasionally miss emerging trends and keep repeating strategies that quietly stopped working.
Recommendation: Review analytics on a regular cadence and let the data directly inform changes to your site and marketing strategy.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
27. Products Hunting
Importance: A continuously refreshed catalog keeps existing customers coming back and gives new customers more reasons to buy.
Why You Need to Consider It: A stagnant catalog signals a business that isn’t actively growing, and misses shifting customer demand.
Recommendation: Track market trends and customer preferences regularly, and introduce new products strategically based on real demand signals.
28. Supplier Hunting
Importance: Reliable suppliers are the backbone of consistent product quality, pricing and delivery times.
Why You Need to Consider It: An unreliable supplier can single-handedly cause stockouts, quality complaints and refund requests that damage your reputation.
Recommendation: Vet multiple suppliers on quality, pricing, shipping times and reviews before committing, and build a relationship with backup suppliers where possible.
29. Supplier Delivery Agreements
Importance: A formal agreement protects both sides and sets clear expectations on pricing, timelines and quality.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without a written agreement, disputes over late deliveries or quality issues have no clear resolution path, and the relationship can sour quickly.
Recommendation: Have a legal professional draft or review the agreement, and include provisions for dispute resolution and periodic review.
30. Supplier Performance KPIs
Importance: Tracking supplier KPIs turns supplier management from a one-time decision into an ongoing quality-control process.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without measurable KPIs, a supplier’s service can quietly degrade over months before anyone notices the pattern.
Recommendation: Track metrics such as delivery time, defect rate and responsiveness, and address issues as soon as they appear.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
Technical SEO & Performance
Points 31–42
The behind-the-scenes plumbing — speed, indexing, compliance and content mechanics — that search engines and impatient visitors both judge you on.
31. SEO Tool
Importance: An SEO tool gives you visibility into rankings, technical issues and keyword opportunities you can’t reasonably track by hand.
Why You Need to Consider It: Flying blind on SEO means technical problems (broken links, missing meta tags, slow pages) can quietly suppress your rankings for months before anyone notices.
Recommendation: Pick a tool that fits your budget and needs (Moz, SEMrush or a plugin like RankMath), and run audits on a regular schedule.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
- Mastering SEO with RankMath: A Comprehensive Guide
- Understanding SEO Free and Paid Tools – 9 Categories
32. Blog Posts
Importance: Consistent, high-quality blog content compounds over time into an SEO and audience-engagement asset.
Why You Need to Consider It: Sporadic or thin blog content rarely ranks, and irregular publishing trains your audience to stop checking back.
Recommendation: Build a content calendar around real audience keywords, and promote each post across your existing channels.
33. Email Opt-In Service Setup
Importance: An email list is a marketing channel you fully own, unaffected by algorithm changes on third-party platforms.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without an opt-in strategy, every visitor who doesn’t buy today is essentially lost forever, with no way to re-engage them later.
Recommendation: Place opt-in forms strategically, offer a real incentive to subscribe, and nurture the list with valuable, non-spammy content.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
34. GDPR Compliance Cookies
Importance: A compliant cookie policy is a legal requirement in many markets and a visible trust signal to privacy-aware visitors.
Why You Need to Consider It: Non-compliance can result in fines and damaged trust, particularly if you sell to customers in the EU or other regulated markets.
Recommendation: Use a clear cookie consent banner, explain what each cookie category does, and let users manage their preferences.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
35. Site Map
Importance: A sitemap helps search engines discover and index your pages efficiently, and helps users navigate large sites.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without one, new or deep pages can go unindexed for a long time, meaning content you’ve invested in never shows up in search.
Recommendation: Generate an XML sitemap for search engines and, for larger sites, an HTML sitemap for users. Submit it to Google and keep it current.
36. Robotics File
Importance: The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers exactly which parts of your site to index and which to skip.
Why You Need to Consider It: A misconfigured robots.txt can accidentally block search engines from indexing your entire site — a mistake that’s easy to make and costly to discover late.
Recommendation: Configure robots.txt deliberately, keep sensitive or duplicate content out of the index, and review it whenever your site structure changes.
37. Anti Spam Setup
Importance: Anti-spam measures protect the integrity of your comments, forms and inbox, and keep the site feeling trustworthy.
Why You Need to Consider It: Unchecked spam clutters forms and comment sections, and can expose the site to malicious links and security risks.
Recommendation: Use anti-spam plugins for comments, emails and form submissions, and keep them updated against new spam techniques.
38. Website Pop Ups
Importance: Well-timed pop-ups can meaningfully lift email sign-ups and promotional conversions when used carefully.
Why You Need to Consider It: Poorly timed or overly aggressive pop-ups annoy visitors and can push them straight to a competitor’s tab.
Recommendation: Trigger pop-ups based on user behavior (exit intent, time on page), keep the offer clear, and always provide an easy way to dismiss them.
39. Recommended Products Slider
Importance: Product recommendation sliders increase average order value through natural cross-selling and upselling.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without recommendations, customers see only what they searched for and miss complementary products they might have bought too.
Recommendation: Use behavior-based recommendation logic where possible, and periodically review which recommended products actually convert.
40. Image Optimization
Importance: Optimized images are one of the biggest levers for faster page load times, which affects both SEO and conversion.
Why You Need to Consider It: Unoptimized, oversized images are consistently one of the top causes of slow websites, especially on mobile connections.
Recommendation: Compress images without visibly sacrificing quality, choose the right format (JPEG, PNG or WebP), and use lazy loading for below-the-fold images.
41. Website Speed Test
Importance: Page speed directly affects both search rankings and how many visitors stay long enough to convert.
Why You Need to Consider It: Every extra second of load time measurably increases bounce rate — slow sites lose visitors before the page even finishes rendering.
Recommendation: Run regular speed tests, address the flagged issues promptly, and re-test after major changes to the site.
Further Reading:
External resource
42. Push Notifications
Importance: Push notifications re-engage visitors after they’ve left the site, driving repeat visits without relying on email or ads.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without a re-engagement channel, one-time visitors who didn’t convert are much harder and more expensive to bring back.
Recommendation: Get explicit user consent, keep notifications relevant and personalized, and monitor engagement to avoid over-sending.
Communication & Payment
Points 43–45
How customers reach you, and how they pay you. Get these wrong and nothing else on this list matters.
43. Professional Email
Importance: A domain-based email address (you@yourbusiness.com) signals legitimacy in every interaction with customers and suppliers.
Why You Need to Consider It: A free-webmail address for business communication looks unprofessional and can even trigger spam filters more often.
Recommendation: Set up domain-based email through a reliable provider, and configure security and organization settings properly from the start.
44. PayPal
Importance: PayPal remains one of the most recognized and trusted payment options for online shoppers worldwide.
Why You Need to Consider It: Not offering a familiar payment method can cause hesitant buyers to abandon checkout at the last step.
Recommendation: Integrate PayPal alongside other payment options so customers can choose the method they trust most.
45. Payment Gateway
Importance: A secure, well-supported payment gateway is what actually turns browsing into revenue.
Why You Need to Consider It: A clunky, untrusted, or region-mismatched payment gateway is one of the most direct causes of abandoned carts.
Recommendation: Choose a gateway suited to your location and audience, enforce SSL encryption, and clearly communicate accepted payment methods and security measures.
Social Media Presence
Points 46–51
Meeting customers where they already spend their time, across the platforms most relevant to your audience.
46. Facebook Page
Importance: A Facebook page extends your reach to a large, established audience and supports both organic and paid discovery.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without a presence there, you miss a major channel for community building, customer service and word-of-mouth sharing.
Recommendation: Complete the page fully with business details and strong visuals, post consistently, and respond to comments and messages.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
47. Instagram Page Setup
Importance: Instagram’s visual format is well suited to product discovery and building brand aesthetic.
Why You Need to Consider It: Skipping Instagram means missing a highly visual audience segment that often makes purchase decisions based on imagery alone.
Recommendation: Optimize your bio and profile picture, link to your website, and post consistently using Stories and relevant hashtags.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
48. Snapchat Page Setup
Importance: Snapchat offers access to a younger, tech-savvy audience through informal, creative content.
Why You Need to Consider It: If your target demographic skews younger, ignoring Snapchat can mean missing that audience almost entirely.
Recommendation: Set up a business account, use Stories, Lenses and Filters, and engage directly through messages and user-generated content.
49. Location-Based Marketing
Importance: Geo-targeted marketing lets you tailor offers to the preferences and context of specific regions.
Why You Need to Consider It: Generic, one-size-fits-all campaigns often underperform compared to messaging tailored to local context and needs.
Recommendation: Use geotargeting in ads and location-based analytics to understand regional behavior, then tailor campaigns accordingly.
50. Pop-Up Marketing
Importance: Strategically timed marketing pop-ups can meaningfully lift conversions for discounts and limited-time offers.
Why You Need to Consider It: Overused or badly timed pop-ups frustrate visitors and can hurt the exact conversion rate they’re meant to improve.
Recommendation: Trigger pop-ups based on behavior, keep the value proposition clear, and always give an easy way to exit.
51. WhatsApp Store Setup
Importance: WhatsApp lets you sell and support customers directly on the messaging app billions of people already use daily.
Why You Need to Consider It: In markets where WhatsApp is the primary communication channel, not having a presence there can mean losing an entire segment of convenience-driven buyers.
Recommendation: Set up a WhatsApp Business account, share your product catalog, and use the Business API for more advanced automation.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
Search Engine Integration
Points 52–57
Making sure every major search engine — not just Google — can find, crawl and rank your site.
52. Yandex Integration
Importance: Yandex is the dominant search engine in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe — relevant if that’s part of your market.
Why You Need to Consider It: If any share of your audience is in that region, skipping Yandex means being invisible to a search engine they actually use.
Recommendation: Submit your site through Yandex Webmaster Tools and optimize content for its specific ranking factors.
53. Bing Integration
Importance: Bing still commands meaningful search share, especially among certain demographics and default-browser users.
Why You Need to Consider It: Optimizing for Google alone leaves a real slice of potential organic traffic on the table.
Recommendation: Submit your site to Bing Webmaster Tools, and monitor performance using its dedicated reporting.
54. Google Search Console Integration
Importance: Search Console is the most direct line of communication between your site and Google’s index — it surfaces issues before they become visible ranking drops.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without it, you have no visibility into indexing errors, security issues or manual actions Google may flag against your site.
Recommendation: Verify ownership, submit your XML sitemap, and check the console regularly for flagged issues.
Further Reading:
External resource
55. Google SiteKit
Importance: SiteKit centralizes Analytics, Search Console, AdSense and PageSpeed data directly in your WordPress dashboard.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without a consolidated view, teams often check tools inconsistently, and important signals get missed simply because no one looked.
Recommendation: Install SiteKit, connect the relevant Google services, and review the combined data regularly to guide decisions.
Further Reading:
External resource
56. Site DA
Importance: Domain Authority is a widely used proxy for how likely your site is to rank well against competitors.
Why You Need to Consider It: A low DA relative to competitors makes it harder to rank for competitive keywords, regardless of how good your on-page content is.
Recommendation: Build DA over time through high-quality content, authoritative backlinks and a consistently good user experience.
57. Backlinks Strategy
Importance: Quality backlinks remain one of the strongest ranking signals search engines use to judge authority.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without a deliberate backlink strategy, growth in rankings tends to plateau even when on-page SEO is otherwise solid.
Recommendation: Create genuinely link-worthy content, reach out to relevant sites and influencers, and monitor your backlink profile to disavow harmful links.
Advanced Tools & Features
Points 58–70
Automation, AI, link management and quality-of-life plugins that separate a hobby site from a professionally run one.
58. ChatGPT Use
Importance: AI chat tools let you offer real-time answers to common customer questions without scaling human support headcount.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without any instant-response option, customers with simple questions may abandon their visit rather than wait for an email reply.
Recommendation: Integrate a chatbot for common queries, customize its responses to your business, and review interactions to keep improving it.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
- The Power of ChatGPT – 20 Powerful Features for Your Business
- AI for Small Business – 35 Useful Tools
59. 404 Monitor
Importance: Catching broken links early protects both user experience and your SEO crawl budget.
Why You Need to Consider It: Accumulated 404 errors frustrate visitors who land on dead pages, and can lower search engines’ perception of site quality.
Recommendation: Install a 404 monitor, set up redirects for removed pages, and design a helpful, on-brand 404 page.
60. AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages
Importance: AMP creates near-instant loading mobile pages, which improves both experience and mobile search visibility.
Why You Need to Consider It: Slow mobile pages lose an increasing majority of traffic, since most shopping now happens on phones.
Recommendation: Install an AMP plugin compatible with your CMS, and regularly test that essential content still appears correctly on AMP pages.
61. Instant Indexing
Importance: Instant indexing gets new or updated content into search results faster, instead of waiting for a natural crawl cycle.
Why You Need to Consider It: Slow indexing means fresh content, promotions or time-sensitive pages may go unnoticed until it’s too late to matter.
Recommendation: Submit new URLs through Search Console, keep sitemaps current, and check indexation status regularly.
62. Role Manager
Importance: Role-based access keeps your team efficient while limiting who can change sensitive settings or content.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without defined roles, too many people with full admin access increases the risk of accidental changes or security breaches.
Recommendation: Define clear roles matched to responsibilities, and review permissions periodically as your team changes.
63. WooCommerce
Importance: WooCommerce is one of the most flexible, widely supported e-commerce plugins for WordPress, with a huge plugin ecosystem.
Why You Need to Consider It: Choosing a poorly supported or rigid e-commerce plugin instead can limit growth and force a painful migration later.
Recommendation: Install and configure WooCommerce carefully, customize checkout and product pages to your needs, and keep it updated for performance and security.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
External resource
64. External SEO Audits
Importance: An outside perspective on your SEO surfaces issues an internal team may have become blind to.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without periodic audits, technical SEO issues and backlink problems can silently accumulate and drag rankings down over months.
Recommendation: Run external audits regularly using tools like SEMrush, Moz or Ahrefs, and act promptly on what they flag.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
65. Pretty Links
Importance: Branded, trackable short links look more professional and give you click-through data for affiliate and social promotions.
Why You Need to Consider It: Long, ugly URLs are less likely to be clicked and give you no visibility into which promotions are actually working.
Recommendation: Use a link-shortening plugin to create branded links, and monitor click data to refine your promotional strategy.
66. Polls Setup
Importance: Polls and surveys give you direct insight into customer preferences instead of relying purely on behavioral data.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without direct feedback, you’re left guessing at customer satisfaction and preferences based on indirect signals alone.
Recommendation: Keep questions short and specific, consider offering a small incentive for participation, and actually act on the results.
67. Internal Linking
Importance: A deliberate internal linking structure helps visitors discover more of your content and helps search engines understand your site’s structure and priorities.
Why You Need to Consider It: Orphaned pages with no internal links rarely rank well and are easy for both users and search engines to miss entirely.
Recommendation: Link to related pages using natural, descriptive anchor text, and audit internal links periodically as content changes — without overdoing it on any single page.
68. Social Media Sharing
Importance: Easy sharing turns satisfied customers and readers into an organic distribution channel for your content.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without share buttons and optimized previews, even great content has a much smaller chance of spreading beyond your existing audience.
Recommendation: Add social sharing buttons, optimize meta tags for attractive link previews, and be active on the platforms where your audience actually spends time.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
External resource
69. SSL Certificate
Importance: SSL encrypts data in transit, protects customer trust, and is a confirmed ranking factor for search engines.
Why You Need to Consider It: A site without HTTPS is flagged as ‘Not Secure’ by most browsers, which scares away visitors before checkout — especially for payment pages.
Recommendation: Install and renew an SSL certificate, and make sure every page is served over HTTPS, not just checkout.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
70. MonsterInsights
Importance: MonsterInsights surfaces Google Analytics data directly inside WordPress, making it far easier to act on regularly.
Why You Need to Consider It: Analytics data that’s hard to access tends to go unchecked, which defeats the purpose of collecting it in the first place.
Recommendation: Install MonsterInsights, connect it to Google Analytics, and use it to guide ongoing content and marketing decisions.
Further Reading:
External resource
Advertising & Marketing
Points 71–84
Paid and owned channels for driving qualified traffic, plus the tracking that tells you whether it’s working.
71. Google Listings & Ads
Importance: Google Business listings and Ads put your business directly in front of people actively searching for what you sell.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without a Google presence, local and high-intent searchers may never discover you, even if your SEO is otherwise solid.
Recommendation: Set up and fully optimize your Google Business Profile, then layer in targeted ad campaigns and monitor performance closely.
72. Broken Link Checker
Importance: A broken link checker catches dead links before they damage user trust or crawl efficiency.
Why You Need to Consider It: Accumulated broken links, especially on high-traffic pages, quietly erode both user experience and SEO signals over time.
Recommendation: Scan the site regularly with a broken link checker plugin or tool, and fix or redirect flagged links promptly.
73. Under Construction
Importance: A dedicated under-construction page keeps the site looking professional during major updates instead of showing a broken layout.
Why You Need to Consider It: Visitors who land on a half-built page during an update may assume the business is unreliable or has shut down.
Recommendation: Design a clear, responsive under-construction page with an estimated completion time and alternative contact options.
74. Collect Customer Emails at Checkout
Importance: Checkout is a high-intent moment to grow your owned marketing list with customers who’ve already shown they’ll buy.
Why You Need to Consider It: Skipping this step means losing the opportunity to re-market to your best-qualified audience — people who already purchased.
Recommendation: Add a clear opt-in checkbox at checkout, communicate the value of subscribing, and stay compliant with privacy regulations.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
75. AddToAny Share Buttons
Importance: Easy-to-use share buttons reduce friction for readers who want to spread your content further.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without visible share options, most readers simply won’t bother copying a link manually, even if they liked the content.
Recommendation: Install and place share buttons where they’re visible but not intrusive, and monitor which platforms drive the most engagement.
76. Tax and Currency Setup
Importance: Accurate tax and currency configuration is essential for legal compliance and a smooth international checkout experience.
Why You Need to Consider It: Incorrect tax calculation can create compliance issues, while missing local currency display confuses international buyers and increases abandonment.
Recommendation: Configure tax rates by jurisdiction, offer multi-currency pricing if you sell internationally, and review settings as regulations change.
77. Contents and Database Backup
Importance: Regular backups are your safety net against data loss from hacks, crashes or human error.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without recent backups, a single security breach or server failure can wipe out months of content, orders and customer data permanently.
Recommendation: Automate regular backups, store copies off-site, and periodically test that a restore actually works.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
78. Table of Contents
Importance: A table of contents makes long articles easier to navigate and improves the reading experience, especially on mobile.
Why You Need to Consider It: Long, unstructured pages without navigation aids tend to see readers leave before finding the section they actually need.
Recommendation: Add a table of contents to longer content, structure headings properly for SEO, and make sure it works well on mobile.
79. CallNow Button
Importance: A click-to-call button removes friction for mobile visitors who’d rather talk than type.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without it, mobile visitors who prefer calling have to manually find and dial a number, and many simply won’t bother.
Recommendation: Place a visible CallNow button, especially on mobile, and test it across devices to ensure it works reliably.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
80. Floating Chat Button
Importance: A persistent chat button gives visitors instant access to support without hunting for a contact page.
Why You Need to Consider It: Slow or hidden support options frustrate visitors with quick questions, and can cost a sale that a two-minute chat could have saved.
Recommendation: Implement a floating chat widget matched to your brand, and make sure it’s actively monitored, not just installed and forgotten.
81. Email Promotions
Importance: Email promotions drive repeat purchases and loyalty from an audience that has already opted in to hear from you.
Why You Need to Consider It: An inactive email list is a wasted asset — subscribers who never hear from you eventually forget why they signed up.
Recommendation: Segment your list, schedule promotions aligned with business goals, and monitor performance to keep refining what resonates.
82. PPC Marketing
Importance: Pay-per-click campaigns drive immediate, targeted traffic while your organic SEO efforts are still building momentum.
Why You Need to Consider It: Relying on organic traffic alone can mean months of slow growth before SEO gains real traction, especially in competitive niches.
Recommendation: Research relevant keywords, set clear budgets and goals, and continuously optimize based on click-through and conversion data.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
83. Facebook Pixel
Importance: The Facebook Pixel captures the data needed to build accurate retargeting and lookalike audiences for ad campaigns.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without it, Facebook ad spend is far less efficient, since campaigns can’t be optimized around actual on-site conversions.
Recommendation: Install the Pixel through Ads Manager, track key events like purchases and sign-ups, and use that data to refine targeting.
84. Growth Plan
Importance: A growth plan turns ad-hoc wins into a deliberate strategy for scaling the business over time.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without one, growth tends to happen unevenly and reactively, making it hard to plan hiring, inventory or cash flow.
Recommendation: Identify concrete growth levers, set measurable goals and timelines, and revisit the plan regularly against actual performance.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
Operations & Fulfillment
Points 85–100
What happens after ‘Buy Now’ is clicked: payments, inventory, shipping and the operational details customers notice most.
85. Point of Sale Systems
Importance: A POS system that syncs with your online store keeps inventory and sales data consistent across every channel.
Why You Need to Consider It: Disconnected POS and online systems cause overselling, inventory mismatches and inconsistent customer records.
Recommendation: Choose a POS system that integrates with your online store, offers analytics and CRM features, and train staff thoroughly on it.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
86. Email Marketing Automation
Importance: Automation lets you send timely, personalized messages (welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders) without manual effort.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without automation, cart abandonment and lapsed customers become nearly impossible to recover systematically.
Recommendation: Set up automated workflows for onboarding, cart recovery and retention, and review performance data to keep optimizing sequences.
87. Conduct Test Purchases
Importance: Running your own test purchase is the only way to truly verify the customer journey works end-to-end.
Why You Need to Consider It: Untested checkout flows sometimes have silent bugs that only surface when a real customer hits them — and by then you’ve lost the sale and possibly the customer.
Recommendation: Test with different payment methods and shipping addresses, and confirm confirmation emails and invoices generate correctly.
88. Order Notifications
Importance: Clear order notifications keep customers informed and reduce anxious ‘where is my order’ support inquiries.
Why You Need to Consider It: Silence after a purchase creates uncertainty, which increases support load and can lead to chargebacks from anxious customers.
Recommendation: Configure confirmation, shipping and status update emails with accurate details, and periodically review them for clarity.
89. Click to Chat
Importance: Real-time chat support resolves hesitations quickly, right at the moment a customer is deciding whether to buy.
Why You Need to Consider It: Customers with unanswered questions at the point of decision often simply leave rather than wait for an email response.
Recommendation: Implement live chat, train staff to respond efficiently, and use chat transcripts to spot recurring customer concerns.
90. Sales Channels Integration
Importance: Selling across multiple channels (Amazon, eBay, social marketplaces) expands reach beyond your own site’s traffic.
Why You Need to Consider It: Relying on a single sales channel concentrates risk — a policy change or algorithm shift on that one platform can hit revenue hard.
Recommendation: Integrate additional sales channels with consistent product data, and actively manage inventory to avoid overselling across channels.
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
91. Cart and Checkout Process
Importance: A streamlined checkout is one of the highest-leverage optimizations for reducing cart abandonment.
Why You Need to Consider It: Every unnecessary step, forced account creation, or unclear pricing at checkout gives a hesitant buyer another chance to leave.
Recommendation: Minimize checkout steps, offer guest checkout, and include progress indicators and trust signals throughout.
92. Shipping, Returns, & Refund Policy Page
Importance: Clear policies set expectations upfront and reduce disputes after the sale.
Why You Need to Consider It: Vague or missing policies create uncertainty that makes hesitant buyers less likely to complete a purchase, and increases disputes when issues arise.
Recommendation: Publish clear, easy-to-find shipping, returns and refund pages, and keep them current as your operations change.
93. The Terms & Conditions Page
Importance: Terms and conditions protect the business legally and clarify the rules of engagement for every user.
Why You Need to Consider It: Without clear terms, disputes over liability, intellectual property or misuse have no agreed-upon reference point to fall back on.
Recommendation: Draft comprehensive terms covering user responsibilities, IP, disclaimers and dispute resolution, and review them as your business evolves.
94. Stock / Inventory Management
Importance: Accurate inventory tracking prevents overselling and stockouts that directly damage customer trust.
Why You Need to Consider It: Selling products you don’t actually have in stock leads to cancellations, refunds and frustrated customers.
Recommendation: Use an inventory system integrated with your sales channels, update stock levels regularly, and set low-stock alerts.
95. Payment Authorization & Capture
Importance: Properly configured authorization and capture ensures funds are secured correctly without overcharging or delaying customers.
Why You Need to Consider It: Misconfigured payment processing can lead to failed transactions, duplicate charges, or compliance issues with payment processors.
Recommendation: Use a gateway that supports both authorization and capture cleanly, and test transactions to confirm funds move correctly.
96. Add a Shipping Origin Address
Importance: An accurate shipping origin address ensures correct shipping cost calculation and realistic delivery estimates.
Why You Need to Consider It: An incorrect origin address leads to wrong shipping quotes and delivery delays that frustrate customers.
Recommendation: Set and regularly verify the shipping origin address in your platform settings to match your actual warehouse or fulfillment location.
97. Activate Third-Party Fulfillment Services
Importance: Third-party fulfillment can streamline order processing and shipping as order volume grows beyond what you can handle manually.
Why You Need to Consider It: Trying to scale fulfillment manually beyond a certain order volume often leads to shipping delays and fulfillment errors.
Recommendation: Integrate and configure fulfillment partners carefully, and test the full process before relying on it for live orders.
98. Shipping Labels & Packaging
Importance: Professional packaging and accurate labels protect products in transit and shape the unboxing experience customers remember.
Why You Need to Consider It: Poor packaging increases damage-related returns, and sloppy labeling can cause misdeliveries.
Recommendation: Invest in clear, accurate shipping labels and packaging suited to the fragility of your products, and reassess periodically.
99. Organize Your Order Notifications
Importance: A well-organized notification system helps your team fulfill orders efficiently without things slipping through the cracks.
Why You Need to Consider It: Disorganized notifications increase the risk of missed or delayed orders, especially as order volume grows.
Recommendation: Centralize order notifications, prioritize by urgency, and train staff on how to manage the system consistently.
100. Double Check Product Shipping Weight
Importance: Accurate product weights are essential for correct shipping cost calculation at checkout.
Why You Need to Consider It: Incorrect weights lead to underquoted shipping costs that eat into margins, or overquoted costs that push customers away at checkout.
Recommendation: Verify and update product weights regularly, especially after packaging changes.
Strategic Mindset
Point 101
The one point that ties all one hundred together.
101. CEO Mindset
Importance: Adopting a CEO mindset — delegating effectively and focusing on strategy over busywork — is what lets a founder scale beyond what they can personally execute.
Why You Need to Consider It: Founders who try to personally handle every point on this checklist forever tend to hit a growth ceiling, burn out, or miss the bigger strategic decisions while buried in operational tasks.
Recommendation: Hire the right people and delegate confidently, prioritize analyzing data over doing everything yourself, and if you’re running a medium or large enterprise, consider formalizing a PMO (Project Management Office).
Further Reading:
Related on Exceediance
External resource
- 11 Practical Steps for Living a Meaningful Life
- LinkedIn: Difference Between Project Management (PM) and Project Management Office (PMO)
Bringing It All Together
No one tackles all 101 points alone, and no one tackles them all at once. Use this checklist as a working reference: revisit sections as your business matures, and lean on your team (or specialist help) for the areas outside your own expertise.
If you’d like to hire the author as a consultant for your e-commerce store, reach out at mjunaidtahir@gmail.com to set up a call.
18 comments
[…] Additionally, we provide consultancy services for establishing and running your online business. Check out our thorough article 100 Points Smart Checklist for your successful online business […]
[…] tools and techniques, the company can gain valuable insights into their operations, customers, online business team and market trends. This will enable them to optimize their strategies, improve their performance, […]
[…] Online reviews and feedback are significant influencers on your brand’s reputation. Actively monitor and respond to reviews, both positive and negative, in a respectful and helpful manner. This not only improves customer relationships but also helps mitigate any potential negative effects from unfavorable reviews. If you have online business or planning to launch one, please do check out this resource: 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business […]
[…] Additional Tip: If you want to setup your online business, see this 100 Points Super Checklist […]
[…] 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive Business Growth 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for HR with 8 Creative Visuals Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 […]
[…] 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive Business Growth 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals Power BI Dashboard for HR with 8 […]
[…] 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive Business Growth 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals Power BI Dashboard for HR with 8 […]
[…] May 5, 2024 Top Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive Business Growth Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial […]
[…] Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals Power BI Dashboard for HR with 8 […]
[…] Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals Power BI Dashboard for HR with 8 […]
[…] May 22, 2024 Top Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals […]
[…] Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive […]
[…] Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive […]
[…] Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive Business Growth Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial […]
[…] Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive […]
[…] Posts 15 Important FAQs about Business Analytics AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive […]
[…] AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools Power BI Dashboard for School with 8 Beneficial Visuals 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive Business Growth Power BI Dashboard for HR with 8 Creative […]
[…] Visuals AI for Small Business 35 Useful Tools 6 Predictive Analytics to Drive Business Growth 100 Points Super Checklist for Online Business 50 Most Important KPIs for your Business 19 Data Analytics Visuals For Stunning Graphs and […]
Comments are closed.