The first hour on a new SoNET website: ten things to set
A SoNET website works the moment it is generated. These are the settings that turn a working site into your site, in the order we do them when we take one over.
1. Write the header title and subtitle
Open edit mode on the home page and use the pencil on the header. The title is more than a heading: it also feeds the title that shows when the site is shared, the organization details that search engines read, and the site's llms.txt summary for AI assistants. Use your real business name.
2. Set the search description and keywords
In the SEO section, write one plain sentence about what you do and where. Keep it under 160 characters, or search results will cut it off. Add a handful of keywords people actually type, not every word you can think of.
3. Give the app a name and an icon
Every SoNET site can be installed as an app, so it needs an app name and an icon. In the Progressive Web App settings, choose the icon file first and then press the upload button. Make the picture square, at least 512 pixels, and keep the important part inside the middle 80%: phones crop the corners into a circle or rounded square.
4. Tick "Show in menu" when you add a page
When you create a page, tick the menu box straight away. A page that starts outside the menu gets the generic name "Custom" in its title, and you can hide a menu page later much more easily than you can name one that never had a menu entry.
5. Write the thank-you message on every form
Each form has a confirmation text: what visitors read after they press Send. Write one that says what happens next, such as "Thanks, we will call you back within one business day." Then send yourself a test from a private browser window, while signed out, and check it arrives under Forms, Results.
6. Describe every picture
Give each picture alt text that says what it shows: "Washers and dryers on display in our showroom" helps a blind visitor and a search engine; "image1" helps no one. It takes seconds per picture and it is one of the first things an accessibility check looks for.
7. Choose the look, then check the contrast
The Template Kit changes colors, fonts and effects for the whole site at once. After any color change, read your pages on a phone outdoors or run a contrast checker: pale grey text and white text on a bright button are the usual problems. Readers will not tell you a page is hard to read; they just leave.
8. Look at every page on a phone
Most of your visitors are on phones. Scroll each page on a real one, open the menu, press the buttons, and make sure nothing runs off the side of the screen.
9. Put the answers in the menu
The Concierge, the site's AI guide for visitors, answers from your public pages that are in the menu. If you want it to answer a question about prices, opening times or delivery, make sure that answer is on a menu page in plain words.
10. Measure the speed once, and keep the result
Test the home page at pagespeed.web.dev and note the date and the scores. When something changes later, you will have a real number to compare with instead of a feeling. Our post How fast is fast? explains what to look at.
That is the first hour. After it, the best thing you can do for your site is keep it true: change the opening times when they change, take down offers that have ended, and answer the questions customers really ask.