Launch Guide

Getting your site hosted, connected, and live.

This covers the technical side of launching: hosting, your domain, SSL, and getting found in local search. No coding experience needed — every step below is copy-and-paste or point-and-click.

DIY Self-Launch

You'll do every step below yourself, using the files and this guide. Budget an afternoon.

Standard Build / Pro Launch

We handle Steps 1–6 for you, then hand you the login once it's live — you end up owning the hosting and domain accounts either way. Steps 7–8 (payments, business phone) are still yours.

On this page

  1. Pick your domain name
  2. Get your website files
  3. Rebrand the template
  4. Set your service area & pricing
  5. Host it on Netlify
  6. Connect your custom domain
  7. Get found: local SEO setup
  8. Payments & your business phone
  9. Launch checklist
Step 1

Pick your domain name

Choose a name that's easy to say over the phone and easy to spell — you'll be giving it out verbally a lot.

  • Check availability of the matching .com at a registrar like GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Netlify Domains.
  • Register it — typically $10–$20/year.
  • If your exact name is taken, try adding your city (e.g. yournamejupiterfl.com) rather than a confusing spelling.
Register it in your own name. The domain should be purchased under your own account (your name, your email, your payment method) — not ours. That way you have full ownership from day one, no matter which package you choose.
Standard Build / Pro Launch: if you'd rather not deal with registering it yourself, we can walk you through creating the account and registering it live on a call, or purchase it on your behalf if you prefer — either way, the account stays in your name, not ours. If we purchase it for you, we invoice you for that cost first and only register it once it's paid; we don't cover domain costs ourselves.
Step 2

Get your website files

You'll receive a folder with the full site: HTML pages, an /images folder, and hosting config files. No build tools or installs required — every page is a self-contained file you can open and edit directly in any text editor.

Standard Build / Pro Launch: we build and rebrand the files for you — skip to Step 5 to see how we get it live, then jump to Step 7 for what you'll want to do on your end.
Step 3

Rebrand the template

Open each HTML file in a plain text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, or a free code editor like VS Code) and update:

  • Business name — find and replace every instance across each page.
  • Phone number — update every tel: and sms: link plus the visible phone text.
  • Logo — replace the image files in /images with your own, keeping the same file names.
  • Colors (optional) — the palette is defined once near the top of each page's style section.
  • Page titles & meta descriptions — update the <title> and <meta name="description"> tags so search engines show your business, not the template's.
Don't skip this. Launching with placeholder branding still visible is the most common DIY mistake — read through every page before deploying.
Step 4

Set your service area & pricing

Update the service-area section with your actual neighborhoods, and duplicate the location-page template for each city or zone you plan to serve. Then plug in your real prices for each plan, your per-dog add-on fee, and any extras.

Step 5

Host it — Netlify or another host

The site is built to run on Netlify's free tier — the fastest way to get a static site like this online, and there's no cost for hosting a site this size:

  1. Create a free account at netlify.com, using your own email.
  2. From your dashboard, choose "Add new site" → "Deploy manually."
  3. Drag your whole site folder into the upload area.
  4. Netlify gives you a live URL immediately (like yoursite.netlify.app) — check everything looks right here before connecting your real domain.

Prefer to keep everything in one place with GoDaddy instead? GoDaddy's own web hosting can serve these files too — upload the folder contents via their file manager or FTP. It's a paid plan (Netlify's free tier is usually the simpler choice for a site this size), but some people prefer having domain and hosting under one account.

Standard Build / Pro Launch: we create the hosting account, deploy the site, and test everything — then hand you the login (email + password) once it's live, so the account is yours to manage, move, or change the password on going forward. Any hosting cost beyond a free tier is invoiced to you first and paid before we set it up — we don't cover hosting costs ourselves. We don't keep access afterward unless you're on the Care Plan and want us to.
Step 6

Connect your custom domain

  1. In Netlify, go to "Domain settings" → "Add a domain" and enter the domain from Step 1.
  2. Netlify shows you DNS records to add at your domain registrar (usually one or two records).
  3. Log into your registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.), find DNS settings, and add the records exactly as shown.
  4. This can take a few minutes to a few hours to go live. Netlify issues a free SSL certificate automatically once connected, so your site shows the padlock/https with no extra work.
Standard Build / Pro Launch: we handle the DNS setup for you as part of deployment — you'll just need to give us access to add the records, or add them yourself from instructions we send over.
Step 7

Get found: local SEO setup

  • Google Business Profile: create a free listing at google.com/business for your service area — often more important for local visibility than the website itself.
  • Search Console: verify your domain at search.google.com/search-console and submit your sitemap.xml (included in your files) so Google finds every page.
  • Bing Webmaster Tools: repeat the same sitemap submission at bing.com/webmasters to cover Bing/Copilot search traffic too.
  • Consistency: use the exact same business name, phone number, and address format everywhere you're listed online — inconsistent listings quietly hurt local ranking.
Pro Launch package: we'll walk you through creating your Google Business Profile (on your own Google account) and submit your sitemap for you — this step's guided, not handed off to an account we control.
Step 8

Payments & your business phone

  • Payments: at minimum, a Venmo or Zelle you're comfortable sharing publicly. For card payments, a service like Square lets you send simple invoices with no monthly fee on the basic plan.
  • Phone number: a free Google Voice number keeps your personal cell private and can forward to your phone.
  • Booking flow: the site is built call/text-only by design — no online booking system to pay for or maintain while you're getting started. You can always add one later.
We don't currently set up online booking, appointments, or payment processing on the site itself. Every Scoop System site is built around the simple call/text flow above. If you'd like online booking or payments added, you have two options: we can help connect you with a web developer to build it in for an extra fee — call or text us to talk through what you need, since cost depends a lot on the scope — or we can hand your site files over to a developer of your own choosing to add it themselves.
Step 9

Launch checklist

Rather we handled the technical setup?

Standard Build and Pro Launch cover rebranding, hosting, and domain connection for you — you just review and go live.

See Packages