Your SiteStakes site is live the moment you sign up, with professional content written for your business type.

The setup checklist turns that generic starting point into a site that's truly yours. Think of it as your investor website launch checklist: nine guided steps you work through at your own pace. Nothing here blocks your site from being live. It's a real estate website readiness checklist, built to make your site stronger, more personal, and better at ranking.

The checklist is your setup guide - it walks you through each step until your website is fully set up.

After you log in, a setup indicator sits in the top bar of your dashboard showing your progress, like "Setup: 40%." It gently pulses to remind you there's more to do. Click it to open your full checklist. Once you reach 100%, the indicator stops pulsing and goes away. That's your signal that setup is complete.

You don't tick these steps off yourself — the checklist watches your actual site and marks each step done when it sees the work is finished. A progress bar shows how many of the nine steps you've completed, and each finished step turns green with a check.

Your progress is saved to your site rather than your browser. So you can close the tab, switch computers, or log back in next week, and the checklist picks up exactly where you left off.

Here are the real estate website go-live steps, in the order they appear on your checklist. Each one links to a full walkthrough if you want the details.

1. Configure Website Settings holds your business name, phone, address, and service area. It's the foundation everything else builds on.
2. Customize Footer is where your NAP, company description, social links, and logo go. Consistent NAP is one of the strongest local-SEO signals you have.
3. Pick your design lets you choose colors, fonts, and a style pack that matches your brand.
4. Configure SEO settings connects the services that track and measure how your site performs.
5. Customize website content personalizes your starter copy with AI so your real estate website doesn't sound like any other.
6. Set up SMS turns on text notifications so you never miss a new lead.
7. Turn on Image Boost serves optimized images through Cloudflare to keep your site fast.
8. Connect Integrations links the services your site relies on. The checklist verifies your Google Maps and email provider here.
9. Publish your first blog articles uses the AI Blog Factory and your blog credits to start bringing in search traffic.

You don't have to finish everything in one sitting. Most people start with the essentials — Steps 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9 — in their first session. That gets your business details, footer, design, integrations, and a first blog post in place.

The rest can follow as you go. SMS makes the most sense once leads start coming in. Turn on Image Boost after you've added property photos. Spreading the work across the first week of your real estate website setup is completely normal, and the tracker keeps your place the whole time.

No — your site is already live and able to take leads from day one. Your real estate website setup checklist isn't a gate you have to pass; it's a guide to a more complete, more personal site. Work through it whenever it suits you, and your site keeps running the entire time.