One of the most reliable ways of finding clients for web development is to reach businesses in the first week or two after their website goes live. A new site often has rough edges, and the owner is checking it every day, so a short email about one specific problem gets read.
Referrals, overflow work from agencies and marketplaces all bring in work too, and they are worth keeping up. This guide is about the channel most developers skip: businesses whose site has just gone live. It covers where to spot those sites, how to check one in ten minutes, what to offer someone who has just paid for a website, and what to write.
Why is launch week the best time to find web development clients?
Most web developers chase clients who need a whole new site. That is a big decision for a small business, it can take months to come round, and you are up against every agency and template builder out there.
A business in its launch week is in a different place:
- The site is live but rough. Launches are rushed, so you find forms that send to nowhere, placeholder text, a booking page that says "coming soon" and photos uploaded straight off the camera. The owner often senses something is off without knowing what.
- The owner is paying attention. They check the site on their phone, show it to friends and hear what customers say, so a message about their site this week reaches someone who is already thinking about it.
- Nobody owns the fixes yet. If they built it themselves on a site builder, there is no developer to call.
- Small jobs are easy to say yes to. Nobody wants to rebuild a site they launched on Monday, but plenty of people will pay to make it work properly.
So pitch the next job on the site they already have, not a new one.
Who built the site, and how does it change your pitch?
Before you write anything, work out how the site was made, because it decides what you can offer and how you talk about it. Open the site, right click, choose View page source, and search the page (Ctrl+F, or Cmd+F on a Mac) for the clues below.
| How it was built | Clues in the page source | What the owner probably needs | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| A site builder, set up by the owner | wix, squarespace or weebly in script and image addresses | Fixes they cannot work out alone, a working form, booking, SEO basics | Telling them to change platform in the first email |
| WordPress with a bought theme | wp-content or wp-includes, a theme name in the stylesheet path | Speed work, plugin clean-up, mobile fixes, a care plan | Making fun of the theme |
| A Shopify store | cdn.shopify.com | Theme tweaks, product page fixes, speed, apps set up properly | Pitching a custom build to a store still making its first sales |
| Built by an agency or another freelancer | A "Website by" credit in the footer | Usually not you, unless you sell something the builder does not | Criticising another professional's work to their client |
If the footer credits another studio, the client already has a relationship, and you will look like you are poaching. Skip it, or offer only something the builder clearly does not do, such as copywriting or product photography, and never frame it as fixing their mistakes.
Most of your work will come from the first two rows. These owners did it themselves, ran out of time or patience, and launched anyway.
Where can you find websites the week they launch?
Certificate Transparency logs
Almost every website now runs on HTTPS, and every certificate a public certificate authority issues is written to public logs. The system is called Certificate Transparency, and it makes the logs a running record of sites going live, often within minutes.
You can search them free at crt.sh, in two ways:
- Check one domain. Search a domain to see every certificate it has had. If the oldest one is from this week, the domain has only just started using HTTPS, which usually means the site is new.
- Search by a word. A search like
%salon%or%plumbing%lists domains with that word in a certificate. Look at the dates and keep the recent ones.
The problem is that most new certificates belong to test sites, parked domains, mail servers and big companies' subdomains, and broad searches are slow and sometimes time out. Expect a lot of dead ends for every real small business you find.
Launch posts on social media
Small businesses announce new sites. Search Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for phrases like "our new website is live", or "new website" plus a trade or a town. The post often tags the owner, which gives you a name, and the comments sometimes tell you what customers think of the site.
Local openings
New salons, clinics, gyms, cafes and trades businesses often put their site up in the weeks before they open the door. Local news, "coming soon" signs and community groups point you to them. A business that has not opened yet has the most reason to get booking and contact working now.
Your past clients' networks
New business owners know other new business owners: the friend who opened a shop the same month, the bookkeeper who just went freelance. When you finish a job, ask who else has just launched.
Letting a tool do the sorting
Searching the logs by hand is free, but most of your hour goes on rejecting junk. Vetted Leads reads the same public logs, drops the test sites and parked domains, keeps the real businesses and online stores, and lists what each site is missing. Several of those gaps are a web developer's job: no contact form, no booking tool, no meta description, and images with no alt text. Every email in the feed was checked with the business's own mail server before it went in.
As of 17 October 2026 the feed holds 36,814 leads, and 1,754 of them launched in the previous 24 hours. You can start with 10 free contacts, once, plus the newest 50 leads each day, with no card. The data sources page explains where the leads come from.
What should a web developer check on a brand new site?
You are not auditing the site. You are looking for one problem that is clearly worth fixing and clearly your job. Give each site about ten minutes, on your phone first, then on a laptop.
| Check | How to do it | Why the owner cares |
|---|---|---|
| Contact form | Check every field is labelled and that sending shows a clear confirmation. Never send a test or dummy message: if you plan to contact them through the form, your real message is the test | A form that goes nowhere loses every enquiry, and nobody notices |
| Booking | Look for a way to book or buy without phoning | People browsing in the evening book with whoever lets them do it online |
| Mobile layout | Open it on your phone and scroll every main page | Text running off the screen and buttons too small to tap make people leave |
| Speed | Run the home page through Google's PageSpeed Insights | A page that crawls on mobile data loses visitors before it loads |
| Placeholder content | Look for "Lorem ipsum", "Your heading here", template stock photos, social icons that link nowhere | It tells visitors the business is not quite ready |
| Meta description | Search the page source for meta name="description" | Without one, Google builds its own snippet from the page text, which may not say what the owner wants |
| Image alt text | Search the source for <img and look for missing or empty alt attributes | Weaker image search, and a worse site for people using screen readers |
| Broken links | Click every menu item and footer link | A 404 on the Services page loses the visitor who was most interested |
| Analytics | Search the source for gtag or googletagmanager | Useful to know for later. Site builders have their own stats that will not show up here, so never open an email by saying they have no analytics |
Two rules keep this honest:
- Check twice before you say something is missing. Tracking is often added through a tag manager or the builder's own settings, so it may not show up as a plain script. Being wrong in the first line of an email ends the conversation.
- Only pitch what you sell. If you build sites and do not run ads, a missing ad pixel is not your opener. Pick the problem closest to your work.
On meta descriptions, Google's own guide to snippets explains how Google builds snippets and when it uses the description you write. It is a handy link to send an owner who asks why it matters.
What do you offer someone who just paid for a website?
Never lead with a rebuild. The owner has just spent money and time on this site, and hearing it needs replacing makes anyone defensive. Offer one fixed job with a clear result.
| What you found | What to offer | Why it is an easy yes |
|---|---|---|
| Contact form broken or missing | A working form that sends to their inbox, tested | They see enquiries arriving the same day |
| No online booking | Connect a booking tool they choose, or the one their builder supports | Bookings come in after hours |
| Slow on mobile | Compress images, remove unused apps or plugins, fix the heaviest page | They can check the difference themselves |
| Placeholder text and stock photos | Replace them with their own words and pictures | The site finally looks like their business |
| No meta descriptions or alt text | Write them for the main pages | Quick to do, and something they would never get round to |
| Broken links and 404s | Fix the menu and set up redirects | Visitors stop hitting dead ends |
Price it as a fixed job rather than by the hour, and say how long it takes. "About half a day" is easier to agree to than an hourly rate with no end in sight.
What should the first email say?
Keep it short and about their site: one real detail, one problem, one small offer, and an easy way out. Use your real name, say plainly who you are, and make it easy to say no. Here are two to adapt. Only say you tried or measured something if you actually did.
Sample: a site builder site with a broken contact form
Subject: Your contact form, Bloom Hair Studio
Hi Ana,
Congratulations on the new site. The gallery page is lovely, and it is easy to see what each service costs.
I tried the contact form on the Book page and it showed an error after I pressed send, so I am not sure messages are reaching you. If people use it to ask about appointments, some may be giving up.
I fix this kind of thing on Squarespace sites, usually within a day. Happy to take a look and tell you what is wrong, with no charge for that part.
If you have already sorted it, ignore me, and good luck with the opening.
Tom
Sample: a new WordPress site that is slow on phones
Subject: Speed on the Harbour Joinery site
Hi Mark,
I came across the new Harbour Joinery site this week. The before and after shots on the kitchens page were the first thing I looked at.
On my phone the home page took a long time to load, and PageSpeed Insights points to the large photos as the main reason. Most people looking for a joiner will be on their phone.
I can resize and compress the images and tidy up a couple of plugins without changing how the site looks, usually in half a day. Want me to send over what I would change first?
No worries if now is not the time.
Leila
Neither email attaches an audit, lists ten problems, asks for a call or spends a paragraph on the sender. Each one names a single thing the owner can check in a minute.
Send one follow-up four or five days later with something new and useful in it, such as a second small fix or a free tip, and then stop.
For more on outreach and how to fit it into a daily hour, see how to generate new business leads without buying a list. If you build for online stores, how to find new Shopify stores covers the store-specific checks.
How do you turn a small fix into a long-term client?
A new business needs more over its first year: more pages, a shop, a booking system, a refresh once it learns what customers ask about. You want to be the developer they already trust when that happens.
- Do the first job fast and show the result. Send a before and after: a screenshot of the working form, the PageSpeed score before and after, the new snippet in Google.
- Leave a short list of next steps. Two or three things you noticed while working, each with a rough size. Keep it low key, so it reads as a note and they can come back to it.
- Offer a monthly care plan. Updates, backups, small edits, and a monthly check that forms and booking still work. Small business owners like knowing who to call.
- Check in after a month. Ask how the site is doing and whether customers mention anything. That conversation is where the next job comes from.
How many new sites should you check each day?
Pick a number you can keep up every day. Here is a routine that fits in an hour:
- 10 minutes: find. Pull 10 to 15 new sites from the logs, launch posts or a lead feed.
- 10 minutes: first look. Under a minute each. Keep only real businesses in your niche, which is usually a handful.
- 20 minutes: full check. The ten-minute check on the best two.
- 20 minutes: write. One short email to each, about one problem.
That is roughly 10 to 15 sites looked at and two careful emails sent every working day, which adds up to about 40 a month.
Log every one: the business, the site, how it was built, the problem, the date you wrote and any reply. After a few weeks the log shows which kinds of site and which problems get answers. Maybe salons on site builders reply and joiners on WordPress do not, or the other way round, and your own log is a better guide than anyone's average.
What mistakes cost web developers these clients?
- Pitching a redesign in week one. They just launched, so fix what is there.
- Sending a generic audit. A PDF of 40 issues from an automated tool reads as spam, however accurate it is.
- Getting the facts wrong. Telling someone their form is broken when it works ends the conversation, which is why you check twice.
- Criticising whoever built it. Even when the owner did it themselves, "your site has problems" lands far worse than "one thing I noticed".
- Waiting. Each week the owner fixes a few things or finds someone else, and the first useful message has the best chance.
Where should you start?
Pick one trade you like working with. Find five sites in it that went live this week, check each one, and send emails about one problem each to the two or three best. If you would rather have the finding and sorting done for you, Vetted Leads gives you 10 free contacts, once, plus the newest 50 leads each day with no card, and the pricing page has the plans for when you want more.
Questions people ask
Where can a web developer find new clients?
Referrals from past clients, overflow work from agencies and freelance marketplaces all bring in work. A channel most developers skip is businesses whose website went live in the last week or two: the site is often rough, the owner is paying attention, and a short email about one specific problem gets read.
Should I pitch a redesign to a business that just launched its website?
No. The owner has just spent money and time on the site, and hearing it needs replacing makes anyone defensive. Offer one fixed job with a clear result instead, such as a working contact form, online booking or faster loading on phones.
How can I tell when a website was launched?
Search the domain on crt.sh, which lists every certificate issued for it. If the oldest certificate is from this week, the domain has only just started using HTTPS, which usually means the site is new. A registration date from an RDAP or WHOIS lookup helps confirm it.
How do I find web development clients with no portfolio?
Start with small, fixed jobs on brand new sites, such as fixing a contact form or adding booking. They are easy for an owner to say yes to, quick to finish, and each one gives you a before and after you can show the next client.
How much should I charge for small website fixes?
Price each fix as a fixed job based on how long it takes you and the rate you need, and say up front how long it will take. A clear price for a clear result is easier to agree to than an open hourly rate.