SEO Checklist for New Websites: 25 Checks Before and After Launch

A new website gives you a clean slate. Getting the basics right at launch avoids months of fixing problems later. Use this checklist with your developer before go-live and again a few weeks after.

Indexing and crawl settings

Confirm the site is not blocked by a leftover noindex tag or a robots.txt Disallow rule from the staging environment. Submit the XML sitemap in Google Search Console, and check the coverage report after a week. Make sure only one version of the domain resolves, with HTTP and non-preferred hostnames redirecting to the canonical one.

Site structure and URLs

Each core service should have its own page with a short, readable URL. Group related pages under clear categories and link them from navigation. Avoid creating several pages that target the same search intent, because they compete with each other and dilute relevance.

Titles, headings and descriptions

Give every page a unique title tag of roughly 50 to 60 characters, one H1 that matches the topic, and a meta description that tells searchers what they will get. Write for people first; keyword repetition rarely helps and can make pages read poorly.

Speed and mobile experience

Compress images, serve modern formats such as WebP, limit third-party scripts and test on a real mid-range Android phone. Check Core Web Vitals in PageSpeed Insights. Fast pages help users, and page experience is one of many signals Google considers.

Tracking and redirects

Install GA4 and Search Console before launch, and mark key events such as form submissions and call clicks. If you are replacing an old site, map every old URL to the most relevant new URL with a 301 redirect, then monitor 404 errors for the first month.