Website Launch SEO Checklist: 25 Checks Before Going Live

This website launch SEO checklist gives you 25 checks to run before and right after going live, so search engines can find, crawl and understand your new site from day one.

What should I check before launching a website?

Before launching a website, check that search engines will be allowed in, that every URL is final, and that each page clearly says what it is about. These 25 checks are the list I run on every launch, grouped so you can split the work between developer and content owner.

Indexing and access (checks 1 to 6)

1. Remove staging password protection from the live domain only.
2. In WordPress, untick “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” under Settings, Reading.
3. View the source of 3 key pages and confirm there is no noindex robots meta tag.
4. Check response headers for an X-Robots-Tag noindex left from staging.
5. Open /robots.txt and confirm it does not contain Disallow: / for all user agents.
6. Confirm the XML sitemap loads and lists only live, indexable URLs.

URLs and redirects (checks 7 to 11)

1. HTTPS works on every page, with http redirecting to https.
2. One preferred host (www or non-www), with the other redirecting to it.
3. Permalinks set to a readable structure such as Post name.
4. If replacing an old site, every old URL redirects with a 301 to its new match.
5. Canonical tags point to the live domain, never to staging.

On-page content (checks 12 to 18)

1. Every page has a unique, descriptive title.
2. Every important page has a meta description summarising it.
3. One clear H1 per page that matches the page’s purpose.
4. No placeholder text, demo content or “Sample Page” left published.
5. Meaningful images have descriptive alt text and sensible file names.
6. Key service pages are linked from the main menu and the homepage.
7. Contact details, business name and address are consistent across the site.

Performance and usability (checks 19 to 22)

1. Pages work and read well on a phone, with tap targets that are easy to hit.
2. Images are compressed and sized for their display width.
3. Caching is enabled on the live server.
4. Forms, checkout and click to call links are tested on mobile.

Search Console and tracking (checks 23 to 25)

1. Verify the domain in Google Search Console.
2. Submit the XML sitemap.
3. Install analytics and confirm visits are recorded.

Preview each title and description in my SERP snippet preview tool to catch truncation before launch, and run the live robots.txt through the robots.txt tester for checks 5 and 6.

Why is the Discourage search engines setting the biggest launch risk?

The Discourage search engines setting is the biggest launch risk on WordPress because it is ticked during development and easily forgotten, and while it is on, WordPress adds a noindex, nofollow robots meta tag to your pages. Google then keeps those pages out of its results.

The WordPress Reading settings documentation explains that since version 5.3 this checkbox outputs that robots meta tag, and that it is a request search engines may honor. Across the thousands of target pages I review for link building orders, a forgotten Discourage box is still one of the most common reasons a new site is missing from Google.

How do I get Google to index my new website?

To get Google to index a new website, verify it in Search Console, submit your sitemap, inspect the homepage and main service pages with the URL Inspection tool and request indexing, and earn a few links from relevant sites. Google finds most pages by following links, so links and a sitemap work together.

Expect the homepage first, then other pages over the following days and weeks. Check the Page indexing report weekly during the first month. If key pages show Discovered, currently not indexed or “Crawled, currently not indexed”, look at internal links and page quality before requesting indexing again.

Indexing does not mean ranking. A new domain usually needs useful content and some trust signals, such as mentions and links from real businesses, before it competes for valuable terms. No checklist can promise rankings, but it can make sure nothing technical holds the site back.

Should I submit a sitemap after launch?

Yes, submit a sitemap right after launch, because it is the quickest way to tell Google about all your URLs, and Google’s documentation says new sites with few external links are among those that benefit most. Submitting it does not guarantee every URL gets crawled and indexed.

Google’s sitemap overview notes that small, well linked sites of about 500 pages or fewer may not strictly need one, but submitting it costs nothing. WordPress creates a basic sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml, and SEO plugins usually replace it with their own version. Submit whichever one is active, not both.

How does this checklist work on a real small business launch?

Without the checklist, the first two issues alone could have kept the site out of search for weeks before anyone noticed.

What should I do in the first month after launch?

In the first month after launch, check the Page indexing report weekly, fix any 404s or redirect errors, watch which queries start showing impressions, and add internal links to pages that are slow to get indexed. Small fixes in month one prevent bigger problems later.

Also keep a simple launch log: the date the site went live, the date you submitted the sitemap, and any fixes you made afterwards. When traffic changes months later, that log tells you what happened and when, which saves hours of guessing.

Finally, plan your first pieces of new content and outreach. A launch gives you a clean technical base, but growth comes from answering customer questions and earning mentions from relevant sites over the following months.

For a printable version with extra technical checks, use my free SEO audit checklist. If you are still planning the build, my website design service includes this launch checklist, Search Console setup and the first month of monitoring as standard.

Frequently asked questions