SEO checklist for a new website: 12 points before launch
What to verify before launching a site so you do not rebuild it in six months: technical base, structure, speed, structured data — point by point.
Eight out of ten sites brought to us “for SEO” need repairs first: sections closed from indexing, duplicates, three-megabyte pages. This checklist is what we verify before every launch. Save it and demand it from your contractor.
Technical base
- Server-side rendering or prerendering: bots see content without executing JavaScript.
- One canonical address: www or non-www decided, 301 redirects in place.
- robots.txt does not block what matters; sitemap.xml exists and is submitted to Search Console.
- Every page has a unique title and description of proper length.
Structure and content
- One H1 per page, heading hierarchy without gaps.
- Structure mirrors demand: every service with search volume gets its own page.
- Language versions linked with hreflang, not just header links.
- Internal linking: money pages reachable within two clicks from anywhere.
Speed and markup
- Core Web Vitals in the green on mobile — verified in PageSpeed Insights, not by eye.
- Images in modern formats, lazy-loaded below the fold.
- Structured data: organisation, services, FAQ, breadcrumbs — validated in the Rich Results Test.
- Analytics with goals from day one: without data, SEO decisions are made blind.
None of this is “advanced magic” — it is hygiene. Yet its absence eats the first six months of any SEO campaign. Demanding the checklist before launch is cheaper than paying for a rebuild after.