Abdullah Bin Tahir
(Insight)SEO

A pre-launch SEO checklist for new websites

Fifteen minutes with this checklist before launch can save months of lost visibility. These are the checks I run on every site I ship.

(Written by)Abdullah Bin Tahir
(Published)
August 20, 2026
(Reading time)
2 min read
A pre-launch SEO checklist for new websites

Launch day is busy, and SEO details are easy to miss. These are the checks I run before every site goes live.

Indexing

  • Search engine indexing is switched on for the live domain
  • Staging domains are set to noindex
  • The sitemap is generated and lists only real pages

Pages

  • Every page has a unique title under about 60 characters
  • Every page has a meta description that explains the page in one or two sentences
  • Each page has one H1 and a logical heading order
  • Images have descriptive alt text and are compressed

Structure

  • URLs are short, readable and use hyphens
  • Internal links connect services, work and articles
  • Old URLs redirect with 301s if this is a redesign

Technical

  • HTTPS is active and forced
  • Pages load quickly on mobile
  • Schema markup is added for your business, services and articles
  • Open Graph images and titles are set for social sharing

After launch

Verify the site in Google Search Console, submit the sitemap and set up analytics with your key conversions. Then check Search Console weekly for the first month.

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