Practical checklist
30 website SEO checks before launch
- 1. Confirm the agreed first-release pages and their owners
- 2. Verify every public claim, credential, price and testimonial
- 3. Check that the main audience and next action are clear on key pages
- 4. Review heading hierarchy and descriptive page titles
- 5. Write unique, accurate meta descriptions for important pages
- 6. Confirm one preferred canonical URL for every indexable page
- 7. Make sure any staging or test environment is not indexable
- 8. Test robots rules and sitemap availability
- 9. Include indexable canonical pages in the sitemap
- 10. Check language versions and reciprocal hreflang where applicable
- 11. Audit internal links and use descriptive anchor text
- 12. Test navigation, footer links and breadcrumb paths
- 13. Map changed useful URLs to the most relevant replacements
- 14. Test redirects and avoid sending every old URL to the homepage
- 15. Check 404 handling for removed or mistyped URLs
- 16. Confirm forms, confirmations and routing work
- 17. Test phone, email, WhatsApp, booking and payment paths in scope
- 18. Verify analytics and consent behaviour against the agreed setup
- 19. Check cookie, privacy and legal pages are linked where needed
- 20. Test key pages on real mobile viewport sizes
- 21. Check images, alt text, file weight and meaningful captions
- 22. Test page speed and fix agreed high-impact issues
- 23. Validate structured data against visible, approved content
- 24. Check Open Graph and social sharing metadata
- 25. Verify HTML language declarations and accessibility basics in scope
- 26. Test keyboard navigation and focus visibility on key paths
- 27. Check unique page URLs, titles and descriptions for accidental duplication
- 28. Confirm CMS editing, roles and publishing workflow
- 29. Transfer access, source files, credentials and documentation as agreed
- 30. Record post-launch monitoring and issue owners
Launch SEO begins while the site is being planned.
Suppose an existing product URL, `/products/seal-a/`, is moving to `/products/seals/model-a/`. Record the old URL, relevant replacement, expected redirect, observed result and owner, then test the specification download and enquiry on the new page. This is an illustrative migration check, not a test performed on this site. Inventory these routes before working through the 30 checks below.
A pre-launch checklist cannot recover an undefined migration or content decision at the last minute. Treat the inventory and the responsibility map as part of the website scope, particularly when replacing an existing site.
Check the visible content before the markup.
Search engines and visitors both need pages with a clear purpose, accurate information, useful headings and a reasonable next step. Titles, descriptions, structured data and internal links should reflect that visible content rather than try to manufacture relevance with repeated phrases.
Do not publish claims, reviews, qualifications, prices or service areas that the business cannot support. Technical optimisation cannot compensate for unverified information, and it should never be used to create a stronger promise than the page itself makes.
Treat URLs and redirects as customer-service work.
When a useful existing URL moves, redirect it to the closest relevant replacement. Test the map before launch and keep a copy with the project records. Sending every removed page to the homepage can confuse visitors and hide the fact that a better destination was not chosen.
Remove or retire pages deliberately. If no replacement exists, a helpful 404 response may be better than a misleading redirect. The goal is a comprehensible transition, not an artificial attempt to preserve every old route.
Test the route from discovery to action.
Use actual mobile and desktop devices or realistic viewports to test the main journeys: navigation, reading, contact, booking, RFQ, payment or download. Confirm forms, confirmation messages, analytics and consent behaviour with the accounts and settings used at launch—not with assumptions from a design prototype.
Performance, accessibility and SEO checks overlap in this work. A page that is slow, difficult to navigate, hidden behind a broken script or impossible to complete on a phone is a visitor problem first.
Handover keeps a good launch from becoming a stale site.
The final step is not just switching the domain. Confirm who can edit content, renew services, review analytics, monitor errors, update plugins or dependencies, approve future claims and maintain language versions. Transfer access and documentation according to the agreed scope.
After launch, monitor the planned pages, forms, changed URLs and real visitor questions. Fix genuine issues and make future content decisions from evidence. No checklist can guarantee rankings, traffic, enquiries or business outcomes.
Sources and scope
- Google: SEO Starter Guidedevelopers.google.com
Technical reference for crawlable links, useful page titles and understandable site structure.
- W3C WAI: Forms Tutorialw3.org
Supports the advice on labels, instructions and understandable form feedback; no commercial conversion rate is implied.