The short answer
Before launch, make sure search engines are allowed in, every page has a unique title and description, your sitemap and robots.txt are in place, old addresses redirect, there are no broken links, and the site is fast and secure. The steps below take about an hour for a small site.
Launching a website is exciting, and it is easy to forget the small technical steps that decide whether search engines can find and understand it. This checklist covers the essentials in the order that makes sense. Each step names a free tool that does the job.
1. Make sure search engines are allowed in
Staging sites are often set to block crawlers. Before you launch, check that your robots.txt does not contain Disallow: / and that your pages do not carry a noindex tag. Use the Meta Tag Checker to see whether a page tells search engines to stay away.
2. Give every page a unique title and description
The title and meta description are what people see in search results. Write a different pair for each important page, keep titles to about 60 characters and descriptions to about 155, and say what the page offers. The Meta Tag Generator shows a live preview and counts characters for you.
3. Set a canonical address
If the same page can be reached at more than one address (with and without www, with tracking parameters), add a canonical tag that names the main one. This stops search engines splitting ranking between duplicates.
4. Add a robots.txt file
A robots.txt file tells crawlers which areas to skip, such as admin pages, and points them to your sitemap. Build one with the Robots.txt Generator. Learn more in what is robots.txt.
5. Create and submit an XML sitemap
A sitemap lists the pages you want indexed. Make one with the XML Sitemap Generator, upload it to your site, and submit it in Google Search Console. See the XML sitemap guide.
6. Redirect old addresses
If you are replacing an old site, send every old address to its new equivalent with a permanent (301) redirect, and make http redirect to https. Test the result with the Redirect Checker and read 301 vs 302 redirects.
7. Add structured data
Schema markup describes your content to search engines. Add it for the page types that fit, such as articles, products and local businesses, using the Schema Markup Generator.
8. Fix broken links
Run the Broken Link Checker on your main pages and fix or remove links that return errors.
9. Make it mobile friendly
Most visits come from phones. Check that each page has a viewport tag, text is readable without zooming, and buttons are easy to tap. The Meta Tag Checker reports a missing viewport.
10. Shrink your images
Large images are the most common cause of slow pages. Resize them and convert to WebP with the Image Compressor. See how to compress images for the web.
11. Check HTTPS and security headers
Serve every page over HTTPS and review your response headers with the HTTP Header Checker.
12. Verify your site in Search Console
Add your site to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap, and watch for coverage problems in the first weeks after launch.
Try the free tools
- GenerateIn your browser
Meta Tag Generator
Write your title, description and share tags, and preview how they look in search and when shared.
Open tool - GenerateIn your browser
Robots.txt Generator
Build a robots.txt file with presets for WordPress and shops, and an option to block AI crawlers.
Open tool - GenerateBrowser + server
XML Sitemap Generator
Find your pages or paste a list, and download a valid sitemap.xml.
Open tool - CheckServer check
Redirect Checker
See every redirect hop between a web address and its final destination.
Open tool
Frequently asked questions
How long does an SEO launch checklist take?
For a small site with a handful of pages it takes about an hour. Larger sites take longer because there are more pages to review and more redirects to test.
Do I need all of these steps?
The first six matter most: letting search engines in, titles and descriptions, canonical tags, robots.txt, a sitemap and redirects. The rest improve quality and speed.
When will my new site appear in Google?
It can take from a few days to several weeks. Submitting a sitemap in Search Console and having other sites link to you speeds discovery up, but no one can promise a date.
Should I block search engines during development?
Yes, on a staging copy. Just remember to remove the block when you launch. Forgetting is one of the most common launch mistakes.