Checklist

SEO Go-Live Checklist

Last updated

Use this checklist before launching a new site or going live after a redesign. Run it on your staging environment first to catch issues before they hit production, then repeat the live checks after launch.

For site migrations specifically (domain change, URL restructure, CMS switch), see the Site Migration Guide.

Crawling and indexing

  • Staging site is blocked from crawling (robots.txt disallow or password protection — do not rely on robots.txt alone)
  • Production site has no Disallow: / in robots.txt
  • No unintended noindex meta tags on pages that should be indexed
  • No X-Robots-Tag noindex headers on indexable pages
  • Canonical tags are present on all key pages and point to the correct URL (self-referencing on unique pages)
  • Canonical tags use absolute URLs, not relative paths
  • Pagination handled correctly (canonical or rel=“next”/“prev” where applicable)
  • No orphan pages — all key pages are reachable via internal links

XML sitemap

  • XML sitemap exists and is accessible at /sitemap.xml
  • Sitemap is declared in robots.txt
  • Sitemap contains only canonical, indexable URLs (no noindex pages, no redirects)
  • Sitemap has been submitted to Google Search Console
  • Sitemap has been submitted to Bing Webmaster Tools

HTTPS and security

  • SSL certificate is valid and not expired
  • Site loads correctly on HTTPS
  • HTTP redirects to HTTPS (301, not 302)
  • www and non-www resolve to a single canonical version (301 redirect)
  • No mixed content warnings (HTTP resources loaded on HTTPS pages)
  • HSTS header is set

Redirects

  • All old URLs redirect to their equivalent new URLs (301)
  • No redirect chains longer than two hops
  • No redirect loops
  • Homepage redirects are correct (if URL has changed)
  • Old URLs are not returning 200 (ghost pages)

On-page

  • Every page has a unique, descriptive <title> tag (50–60 characters)
  • Every page has a unique meta description (140–160 characters)
  • Each page has a single <h1> that matches the page topic
  • Heading hierarchy is logical (h1 → h2 → h3, no skipped levels)
  • Images have descriptive alt attributes
  • Images are compressed and served in next-gen formats (WebP, AVIF)
  • No duplicate title tags or meta descriptions across the site

Structured data

  • Schema markup is present on key page types (articles, products, FAQs, local business, etc.)
  • Structured data is valid — test with Google’s Rich Results Test
  • No structured data errors in Search Console

Core Web Vitals and performance

  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is under 2.5 seconds
  • INP (Interaction to Next Paint) is under 200ms
  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) is under 0.1
  • PageSpeed Insights score reviewed for mobile and desktop
  • Render-blocking resources addressed (defer/async JS, preload critical CSS)
  • Fonts are preloaded or system fonts used to prevent layout shift

Mobile

  • Site passes Google’s mobile-friendly test
  • Viewport meta tag is present
  • Text is readable without zooming
  • Tap targets are appropriately sized and spaced
  • No content is hidden behind interstitials that would trigger a mobile penalty

International (if applicable)

  • hreflang tags are implemented correctly on all language/region variants
  • hreflang uses correct ISO language and country codes
  • Each hreflang tag includes a reciprocal tag on the target page
  • x-default hreflang is set for the fallback page

Analytics and Search Console

  • Google Search Console property is verified for the production domain
  • Bing Webmaster Tools is verified
  • GA4 is installed and tracking pageviews correctly
  • GA4 goals/conversions are configured
  • Internal traffic is filtered (IP exclusion or developer traffic filter in GA4)
  • Search Console is linked to GA4

Monitoring setup

  • Uptime monitoring is configured (alerts on downtime)
  • Core Web Vitals monitoring is set up (Search Console, or a third-party tool)
  • Rank tracking is configured for target keywords
  • Search Console email alerts are enabled

Immediately after launch

  • Crawl the live site with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb
  • Confirm the sitemap is accessible and valid on the live domain
  • Verify robots.txt on the live domain permits crawling
  • Check 10–20 key pages for correct title, canonical, and indexing status using URL Inspection in Search Console
  • Confirm GA4 is tracking sessions on the live domain
  • Monitor Search Console for crawl errors in the first 72 hours
  • Check Core Web Vitals on the live site (staging performance can differ from production)

2–4 weeks post-launch

  • Key pages are appearing in search results
  • No significant drop in organic traffic (compare to pre-launch baseline)
  • Search Console Coverage report shows no unexpected errors or excluded pages
  • Core Web Vitals passing in Search Console field data
  • Backlinks to old URLs (if applicable) are resolving correctly via redirects