A technical SEO launch checklist for a small business website

Before publishing more articles, check that a visitor and a search crawler can reach the pages you already have. Technical SEO begins with a website that delivers its content reliably. It does not replace clear service information or guarantee rankings.

Check the public URL first

Open the main domain, its www version and the HTTP version. Confirm which address is canonical and whether the other supported versions redirect there. Test a page inside the site as well as the homepage, including a URL pasted directly into a new browser tab.

A redirect cannot run if its hostname has no DNS record. Keep domain resolution, HTTPS certificates and page routing as separate checks. Record the final destination instead of relying on the address displayed after an earlier visit.

Review representative pages

Choose one service page, one work example and one journal article. Confirm the visible heading, body, contact route and images are available. Check the page source or rendered response as part of the review, especially when the site depends on JavaScript.

Give each page a descriptive title and a summary that matches its content. Check that the canonical URL points to that page's preferred address rather than sending every article to the homepage.

Make discovery part of navigation

Link to important pages from menus, relevant service pages and related articles. Use labels that tell a reader where the link goes. Google's link guidance explains that ordinary anchor links with valid destinations help crawlers discover pages. A page should not depend on an unlinked URL in a sitemap to be useful to visitors.

Inspect crawl settings and the sitemap

Check whether launch pages accidentally retain a noindex instruction or a development restriction. Include the public canonical pages in the sitemap, and exclude error pages. Google's sitemap guidance describes sitemaps as a discovery aid, with no guarantee that every submitted URL will be indexed.

Use a launch record

Keep a short record of what was checked, when and by whom:

• Homepage and nested URLs return the expected content.
• Supported hostname variants reach the canonical domain.
• Page titles, descriptions and canonical URLs match the pages.
• Images and navigation links work on a phone.
• Contact actions reach the agreed destination.
• A nonexistent page returns a genuine not-found response.
• The published sitemap contains the intended pages.

After launch, use Search Console checks to inspect discovery and indexing. If you are rebuilding an existing site, add the redirect plan before replacing old URLs. Our website service includes discussing these launch requirements in the project scope.