Site launch checklist so Google can find you
The 18 things that must be true on launch day or Google and your customers will not find the new site. Run it yourself before you tell anyone the site is live.
Who it is for: An owner launching a new site or a redesign, with or without an agency doing the build
Most launch problems are not design problems. The old pages disappear without forwarding, the new site is set to "hide from search engines" from the staging phase, the form sends to a developer's inbox, and the analytics code never got pasted in. None of it is visible from the homepage. All of it costs leads for weeks.
Gather first
- A list of every page on the old site (ask your developer to export it, or use Search Console).
- Logins for Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4 and Google Business Profile.
- The new site on a laptop and on a phone.
How to use it
Go through the list with whoever built the site, ideally on a call, the day before launch and again the morning after. Do not accept "it should be fine" for any item. Ask to see it.
What good looks like
Every item checked, in writing, with the person who verified it. Keep that record. If something goes wrong a month later, you will know what changed.
1. Every page on the old site has a matching page on the new site, or a redirect that sends its old address to the closest new page. Get the list in writing. 2. The site is not blocked from search engines. Open any page, view the source, and confirm there is no "noindex" tag left over from the staging site. 3. The robots.txt file (the small file that tells Google what it may read) does not block the whole site. 4. Every page has its own title and meta description. No two pages share one. 5. The homepage, each service page and the contact page all show the business name, phone number and service area in text, not only in an image. 6. The phone number is clickable on a phone and dials the right number. 7. The contact form was tested end to end and the message arrived at the right inbox, not the developer's. 8. A thank you page or message appears after the form sends, so you can measure form submissions later. 9. Google Analytics 4 is installed on every page and shows your own test visit in the Realtime report. 10. Microsoft Clarity or a similar session recording tool is installed, if you use one. 11. Google Search Console is verified for the new site and the sitemap (the list of all your pages) has been submitted. 12. The address and hours on the site match the Google Business Profile exactly, down to suite numbers and abbreviations. 13. The Google Business Profile website link points to the new homepage, not the old one or a staging address. 14. The padlock shows in the browser on every page and the address starts with https. The http version forwards to it. 15. The site loads in under three seconds on a phone over cell data. Check the biggest images; anything over a few hundred kilobytes gets resized. 16. Each image has an alt description (the text a screen reader or Google reads in place of the picture) for anything that matters. 17. Your social profiles, email signature and any directory listings link to the new address. 18. You have the login to the domain, the hosting and the site builder in your own password manager, in your name, not the agency's.
Would rather have it done?
This is something we already run for clients. Send the intake and name this playbook; we will come back within a business day.
Goes well with
Weekly website health check
A 15 minute Monday routine that catches broken forms, dead pages and dropped rankings before they cost you a month of leads.
Twelve point website scorecard
Score your own site on the same twelve points we check in our free scorecard, from "says what you do in five seconds" to "form actually sends".
Photo shot list for a service business
The 16 photos every service business website needs, from the hero shot to the before and after pairs, with what each one is for.