A new website is one of the riskiest moments for search visibility. Changed URLs, missing redirects, blocked crawlers and slower templates can undo years of progress overnight. This checklist covers the checks we run before, during and after every launch.
Before launch
Inventory what already works
Export every URL that receives organic traffic or has external links. These are the pages you cannot afford to lose.
Map redirects
Every old URL that changes needs a single permanent (301) redirect to its most relevant new equivalent — not a blanket redirect to the homepage.
Check rendering
Make sure primary content and links are present in the server-rendered HTML. Content that only appears after client-side scripts run is harder for crawlers to process reliably.
Metadata and headings
- A unique title and meta description for each indexable page
- One clear H1 per page and a logical heading hierarchy
- Canonical tags pointing to the preferred URL
Structured data
Add Organization and WebSite schema site-wide, plus Service, Article, Breadcrumb and FAQ schema where the visible content genuinely matches.
Performance
Test key templates on mobile. Optimise images, fonts and JavaScript so Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift are within recommended thresholds.
Launch day
- Remove any staging noindex tags and password protection.
- Confirm robots.txt allows crawling of important sections.
- Submit the new XML sitemap in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Test a sample of old URLs to confirm redirects.
- Verify analytics and conversion tracking are firing.
The weeks after
- Monitor index coverage and crawl errors daily for the first two weeks.
- Watch rankings and traffic for your top pages; investigate any sharp drops quickly.
- Check server logs for crawler activity on new URLs.
- Fix broken internal links and update any remaining links to redirected URLs.
Common mistakes to avoid
Launching with a noindex tag left in place, redirect chains through several hops, removing content that ranked without a replacement, and changing URLs that did not need to change. Most migration losses come from these avoidable issues.
Frequently asked questions
Will a new website lose rankings?
Some short-term fluctuation is normal. With a complete redirect map, content parity and no technical regressions, most sites recover quickly and often improve.
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