Website launch SEO checklist.

Password-protect the environment when possible. If crawlers can reach it, use noindex until the production move is complete.

Give every retained, moved, consolidated, and removed URL an explicit destination before deployment.

Send each moved URL to its closest relevant replacement without chains or blanket homepage redirects.

Use the final HTTPS URL and keep canonicals, internal links, redirects, and sitemap URLs aligned.

Make them specific to the page. Check templates for accidental duplication or empty output.

Treat the list as a launch-day removal checklist, including headers set outside the CMS.

Confirm public pages and necessary resources are crawlable. Do not use robots.txt as a substitute for noindex.

Include absolute, canonical, indexable URLs that return successful responses. Exclude redirects and errors.

Update navigation, breadcrumbs, body links, hreflang, and structured data so they do not rely on redirects.

Remove test values, old addresses, placeholder ratings, and schema for content that is not present on the page.

Submit forms, confirm thank-you states, verify alerts, and test checkout on both phone and desktop.

Test HTTP, HTTPS, www, and non-www variants. They should settle on one preferred host without loops.

Confirm core pages return 200, moved pages reach the intended destination, and removed pages behave as planned.

Inspect both HTML meta tags and X-Robots-Tag response headers after caches and deployment layers are live.

Confirm the production response does not carry a staging-wide Disallow rule and references the intended sitemap.

Catch staging hosts, HTTP URLs, old domains, missing canonicals, and multiple canonical elements.

Make sure its URLs use the live canonical host, then submit it in Google Search Console.

Check navigation, content, forms, consent UI, and layout—not only a desktop browser resized narrower.

Use a real test conversion and confirm the event, source, and destination appear where the team will measure them.

Compare the public site with the URL map and investigate unexpected errors, orphaned pages, and blocked resources.

Test the homepage and one URL from every important template using live inspection.

Watch for new exclusions, fetch failures, canonical conflicts, and sudden drops in discovered URLs.

Prioritize URLs receiving visitors or backlinks, then repair missed mappings and internal links.

Production email, caching, consent, fraud controls, and payment settings can differ from staging.

Capture titles, canonicals, indexability, headings, response state, and meaningful copy after final launch fixes.

Watch for noindex, robots blocks, canonical drift, title removal, redirects, errors, heading loss, and significant copy changes.

Record dates and affected templates so traffic movement can be compared with known site changes.

A warning only protects the site when its owner knows who should investigate and restore the approved state.