The new-website SEO checklist.
Every technical box worth ticking before and after launch, in the order we tick them on real client sites. No email gate, no upsell, no catch.
The SEO checklist
What you’re getting.
No filler. Here are the parts that do the heavy lifting, every one of them something we use ourselves on real projects.
Sitemaps & redirects
Getting found starts with being crawlable, the map, the redirects and the canonical tags.
- XML sitemap generated & submitted
- 301s, not 302s, for permanent moves
- No redirect chains or loops
- Canonical tag on every page
Schema markup that helps
The structured data that earns rich results, and skipping the kind that does nothing.
- Organisation / LocalBusiness markup
- Breadcrumb structured data
- FAQ schema on the right pages
- Validated in the Rich Results test
Page speed budgets
Speed is a ranking factor and a conversion factor. Set the ceiling before you build.
- Core Web Vitals targets agreed
- Images sized & compressed
- Fonts subset & preloaded
- Checked on a real mobile profile
Crawl & indexation
Making sure Google can find, crawl and index every page you actually care about.
- Search Console verified
- Index coverage report clean
- No stray noindex from staging
- Key pages confirmed indexed
Three steps. Genuinely.
No course, no login, no faff. This is the whole method.
Print it, or open it split-screen.
Keep it beside you while you build, not buried three folders deep in Drive.
Work through it pre-launch.
Most of the list is meant to be done before you go live. Tick as you build.
Sign off, then ship.
The launch-day and 30-day checks catch what only shows up on the live domain.
The honest answers.
The things people ask before they click download. No catch, and we mean it.
Yes, completely free with no email required. Download it, use it on as many sites as you like, and adapt it however suits you.
It helps, but each check is written in plain English with the reason it matters. If you are not building the site yourself, hand it to whoever is.
No, and anyone promising that is overselling. What it does is remove the self-inflicted technical problems so your actual content and local signals get a fair chance.
More free things.
Same deal on all of them: no email gate, no upsell, take what’s useful.
The brand brief template
The exact questions we ask before a branding project. Fill it in and you'll understand your brand better than most agencies do about theirs.
Get the PDFThe website scope worksheet
Pin down what your site actually needs, before anyone writes a line of code or quotes a price. Stops projects quietly ballooning.
Get the PDFThe SEO content calendar
A simple 12-month content plan with keyword mapping, in a spreadsheet you can actually keep up with.
Get the spreadsheetLike the brains of us?
New articles, templates and downloads as we publish them. No spam, no daily emails, just the useful stuff when it lands.