Before a new website is launched and when you do a website launch, SEO should be included in the project planning process. Things like the website wireframe, list of topics, list of sub-topics, and other sections of the website should be reviewed by Bill Hartzer. As the website is designed, Bill Hartzer should be involved to make sure that the design is SEO-friendly and the site is using a CMS (content management system) or site platform that is SEO-friendly, as well. Before the site is launched, a development version of the site should be made available to SEO expert Bill Hartzer so that the website can be audited before it goes live to the public. This will minimize any ‘surprises’ at launch. If the new website is replacing an old website on the same domain name, then Bill Hartzer will need to prepare lists of redirects and provide a strategy for moving and replace links to the website’s old web pages.
When a website is launched, there are a lot of tasks and hours of work involved that Bill Hartzer should perform—to ensure a worry-free website launch.
SEO Deliverables
There are several SEO Deliverables, and these are provided throughout the website launch process. Documents and spreadsheets of wireframes and preliminary plans for the website are reviewed by Bill Hartzer. Bill may or may not provide written recommendations at the end of all phases. Before the website launch, however, a review of the development site will be done, and a written document will be provided with a list of the issues that should be fixed or changed before the website goes live to the public.
A new website launch is important–don’t let the launch run into issues because of the lack of SEO.
Website launch services, and SEO consulting is just the beginning–it’s important to follow up every month with more traditional monthly SEO services in order to start off right and continue marketing the website every month.
What Gets Decided Before a Website Launch
Most of the search performance of a new website is determined before a single page is written. The platform decides how much control you have over URLs, titles, redirects and structured data. The site architecture decides which pages get internal link equity and which are buried four clicks deep. The URL structure decides whether you will be running redirects for the life of the site. The hosting and theme decide the page speed floor. These choices are cheap to get right at the planning stage and expensive to change after launch, which is why I ask to be involved when the wireframes exist and not when the site is a week from going live.
For WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Webflow and headless builds the questions are different but the goal is the same: a site that Google can crawl completely, render correctly and understand. JavaScript-heavy frameworks need particular attention, because content that only appears after client-side rendering may be indexed late or not at all.
The Launch Checklist
Before a new site goes live I work through a fixed checklist on the development version. Crawlability: robots.txt allows crawling, there is no noindex left over from staging, and the XML sitemap lists only canonical, indexable URLs. On-page: every page has a unique title tag and meta description, one H1, and heading structure that reflects the content. Technical: canonical tags are self-referencing, HTTPS is enforced with a single redirect from HTTP and from the non-preferred hostname, 404 pages return a real 404 status, and Core Web Vitals pass on mobile. Measurement: Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console are set up and verified before launch, conversion tracking fires, and consent management does not silently block measurement. Structured data: Organization, WebPage and any product, article or FAQ markup validates in Google’s Rich Results Test. If the site replaces an existing one, the redirect map is tested URL by URL.
Launch Week
On launch day I recrawl the live site, confirm the redirects, submit the sitemap in Search Console, request indexing of the most important pages, and check that analytics is recording. For the following two weeks I watch Search Console’s coverage and performance reports daily for crawl errors, unexpected noindex pages, and queries that drop out. New sites on new domains take time to earn rankings regardless; new sites replacing old ones should hold their rankings within a few weeks if the launch was done properly, and a continuing decline points to a specific issue the crawl data will identify.
Common Launch Mistakes
The failures I see most often are a staging site that was indexed before launch and now competes with the live site; a noindex tag or disallow rule that followed the site from development; redirects pointed at the home page instead of equivalent pages; analytics installed on the old site and forgotten on the new one; and a launch scheduled for a Friday afternoon with no developer on hand. All of them are avoidable with a pre-launch audit, which is why the audit is the center of this service.
Ongoing Monthly SEO Services
While Hartzer Consulting specializes in technical SEO audits of websites, we also provide SEO consulting services, on a retainer basis. We always prefer to begin all new projects with an SEO audit to find out the issues that need to be addressed. Contact us today to find out more about our monthly SEO services and how we can help you reach the goals for your website.