WordPress technical SEO checklist: 18 checks before you launch
A practical launch checklist covering crawlability, canonical URLs, sitemaps, structured data, performance, redirects, and search-engine verification.
Make the preferred site crawlable and unambiguous
Choose one HTTPS hostname, redirect every alternate consistently, and use absolute canonical URLs. Production pages must not inherit a staging noindex directive or password wall. Keep checkout, account, internal search, and other low-value utility URLs out of the index.
Your robots.txt file should point to a root-level XML sitemap. Include only canonical, indexable URLs in that sitemap and use accurate modification dates only when the primary content actually changes.
- HTTPS and preferred-host redirects
- Indexable production pages
- Self-referencing canonical URLs
- Clean robots.txt rules
- Absolute canonical URLs in XML sitemap
- Useful crawlable internal links
Check what search engines and visitors receive
Give every important page a descriptive title, a useful summary, one clear primary heading, and content that answers the visitor's intent. Add structured data only when it accurately describes visible content. Organization, breadcrumb, product, article, and FAQ markup are common choices, but eligibility never guarantees a rich result.
Optimize real images, reserve their dimensions, and avoid loading unnecessary scripts early. Test representative mobile pages because navigation, calls to action, and checkout interactions often fail there first.
- Unique title and description
- Logical heading hierarchy
- Visible content matches structured data
- Descriptive image alternatives
- Healthy mobile interaction
- No broken links or accidental soft 404 pages
Verify, measure, and maintain
Verify the site with Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and Yandex Webmaster where those audiences matter. Baidu has its own search-resource platform and crawler controls. DuckDuckGo draws much of its traditional link coverage from partners including Bing, so broad technical accessibility and Bing discovery are useful foundations.
After launch, inspect coverage and crawl errors, submit the canonical sitemap, and measure conversions alongside clicks. SEO maintenance is a product process: update helpful content, preserve redirects during URL changes, and investigate changes in traffic rather than publishing pages only to increase the page count.
- Webmaster verification in production
- Sitemap submitted and processed
- Analytics events for qualified leads and purchases
- 404 and redirect monitoring
- Core Web Vitals monitoring
- A review owner and update schedule