Quick SEO Tip for Site Launches (and Relaunches)
Whether you're an SEO or a site owner, launches and relaunches are something you're sure to encounter. Each time I'm part of this process or hear of it happening, I perform two fast, simple checks to ensure the site starts off on the right foot. Over the years, these two items have saved a number of websites a lot of trouble on what should be an exciting time.
This is by no means exhaustive, but today I wanted to provide readers something quick and easy that can help develop a good habit moving forward. And if you are an SEO, I can promise you that this audit will have you enjoying repeated hero moments over the years.
Quick Website (Re)Launch Audit Steps
1. Check the robots.txt file for "Disallow: /". You can find this by adding "/robots.txt" to the home page URL (ex: https://gofishdigital.com/robots.txt). The rule you're looking for (and don't want to see) is "Disallow: /". This tells bots not to crawl any page on the site. Staging sites often have this in place to keep crawlers out, which makes sense - but the rule is often left in place accidentally / unknowingly when the site goes live.
2. Check for the presence of a "noindex" meta robots tag. Use an extension like this one and audit the robots tag field. Check the home page at a minimum, and other key pages if you'd like to be more thorough. This will tell search engines not to index your content. Like the robots rule, this is often an inadvertent carryover from staging.
And that's it! There are countless audit steps you could take after a (re)launch, but believe it or not, these two basic checks are often forgotten even in detailed audits. I hope you enjoyed this article and if you do use this to spot an issue in the future, feel free to reach out - I'd love to hear about it!
E-commerce SEO Strategist 🛒 | Building SEO Advocacy 🤝 | #PragmaticSEO 📰
3yThese definitely are 2 big misses. Big “Duh!” moments! One of the areas (and it’s no small endeavor) are redirects! A lot of times clients have come to me right before a launch and asked for quick help. They’ve neglected to consider a redirect strategy. That is, “Well, redirects aren’t a massive deal and we can knock it out quick, no problem”. Only to be taken aback by how large scale the initiative can be. Or they’ve pushed any redirect strategy to the side from the get go; opting in for a bulk redirect approach (e.g. mass redirect all URLs to the homepage). Again, a lack of prioritization. Neglecting redirects means neglecting SEO authority. A huge hindrance to performance. That’s said, redirects are definitely worth a conversation when relaunching a site.
B2B SaaS Marketing
3yThese are definitely the most important things to check, and like you said there are probably hundreds more to consider! One thing I always do following a site launch or migration is a custom search in Screaming Frog for dev/staging site links that accidentally got carried over!