Technical SEO Checklist for New Business Websites

1. Choose one version of your domain

Your site should answer on a single address, either with or without www, and always over HTTPS. Every other version should reach it through one permanent (301 or 308) redirect. Check that your canonical tags, sitemap and internal links all use the same version. Conflicts here are easy to miss because the site looks perfectly normal in a browser.

2. Make sure pages can be crawled and indexed

A few small settings can hide an entire site from search, so check them directly:

• robots.txt does not block important pages or the CSS and JavaScript they need.
• No leftover noindex tags from a staging version of the site.
• Key content appears in the HTML the server sends, or is reliably rendered for Google.
• Every important page is reachable through normal links, not just through search or forms.

3. Submit an accurate sitemap

List only pages you want indexed, using their final canonical URLs. Leave out redirects and error pages. Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, then use the page indexing report to see which pages were excluded and why.

4. Give every page a clear identity

Each page should have one job and make that obvious to both people and search engines:

• A unique title that describes the page, written for people rather than stuffed with keywords.
• A unique meta description that gives searchers a reason to click.
• One main heading, followed by a logical order of subheadings.
• A self-referencing canonical tag on each page you want indexed.
• Descriptive image alt text where the image carries meaning.

5. Handle missing and moved pages properly

Unknown URLs should return a real 404 status, not a friendly page that returns 200. When a page moves, redirect it to its closest equivalent. Redirecting everything to the homepage is a common shortcut, but Google may treat those redirects as if the pages no longer exist, and visitors do not find what they expected.

6. Check speed and mobile experience

Google indexes the mobile version of your site, so test on a real phone as well as a desktop. Use PageSpeed Insights to review Core Web Vitals, and prioritise compressed images, less JavaScript and reserved space for images and other elements that can shift the layout. Real-user data matters more than a single lab score.

7. Add structured data that matches the page

Use schema.org markup to describe your organisation, breadcrumbs, articles, products and services. Only mark up what is visible on the page, and never add reviews or ratings you do not genuinely have. Rich results also change over time: Google has retired features such as FAQ results, so check its current documentation rather than relying on old advice.

8. Set up measurement before launch

Verify Google Search Console, ideally as a Domain property so that it covers every version of your site. Connect analytics and record enquiries as key events. Then review the data monthly, because rankings matter far less than the traffic and leads they bring.