SEO is often put off: launch first, deal with promotion once there is money. But some basics are done once while the site is built and cost almost nothing. Skip them, and search engines see the site worse than they could, and you end up fixing it after the fact.
This is not about promotion or rankings. It is about letting a search engine read the site properly and understand what each page is about.
A title and description for every page
Every page needs its own title and its own description. The title shows in the browser tab and in search results, and the description often appears under it. If every page carries the same company name, the search engine cannot tell them apart.
- The title says briefly what is on the page and usually ends with the company name
- The description explains in one or two sentences why the page is worth opening
- The page has one main H1 heading, and it matches the title in meaning
- The copy is written for a person, not stuffed with keywords
Clean addresses
An address like /services/apartment-renovation reads well for both people and search engines. An address like /page?id=73 says nothing. Agree on the address structure before launch: you can change it later, but every move needs redirects, as covered in the note on moving to a new site.
Sitemap and robots.txt
The sitemap.xml file lists the pages you want in search. The robots.txt file tells robots where not to go. Both should be in place on launch day.
The most common mistake here is a simple one. The staging copy is hidden from search, and at launch nobody remembers to open it. The site works, requests come from ads, but it is missing from search. Checking is easy: open your-domain/robots.txt and see whether it blocks the whole site.
Keep the staging copy out of search
The opposite happens too: the developer’s test address gets indexed, and two copies of the site show up in results. It is better to protect the staging copy with a password, not only a robots.txt rule. Then neither robots nor random visitors will see it.
Webmaster tools
Google Search Console and Yandex Webmaster are free and show how a search engine sees your site: which pages are indexed, what errors were found, and which queries bring people to you. Connect them right after launch and submit the sitemap there.
Access to these tools should be on your account, like everything else that belongs to the site.
What else helps from day one
- Fast loading, especially on a phone
- Images with meaningful alt text
- Contacts, address, and opening hours as text, not only as an image
- A business listing on maps if you meet clients offline
- Links between pages, so robots and people find related material
Why speed matters and what usually slows it down is covered in the note on speed on a phone. If you want your site checked before launch, use the contact form.