Planning to launch a website? Discover five essential pre-launch checks, including robots.txt, XML sitemap, canonical tags, 301 redirects and mobile layout, to help your website stay search-friendly and accessible.
It's exciting to launch your website but it is not all about making it look good. There are some important things we need to check before we make our website live such is an insignificant issue which can prevent us from getting into major trouble later. Here are our 5 pre-site setup checks before we launch a website.
Robots.txt File
Robots.txt is a set of instructions for search engines. It instructs Google and other search engines which pages to look at and which pages to skip. This information could be incorrect, so that search engines are unable to locate website. Always check the robots.txt file before you launch it to make sure that it does not block access to key pages.
Sitemap
The sitemap is similar to a map of the site. It contains all the essential pages which are to be easily located by search engines. If you do not have a sitemap Google could take a long time to discover the pages. Making a sitemap and submitting it to Google Search Console is always a good idea before the website is launched. This helps to quicken the indexing of the web site.
Canonical Tags
In some instances the same page may display different URLs e.g., www or not. This can lead to confusion with the search engines as it is duplicate content. This issue is resolved with canonical tags. They inform search engines which is the main page. As part of the pre-launch checklist it is important to ensure all important pages have the correct canonical tag.
301 Redirects
If a transfer from an old site to a new site, some of the links on the old site may be broken. A 301 redirect is a redirect that will automatically send browsers and search engines to a different page that has a different URL. This way, visitors won't miss out on visiting the website, nor will Google lose its ranking. Testing important redirects to make sure they work is important.
Mobile Layout
Nowadays, people use their cell phones to take a look at the internet. The site should be seen on a cell phone before the site goes live as if the site does not look good on a mobile, people will leave fast. It should be easy to read, buttons shouldn't be so heavy to tap and images shouldn't be too large to fit the screen. The best mobile layout makes visitors happy and it's also great for Google.
Final Words
The creation of a website is not the end of the task. Before launching the website, the following 5 things should be checked for to make sure that the website is functional and accessible for visitors and search engines. Just a little bit of work in the beginning can save you a lot of trouble later. Remember to double check before pressing that launch button.
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