A new company website needs solid technical foundations before any advertising budget is spent. Technical issues often prevent search engines from indexing pages correctly or delivering them quickly to visitors. Addressing these points early reduces wasted ad spend and improves the chance that organic traffic can arrive alongside paid efforts.
This checklist covers the main areas that matter most at launch. It focuses on verifiable settings rather than content strategy or link building. Each item can be checked with free or built-in tools before the site goes live.
Crawlability and index control
Search engines must be able to reach every important page. Start by submitting an XML sitemap through the search console of the main engines. The sitemap should list only canonical URLs and exclude any staging or test pages.
Review the robots.txt file to confirm it does not block core directories. Use the URL inspection tools to test a sample of pages and verify they return a 200 status with no noindex tags. If a page must stay private, add the noindex directive explicitly rather than relying on robots.txt alone.
- Submit XML sitemap via search console
- Check robots.txt for unintended blocks
- Remove noindex from public pages
- Ensure consistent use of canonical tags
Page speed and server response
Slow pages increase bounce rates and reduce the effectiveness of any ad campaign. Measure core web vitals with the built-in reports available in search console and browser developer tools. Target a largest contentful paint under 2.5 seconds on typical connections.
Compress images to modern formats and enable text compression on the server. Review third-party scripts and remove any that are not required for initial page load. A content delivery network helps when visitors are spread across regions.
Monitor time to first byte. High values often point to server configuration or database queries that need attention before traffic arrives.
- Compress images and enable text compression
- Limit render-blocking scripts
- Set up a CDN for static assets
- Check server response times regularly
Mobile rendering and structured data
Most visitors arrive on phones. Confirm the site uses responsive design rather than a separate mobile subdomain. Test key pages with the mobile-friendly test tool and fix any elements that overflow or require horizontal scrolling.
Add structured data for organization, local business, or product information where relevant. Use the JSON-LD format and validate it with the rich results test. Correct markup can improve how search engines display the site in results without guaranteeing placement.
Security headers and HTTPS
HTTPS is required for all sites. Install a valid certificate and redirect HTTP traffic automatically. Add security headers such as strict-transport-security and content-security-policy to reduce common risks.
Check that mixed content warnings do not appear on any page. These warnings can block indexing or reduce trust signals shown to visitors.
Ongoing verification after launch
Technical SEO is not finished at launch. Set up weekly crawls with a free tool to catch new issues such as broken links or accidental noindex additions. Review search console for crawl errors and indexing status at least once a month.
At Tbilisi Software these checks form part of the standard handover process for new sites. The same list helps internal teams maintain performance after the initial release.