The startup SEO launch checklist: 20 checks before you share the link

Start with access, not keywords

A beautiful title cannot help a page that a crawler cannot fetch. Open the homepage in a clean browser session, then request robots.txt and sitemap.xml directly. Check the final URL after redirects, the HTTP status, and whether a WAF is challenging non-browser requests.

Keep the public launch page on HTTPS, return one canonical URL, and make sure a trailing-slash variant either resolves consistently or redirects. A sitemap containing a different URL shape is a common source of needless 404s.

• Homepage returns 200 and the canonical URL is absolute.
• robots.txt is reachable as plain text and does not block the launch page.
• sitemap.xml returns XML with absolute, public URLs.
• HTTP redirects to HTTPS without a redirect loop.

Make every result understandable in a SERP

Write one specific title and meta description for the page's search intent. Add one visible H1, useful H2s, Open Graph fields, and a real favicon. A missing image, invalid favicon MIME type, or duplicate title is small in isolation but signals unfinished work when somebody is deciding whether to click.

• Title states the product and the problem it solves.
• Description explains the outcome, not a list of features.
• og:title, og:description, and og:image describe the same page.
• Favicon is served from a stable URL with an image MIME type.

Add evidence and trust

Search quality is not just technical. Show who made the product, how to contact them, pricing or an honest free-plan explanation, documentation, and a privacy policy when you collect data. Organization or SoftwareApplication structured data can help machines connect those facts, but it cannot replace visible content.

• A byline or accountable organization is visible on important pages.
• The product has a contact route and a clear privacy policy.
• Claims, testimonials, and metrics have a source or date.
• The page has useful internal links to documentation and the next action.

Measure after release

Submit the sitemap in Search Console, watch indexing and real-user performance, and fix the highest-impact failures first. Re-run an audit after every routing, CDN, or metadata change. SEO is a system you maintain, not a checkbox you complete once.