Whether you're launching a new website or just staying on top of the one you already have, here's a checklist you can use to make sure you've checked the boxes for a strong backend. Not only will these things help with site performance, they'll also make your website more stable and search engine-friendly. Let us know if you need a hand with any of these things on your site.
Setting up a new site:
Set Up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
Install Google Analytics
Sitemap creation and submission - XML file submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
Create robots.txt
Audit site for crawl-ability by major search engines and fix any errors (Google Search Console)
Audit site for manual actions (Google Search Console)
Ensure site is set up on HTTPS encryption and check to make sure internal links go to HTTPS pages
Check for duplicate sites and set up 303 redirects so only one site indexes
Run the Google Console error report to find (then fix) errors
Run the Google Rich Results test to find (then fix) structured data errors
Check site speed and fix errors (pingdom.com)
Check and fix all inbound and outbound links (SEMRush, Moz)
Make sure site is mobile-friendly and provides a good user experience in both desktop and mobile formats
Create a permanent 404 page
Fix duplicate content and assign canonical links where appropriate (ahref site audit tool)
Ensure all images have SEO-appropriate names and alt tags
Check for multiple H1 tags (each page should only have 1)
Coordinate search terms per page to avoid cannibalization
Check URLs for keyword optimization, length, and intentional hierarchy
If you're moving your site to a new domain:
Pull a website backup
Complete a Change of Address with Google Console
Transfer the domain in GA - use the same tracking code
Fix broken links and set up 301 redirects
Create a new sitemap and trigger reindexing with Google and Bing
Set up email aliases using the old domain to forward to the new email addresses
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