Table of Contents
Launching a new website is a milestone β but it’s also just the beginning of the work. A new site that isn’t properly set up for search, analytics, and ongoing optimization will underperform regardless of how well it was designed and built. Here’s everything you should do in the first 30 days after your website goes live.
Immediately After Launch
Verify Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool that shows you how Google sees and crawls your site. Add and verify your property immediately after launch by adding the provided HTML tag to your site’s header. Once verified, submit your XML sitemap (usually at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml) to prompt Google to discover and index your new pages. If you’re using Yoast SEO or RankMath on WordPress, they generate your sitemap automatically. GSC will also alert you to any crawl errors, manual actions, or indexing issues that need attention.
Set Up Google Analytics 4
Install GA4 tracking code on your new site before you start driving any traffic. You cannot recover historical data β every day without analytics is data lost forever. GA4 is free, and with WordPress you can install it easily through the MonsterInsights plugin. Configure at minimum: goal tracking for form submissions, phone number clicks, and any other conversion actions relevant to your business.
Test All Critical Functions
Test every form submission and confirm notifications arrive at your email. Test every phone number click on mobile. Check every page loads correctly. Test your navigation on mobile. Submit a test form from each page and confirm the confirmation message appears. These seem basic but launch-day errors in contact forms have cost businesses hundreds of leads before being discovered.
Week One
Set Up 301 Redirects for Old URLs
If your new site has different URLs than your old site β which is common in a redesign or platform migration β you need 301 redirects mapping each old URL to its new equivalent. Without redirects, visitors and Google following old links will hit 404 errors. Any SEO authority your old pages had built will be lost rather than transferred to the new URLs. The Redirection plugin for WordPress makes managing these straightforward. If you’re coming from Webflow with the same URL slugs, this is less critical β but verify each important page specifically.
Check Search Console for Indexing Status
In Google Search Console, use the URL Inspection tool to check whether Google has indexed your key pages. If important pages show “URL is not on Google,” investigate why β it may be a robots.txt setting, a noindex tag left from development, or simply that Google hasn’t crawled it yet (which resolves within days for most new sites).
Month One
Start Your SEO Program
A new website doesn’t rank by itself. The design and technical foundation are just that β a foundation. Rankings are earned through consistent SEO work: content creation, link building, Google Business Profile optimization, and the ongoing optimization process described in our guide to how search engines work. The best time to start SEO is the day your site launches. Every month of delay is a month of ranking momentum you’ll never recover.
Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
If you haven’t already, claim your Google Business Profile immediately after launch. Update it with your new website URL, verify all contact information is accurate and matches your website, add high-quality photos, and ensure your service area is properly defined. GBP is the most powerful local visibility tool available and it’s free. Our local SEO guide covers GBP optimization in detail.
Monitor Core Web Vitals
After your site has been live for a few weeks and has collected real user data, Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report will show you how your pages are performing on real devices. Address any “Poor” or “Needs Improvement” pages β these are directly impacting both your rankings and your conversion rates. Ready to make the most of your new website? Talk to our team about a complete post-launch SEO program.
