SEO & GEO Launch Checklist: Technical Steps to Maximize Traffic (Part 1)

Why a technical SEO & GEO checklist matters

When you launch a new website, technical SEO lays the foundation for discoverability across traditional search engines and newer generative models and LLM-based crawlers. This checklist covers the core technical items I always run through to give a fresh site the best chance of being understood, indexed, and ranked correctly.

Core checklist overview

Unique, keyword-targeted titles per page
Canonical URLs for every page
A well-configured robots.txt
An up-to-date sitemap.xml
Keyword-friendly URL slugs
JSON-LD structured data (schema)

Below I explain each item, why it matters, and practical tips for implementation.

1. Unique, keyword-targeted titles per page

Page titles remain one of the most important on-page signals for both search engines and human users. Ensure each page has a unique, concise title that targets the primary keyword or query the page should rank for. Keep titles descriptive and avoid stuffing keywords.

Tip: align titles with your content and the user intent you want to capture. For general guidance on how search engines interpret titles, consult resources from Google Search Central.

2. Canonical URLs

Declare a canonical URL for every page to prevent duplicate content issues. Without a canonical, search engines can treat slightly different URLs as separate pages (for example, with and without a trailing slash). That can lead to your homepage or other important pages appearing multiple times in search results and diluting ranking signals.

Practical steps:

Add a rel=canonical link element in the head of each HTML page.
Ensure internal and external links consistently use your preferred version (either with or without the trailing slash).
Use server-side redirects where appropriate to enforce a single URL.

For the official guidance on handling duplicate content and canonicalization, see Google’s documentation on consolidating duplicate URLs: Google Search Central - Consolidate duplicate URLs.

3. robots.txt: control what gets crawled

Your robots.txt file tells crawlers which areas of your site should and should not be fetched. Use it to keep staging areas, admin pages, or duplicate sections out of indexes.

Best practices:

Place robots.txt at the site root: example.com/robots.txt
Test rules with tools such as search-console robots testers before going live
Don’t block resources (CSS/JS) that are required to render the page correctly to crawlers

Refer to the long-standing robots.txt standard for recommended syntax and examples: Robots.txt.org.

4. sitemap.xml: give crawlers a map of your site

A sitemap.xml provides search engines with a structured list of the URLs on your domain. This helps crawlers find and prioritize pages, especially on new or large sites.

Implementation tips:

Generate an XML sitemap that includes canonical URLs and lastmod timestamps where possible.
Submit the sitemap in your search engine consoles (for example, Google Search Console) and reference it in robots.txt.
Keep the sitemap updated as content is added or removed.

For standards and best practices, see the official sitemap protocol: Sitemaps.org.

5. Keyword-friendly URL slugs

URL structure helps both users and algorithms understand page context. Use descriptive, readable slugs that include relevant keywords such as services or city names for local pages.

Guidelines:

Keep slugs short, descriptive, and hyphen-separated (avoid underscores).
Remove unnecessary stop words when possible.
Use lower-case characters to avoid duplicate URL variants.

For more on URL best practices and their SEO impact, review this guide from Moz: Moz — URL Structure Guide.

6. JSON-LD structured data (schema)

Structured data (typically JSON-LD format) helps search engines and generative models understand the entities and attributes on your pages. Schema markup can improve search appearance (rich results) and provide clearer signals to crawlers and LLM-powered processors.

Where to start:

Add JSON-LD for key entities (Organization, LocalBusiness, Article, Product, Event, etc.) as relevant to your site.
Ensure markup is valid and reflects the visible content.
Test structured data with available validators and in search console tools.

Official schema types and properties are documented at Schema.org.

Quick launch checklist (copy/paste)

[ ] Unique title tag for every page
[ ] rel=canonical set and consistent
[ ] robots.txt reviewed and uploaded
[ ] sitemap.xml created and submitted
[ ] URL slugs optimized for keywords and readability
[ ] JSON-LD schema added and validated

Final notes

These are the core technical checks I run every time I launch a fresh website. They help ensure your content is discoverable by both traditional search engines and newer AI/LLM-powered indexers. I cover additional on-page and content-focused tactics in Part 2, where we dive into content structure, core web vitals, and more.

References