Free checklist with 15 points

Website launch checklist for SEO and AI search

This website launch checklist has 15 points you can go through yourself: five on SEO, five on AEO and five on speed and trust. Read them here, or download the PDF.

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The checklist

Fifteen points you can check yourself

The list has three themes with five points each. Use it before you launch a new website, or on one that is already live. It covers how your site is found, how fast it is and whether it can be trusted, not design or copy. You can go through most points yourself in an hour or two.

The basics of SEO (5 points)

  1. 1

    A page title of 30 to 65 characters

    Every page needs its own <title>, with the keyword first and the name of the business last. Google cuts titles that are too long, and a title that is too short says too little to make people click.

  2. 2

    A meta description of 120 to 165 characters

    Write what the reader gets from the page, and include the keyword. The description doesn't affect rankings directly, but it often decides whether someone clicks.

  3. 3

    One H1 on every page

    Every page should have one H1 that matches what people search for. Use H2 and H3 for the parts below, preferably written as questions that AI can pull answers from.

  4. 4

    Structured data on every page type

    Organization, LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage, Article, Service and Product, as far as they fit the content of the page. Add them as JSON-LD in <head>. Google explains how in the guide to structured data.

  5. 5

    Internal links with a clear structure

    The overview pages for services, industries and blog categories link to the pages below them, and those link back. No page should be more than three clicks from the home page.

What AI looks for (5 points)

  1. 6

    A short answer at the top of the page

    Two or three sentences right under the H1 that answer the question the page is about. AI answers often pull from the start of the text.

  2. 7

    Questions and answers with FAQPage

    Collect the most common questions on the page and mark them up with FAQPage in JSON-LD. That makes the answers easier for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google to find and repeat.

  3. 8

    Give AI access to the website

    GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended must be allowed, or at least not blocked. You can see this at /robots.txt on your own domain.

  4. 9

    Show who the business is

    The sameAs field in Organization should point to places that confirm the business, such as your official company registry entry, your LinkedIn page, Wikidata and Wikipedia if you are listed there.

  5. 10

    Guides with numbered steps

    Write procedures as numbered steps, for example “How to set up X”. Google no longer shows its own results for HowTo, but steps in the right order are easy for AI to follow and repeat.

Speed and trust (5 points)

  1. 11

    The main content appears quickly

    LCP measures how long it takes before the largest element on the screen appears, and should be under 2.5 seconds. Measure it with PageSpeed Insights and read more about LCP at web.dev. Compress the top image to AVIF or WebP, load it first, and use font-display: swap on your fonts.

  2. 12

    No jumping while the page loads

    CLS measures how much the content moves while the page loads, and should be under 0.1. Set width and height on all images and iframes, and reserve space for ads and embedded content. Jumping annoys readers and pulls you down in Google.

  3. 13

    HTTPS everywhere and HSTS

    Everything on the page, including images, scripts and fonts, loads over HTTPS. The Strict-Transport-Security header makes sure the browser never goes back to HTTP.

  4. 14

    Consent before cookies

    Cookies that aren't necessary are only set once the visitor has said yes. Use Cookiebot, Complianz or another solution that stops tracking without consent, and describe it in the privacy policy.

  5. 15

    The same name and address everywhere

    The name, address and phone number at the bottom of the page should be written exactly the same on every page, and match your Google Business Profile, your official company registry entry and the structured data. Differences make it harder to be found locally.

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Questions and answers

Common questions about the website launch checklist

How to use the list, and where to start.

Is the checklist free?

Yes. You can read all 15 points here on the page without giving anything.

If you want the checklist as a PDF, you enter your email address and we send it to you. You get one email with the checklist, and nothing more unless you ask for it. You can share the PDF freely with others in your company.

What is the difference between an SEO checklist and an AEO checklist?

An SEO checklist is about being found and clicked in Google. An AEO checklist is about being used as a source when ChatGPT, Gemini or AI Overviews write an answer.

A lot overlaps, such as fast pages, good titles and structured data. AEO also puts weight on short, direct answers, access for AI bots and facts about the business being the same everywhere. This list has both.

How long does it take to go through the checklist?

It depends on how big the website is and what is missing. Some points, like checking whether robots.txt lets the AI bots in, take a few minutes.

Others take longer, such as schema on every page type or better speed, and often need a developer. Go through all the points first and note what is missing, and you will see how big the job is before you start.

Does the checklist work for a WordPress website?

Yes. The points apply to all websites, whatever the platform. In WordPress, an SEO plugin like Rank Math or Yoast takes care of much of the foundation, such as titles, meta descriptions, sitemap and some schema.

Speed depends more on hosting, image sizes and how many plugins the site uses. Also check that robots.txt doesn't shut out the AI bots, especially if someone has changed it before.

Which points should I start with?

Start with what can stop the site from being read at all: HTTPS, robots.txt not shutting out Google or the AI bots, and every page having its own title and an H1.

Then come meta descriptions, short answers at the top of the pages and schema. Speed is often the biggest job, so it can wait until last if your site isn't very slow today.

Can you go through the checklist for us?

Yes. If we build your website, technical SEO and AEO are included in every package, and we use the same points when we build.

If you have your website or a growth package with us, Herman can follow up the ongoing work in Synlighelt™, and you approve everything before it is published. If your website is somewhere else, you can book a call and we will look at what makes sense in your case.

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