Website Post Launch Checklist: What to do in the first 30 days

TL:DR: In the first 30 days after launching your website, focus on making sure Google can crawl it, your enquiry forms work properly, and your basic tracking is set up before you start worrying about rankings. This Website Post Launch Checklist walks you through the essential jobs that often get missed once a site goes live, from checking your site isn’t accidentally set to “noindex” to testing your contact forms, setting up Google Analytics and Search Console, reviewing your headings, creating a useful thank-you page, and making sure old URLs are redirected properly. It’s designed for small business owners who want calm, practical steps rather than technical overwhelm, so you can build confidence, avoid silent website problems, and give your new site the best possible foundation.

Before you start: what success looks like in month one

If you’re a small business owner launching your first site, month one is about foundations and confidence. The wins you’re aiming for are:

You’ve got basic tracking in place so you’re not guessing.

Your website can be found and crawled by Google.

Your contact forms work every time (and you receive the messages).

You have a simple routine you can repeat each week without feeling overwhelmed.

What not ro do yet? Stressing over rankings. New websites rarely shoot straight to page one and that’s normal. Right now, your job is to get the plumbing right.

Week 1:

Make sure Google can see you (and customers can reach you)

1) Check you’re not accidentally set to “noindex”

This is one of the most common post-launch issues I see, especially with DIY sites, staging sites, or websites that were built and then “made live” in a hurry.

If your site is set to “noindex” it’s basically holding up a sign to Google that says: Please don’t crawl this website.

I’ve had clients come to me genuinely distressed, convinced they’d broken their website or that a designer hadn’t done what they promised… and the fix was literally unchecking a single setting.

Quick check: search your website on Google using:

site:yourdomain.co.uk

If nothing shows up after a little while (and you’re sure the site is live), “noindex” is one of the first things to rule out.

2) Test every contact form (properly)

This one matters because it’s a silent failure. If your contact form isn’t working, you don’t get a warning. You just… don’t get enquiries.

Here are the five checks I always do:

1. Confirmation message: after someone hits submit, does the on-screen message say what you want it to say, in your brand tone of voice?
2. Delivery test: submit a test using a different email address (not your usual one) and check you receive it.
3. Inbox vs spam: make sure it lands in your inbox, not spam.
4. Mobile usability: test the form on your phone — are fields easy to tap, buttons big enough, does it actually feel usable?
5. Reply-to address: make sure when you hit “reply”, it goes back to the person who enquired (not some random system email).

A client of mine told me just last week that someone had said their contact form “wasn’t working”. That’s an incredibly awkward message to receive when you’re established in your field and it’s exactly why this is a Week 1 job, not a “later” job.

3) Create a proper thank-you page

A thank-you page does two things:

• It reassures people that their message has gone through.
• It gives you somewhere useful to send them next (instead of a dead end).

A good thank-you page should:

• Feel on-brand and friendly
• Confirm what happens next (“I’ll reply within X working days”)
• Include something helpful (not salesy)

I like to add one of these:

• Links to 2–3 useful blog posts
• A simple free download
• A “here’s what to expect next” mini-outline

It’s a small touch that makes your business feel organised and trustworthy and it turns a basic form submission into a better experience.

Week 2:

Get your tracking foundations in place

This is the week to set up the big three:

4) Google Analytics

This tells you whether you’re getting traffic, where it’s coming from, and what people do on your site.

5) Google Search Console

This shows whether Google can crawl and index your pages, what you’re appearing for (when you start appearing), and any technical issues you need to know about.

6) Google Business Profile (if you serve a local area)

If you’re a local business, this is essential and it’s often the quickest route to early visibility, even before your website gains traction.

A realistic approach for month one

I don’t want you setting up complex tracking, goals, events, conversions, dashboards and ten million filters in the first 30 days.

You’ll be overwhelmed and you’ll abandon it.

Instead, keep it simple:

• Get GA + Search Console set up.
• Make sure they’re receiving data.
• Start a weekly habit (more on that below).

Week 3: Do a quick “DIY SEO sanity check”

This is where you catch the common structural mistakes that make it harder for Google (and humans) to understand your pages.

7) Check your headings. Especially your H1s

Most DIY sites have one (or more) of these issues:

• Multiple H1s on a page
• No H1 at all
• Every service page shoved under one page called “Services”
• Random headings used purely because they “look nice”

Here’s the simple rule:

• Each page should have one H1.
• That H1 should reflect what the page is about. Ideally the keyword or phrase you want it to show up for.

A quick way to check this is using a browser extension like SEO Meta in 1 Click, which shows you the page’s heading structure at a glance.

Important (slightly opinionated) note: If you don’t know what your H1 should be because you haven’t done any keyword research… don’t guess

This is where many people unintentionally build a website that’s beautiful but invisible.

Keyword research doesn’t need to be complicated, but it does need to be deliberate. If you find yourself stuck here, it’s a good sign you’ll benefit from professional help, even if it’s just a one-off SEO Power Hour (You can book a SEO Power Hour with me HERE).

Week 4: Fix the stuff that causes silent SEO damage

Week 4 is about preventing the “why has my traffic disappeared?” drama later.

8) Check your website has a proper 404 page

Broken links happen. People type things wrong. You’ll change pages over time. And if you’ve launched after a rebrand or rebuild, you’ll almost certainly have old links floating around.

A good 404 page should:

• Look slightly different to catch the eye
• Have a friendly, human message (you can be apologetic and charming here)
• Have one clear action: a big button that sends people back to the homepage

Simple. Effective. Stops people bouncing immediately.

9) Set up redirects if you’ve changed URLs (especially after a rebuild)

If your website has replaced an older website, redirects are non-negotiable.

Redirects tell Google (and your visitors) that:

• the old page has moved
• the new page is here instead

If you don’t redirect old URLs properly, you can lose the SEO value your old site had built up over time.

I once worked with a large, household-name ecommerce brand who’d moved from WordPress to Shopify and couldn’t understand why their sales had fallen off a cliff.

They’d had a website for about 10 years and none of the old URLs had been redirected.

Because the old site had been taken offline, it took a lot of work to recover the old URLs and set up the proper redirects… but once it was fixed, the business stopped bleeding visibility.

Even if your business isn’t that large, the principle is the same. If you’ve changed URLs, you need a redirect plan.

Your 10-minute weekly routine (start now, keep it forever)

Once a week, do this:

1. Open Google Analytics and make sure you’re seeing traffic data.
2. Open Google Search Console and make sure Google is indexing your site (and check for any warnings).
3. Keep a note of anything odd (sudden drop, sudden spike, errors, pages missing).

That’s it.

The goal is familiarity, not perfection. The more comfortable you are inside these tools, the less likely you are to panic, and the more likely you are to make smart, calm improvements over time.

What happens after day 30?

From week 5 onwards, you can start thinking about:

• what you want to rank for
• content plans
• proper SEO improvements
• conversion optimisation
• building authority and backlinks
• local SEO growth (if relevant)

But if you do the 30-day checklist properly, you’ll be doing all of that from a strong foundation and not from chaos.

Want me to sanity-check your first 30 days?

If you’re not sure whether your site is indexable, your forms are working, or your tracking is set up correctly, this is exactly the kind of thing I help with in an SEO audit / post-launch check. It’s often a quick fix and it can save you weeks of guessing. → Book a free discovery call – let’s talk about your specific goals and how to achieve them