Skip to main content

Before deploying to production make sure to check that:

  • Posts and pages have correct OG images set
  • Remove noindex option (blocking search engines from the WordPress settings)
  • Check if canonical links are set correctly
  • Check if the domains are consolidated (work with DevOps engineers on this one)
    • http to https redirection is set
    • correct www version is set (site should either have www or not, and redirections should be set)
    • Trailing slashes - choose either with or without it
  • Check that sitemap doesn't have 301 links in it
  • Optimize images, especially on the main pages

In the case, the site was on another domain and a new one is being set up it's crucial to check the redirections and if they are correct. For redirections, we are using the Redirection plugin.

Once we check for the errors using automated tools (Lighthouse, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, Semrush) we should fix those and resubmit the new sitemap.xml in Google Search Console (so it can be reindexed).

For a full checklist, check out the SEO checklist in the Trello board for the project.