Most SEO mistakes aren't exotic. They're small, boring gaps left over from launching in a hurry. This is the checklist worth running through before a new or redesigned site goes live, whether Klyvora builds it or someone else does.

On every indexable page

  • A unique, search-intent-aligned title tag and meta description, not a copy-pasted template
  • One descriptive H1, followed by a logical H2/H3 heading structure
  • A clean, human-readable URL slug
  • A canonical URL, so search engines never treat two versions of a page as duplicates
  • Real, indexable text content in HTML, not text trapped inside images or canvas elements
  • Descriptive image alt text wherever the image actually carries meaning
  • Internal links to relevant service, case-study, pricing and contact pages
  • A clear call to action tied to the intent of that specific page

Site-wide technical basics

  • An XML sitemap, generated and submitted to Google Search Console
  • A reviewed robots.txt so important public pages and assets are crawlable, and nothing important is accidentally blocked
  • No accidental noindex or canonical conflicts left over from staging
  • HTTPS only, with a single preferred hostname (for example, always with or without "www," never a mix)
  • A check for soft-404s, redirect chains and broken internal links
  • A custom 404 page instead of a generic server error

If you're redesigning or migrating an existing site

This is where sites lose the most traffic unnecessarily. Before launch, map every old URL that has any traffic or backlinks to its new equivalent, and set up 301 redirects for all of them. A redesign that "just replaces" old pages without a redirect map is functionally asking Google to start ranking you from zero.

Structured data, used honestly

Organization, WebSite, Service, BreadcrumbList and Article schema, where they genuinely apply, help both search engines and AI systems understand your business. The rule that matters more than any specific schema type: markup should describe reality, not manufacture authority. Never mark up reviews or ratings that aren't visibly present and genuine on the page.

Before you flip the switch live

  • Confirm noindex is removed from production pages (and still applied to staging, if you keep one)
  • Run a mobile, tablet and desktop visual QA pass
  • Test every form end-to-end, including spam protection and email delivery
  • Verify analytics and conversion events actually fire
  • Take a backup immediately after launch

The part most checklists skip

None of this guarantees a ranking. What it does is remove the self-inflicted technical reasons a good business with a good website fails to show up. That's the honest, achievable goal, not a promise anyone can responsibly make.