ReferenceApril 23, 2026·1 min read

SEO launch checklist

Run through this before pointing your custom domain at production.

Before you flip DNS

  • NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL is set to your final domain in Vercel.
  • NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_NAME and NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_TAGLINE reflect your brand.
  • At least 3–5 resources are published so search engines have something to index.
  • Each resource has a unique description under 160 characters.
  • Featured resources have featured: true so they surface on the homepage.

After launch

  • Submit https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to Google Search Console.
  • Submit the same sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools.
  • Add the RSS feed (/feed.xml) to your social and newsletter pipelines.
  • Verify Open Graph rendering with the Meta sharing debugger.
  • Verify Twitter Cards with the card validator.
  • Run PageSpeed Insights — target 90+ on mobile.

What's already handled

  • Canonical URLs on every page
  • JSON-LD Article schema on resource pages
  • Auto-regenerating sitemap on every deploy
  • robots.txt referencing the sitemap
  • Security headers (HSTS, X-Frame-Options, Referrer-Policy)
  • AVIF/WebP image formats
  • HTTPS via Vercel's auto-renewing certs