SEO Checklist Before You Launch a Website from a Template

Published October 2026 · ramza.shop

Templates give you a fast start, but they often ship with placeholder text and settings that hurt search visibility. Run through these checks before you go live.

Page basics

• Unique title tag for every page, ideally under 60 characters, with the main topic near the front.
• Meta description of about 150 characters that tells people why to click.
• One H1 per page that matches what the page is about.
• Descriptive URLs such as /pricing/ instead of /page2.

Content

• Replace all placeholder (lorem ipsum) text with real content.
• Write for people first: answer the question a visitor arrived with.
• Add descriptive alt text to meaningful images.

Technical

• Use HTTPS everywhere and redirect HTTP to HTTPS.
• Add a canonical link tag to avoid duplicate versions of a page.
• Create an XML sitemap and submit it in Google Search Console.
• Check robots.txt so you are not accidentally blocking the whole site.
• If you offer several languages, add hreflang tags so each version reaches the right audience.

Speed and mobile

Compress images, remove unused scripts and test with PageSpeed Insights. Most visitors are on phones, so check that text is readable, buttons are easy to tap and nothing scrolls sideways.

Trust pages

Add an About page, a Contact page and a Privacy Policy. These help visitors trust you and are expected by search engines and ad programmes.

After launch

Verify the site in Search Console, watch the coverage report for errors, and fix any pages that are not indexed. SEO is a long game: publish useful content regularly and improve pages based on what visitors search for.