WordPress SEO Checklist: Settings to Check Before Launch

Before launching a WordPress site, check its public URL, search visibility, permalinks, page metadata, internal links and sitemap. Then verify the rendered pages rather than relying only on saved settings. Keep a separate staging site private; change the live site’s indexing controls only when it is ready for visitors.

WordPress settings to check first

Where to look	What to check	What a pass looks like
Settings → General	WordPress Address and Site Address	They match your installation and intended HTTPS site. Do not change them blindly: some installations intentionally use different paths.
Settings → Reading	Homepage and search engine visibility	The correct homepage is selected. “Discourage search engines” is off for a ready public site and remains on for staging.
Settings → Permalinks	Public URL structure	Existing URLs work. A change to established URLs has a redirect plan rather than an unexplained structure switch.
SEO plugin or theme controls	Title, description, canonical and robots output	One intended output for each field, without conflicting settings from multiple SEO plugins.

The Reading checkbox is not password protection and does not guarantee instant indexing when cleared. Check for server headers, physical robots.txt files or plugin rules that may still block the public site.

Review your key pages, not just the homepage

• Give each page a descriptive title and one clear main heading that matches its purpose.
• Write an accurate summary instead of repeating a list of keywords in the description.
• Link important articles and pages from relevant navigation or content, using descriptive text.
• Check image alternative text, mobile layout and readable tables or code blocks.
• Remove test copy and confirm that a missing URL produces the intended 404 response.

For screenshots and other editorial visuals, our image SEO workflow covers the visual brief, ALT text, captions and published-page checks.

Verify sitemap, canonical and indexability together

Find the sitemap generated by WordPress or your SEO plugin and inspect its actual URLs. The exact endpoint depends on the setup; do not assume that both a plugin sitemap and WordPress’s default sitemap need to be active. A public page intended for indexing should not simultaneously be noindexed, blocked by robots.txt or canonicalized to staging.

Choose a few representative pages and inspect the HTTP response and rendered head. For contradictory exclusions, use the noindex vs disallow decision guide. A successful sitemap submission is a discovery signal, not proof that every URL is indexed.

Launch checks and rollback

Before making the public site available, keep a restorable backup and verify HTTPS, redirects, forms and the intended public indexing policy. If the site already receives orders, comments or submissions, plan how those records will be preserved during a release. Do not overwrite a live database with an older staging copy.

After launch, repeat the URL checks and review Search Console when available. See the WordPress staging and rollback guide for environment isolation. Comments and public registration are operational choices, not universal SEO switches; configure them for the way you actually manage the site.

Sources & further reading

• WordPress: Reading settings
• WordPress: search engine optimization