2 min readAn original planning guide. Use the linked primary documentation for platform details and the supported procedure for your environment.
Inventory public URLs
Identify the pages intended for public search and those with a different purpose. Check navigation and crawlable links to important content.
Review indexing controls
Inspect robots directives, robots.txt, status codes, and access restrictions in their actual environment. Confirm production does not inherit unintended preview controls.
Align URL signals
Check canonical references, redirects, internal links, and sitemap entries for representative templates. Resolve contradictory destinations.
Inspect content presentation
Review unique titles, helpful descriptions, headings, and meaningful page content. Use Search Console where available to investigate published URLs after launch.
Worked scenario
See the plan in practice.
A public guide inherits noindex from staging. The checklist catches the directive before the team assumes a sitemap alone will make it searchable.
Review your result
Your acceptance checklist
Public scope clear- Controls intentional
- Signals aligned
Use these checks to identify gaps in your search launch checklist. Assign an owner to any unresolved item before the next dependent step.
The terms behind the task
- noindexA robots directive asking supporting search engines not to include a page in search results.
- robots.txtA file at a site's root that gives compliant crawlers rules about which URLs they may request.
- Canonical URLThe preferred representative URL selected or indicated for a set of duplicate or closely similar pages.
Primary references
For the underlying concepts and current platform details:
