SEO checklist for early startups

Source: Dev.to

Initial Setup

• Create a sitemap.xml file
• Create a robots.txt file
• Create a llms.txt file
• Add the site to Google Search Console

Indexing

• Verify that the site is indexed
• Resolve any potential indexing issues
• Submit your sitemap.xml
• Add the site to Bing Webmaster Tools (you can import the data from Google Search Console)

Analytics & Metadata

• Set up an analytics platform
  • Options you’ve used: Google Analytics, PostHog, Plausible CE, Umami
  • Preference: Umami – cookie‑less, easier user management, smaller server footprint compared to Plausible (which relies on ClickHouse)
• Add metadata to relevant pages
  • Meta titles and descriptions
  • JSON‑LD structured data
  • Open Graph tags

Performance Review

• Run Google Lighthouse audits (installed as a global npm package; optional to integrate into CI/CD)

Originally posted at my personal website.