The whole category in one page.
BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE
Confirm your site is indexed. A page that is not indexed cannot rank.
THE SINGLE MOST DAMAGING FAULT
The search engine visibility setting left enabled after launch or migration.
The site works perfectly and is invisible in search.
Check it immediately after any launch. Password protect development sites instead.
THE SECOND MOST DAMAGING
A development robots.txt carried to live, blocking everything.
Load your own robots.txt and read it.
WHEN URLS CHANGE
Redirect every old address to its closest equivalent, permanently.
Not to the homepage, which loses the value.
FOR DUPLICATES
Choose one version. Redirect www to non-www or the reverse, and HTTP to HTTPS.
NEVER BLOCK
Your CSS and JavaScript. Search engines need them to render the page.
FOR MOBILE
Content hidden on mobile may not be considered at all.
Search engines primarily use your mobile version.
WHAT TO CHECK MONTHLY
Search Console. It reports almost every problem in this category.
WHAT MATTERS MORE THAN ALL OF THIS
Content worth ranking. Technical work removes obstacles; it does not create value.
