ASTUTELY · SERVICES · 04

Website launch.

Most new sites launch with quiet problems baked in. They spend the first six months cleaning up things that should never have existed. We review your site before it goes live, so day one is clean.

What we cover.

Everything that needs to be right before a single page goes live. Across four areas, technical, content, architecture, and analytics.

Technical foundations

The behind-the-scenes things that quietly break new launches.

Staging blocks removed so Google can actually see the site
Sitemap built and submitted to Google
Site is secure and stable
Pages load fast on phones and desktops
Old URLs redirected properly if you're moving from an existing site

Content ready to rank

Pages built to actually show up in search, not just exist.

Page titles and descriptions written for search, not auto-generated
Each page has a clear main heading
Key pages have enough substance to compete
No duplicate or near-duplicate pages competing with each other
Images compressed and labelled properly

Structure Google can read

A clear shape so Google understands what matters most.

Clean, readable URLs
Important pages reachable within a few clicks of the homepage
Clear navigation, no orphan pages no one can reach
Breadcrumbs so visitors and Google know where they are

Tracking from day one

So you can actually see how the new site is doing from launch.

Google Search Console and Analytics set up and tested
Baseline rankings recorded before launch so you can compare
Broken link monitoring catching issues immediately
Page speed tracking live after launch

Who is this for.

Works for new sites, rebuilds, rebrands, and migrations. If it's going live, it should be reviewed first.

Dev teams building a new site

You've built something solid technically, but SEO wasn't part of the brief. We plug in before launch, review the build, and give your team a clear list of what to adjust before going live.

Site moves and rebuilds

Moving to a new platform or rebuilding from scratch is the most common cause of sudden traffic loss. Old rankings vanish if URLs change without proper redirects. We make sure they don't.

First-time launches

If this is your first site, you've got no rankings to lose but a real opportunity to launch clean with the right foundations and the first wave of content already in place. Don't waste the head start.

Multi-language or multi-region sites

Multi-region sites have extra complexity. Telling Google which version of each page belongs in which country is fiddly and expensive to fix after launch. Easy to get right beforehand.

Need a dev team to build the site too? We partner with Shape Labs on the build itself, web and mobile apps, design, backend, the lot. We come in before launch to make sure search isn't an afterthought.

How it works.

Staging review

We go through your staging site against our full pre-launch checklist. Technical, content, structure, and tracking setup.

Fix list

A clear, ordered list of everything that needs addressing before launch. With enough detail your dev team can act on it directly.

Launch sign-off

We re-check the fixes, confirm the build is clean, and give a pre-launch sign-off. You go live knowing the foundations are right.

Post-launch monitoring

30 days of monitoring after launch. We catch anything that surfaces, broken links, indexing issues, rankings shifts, before it compounds.

Serious about your SEO?

We'll audit your site for free and send you the top 5 biggest issues holding your SEO back, plus what to do about them.

Get a free audit →

Common
questions.

When in the build process should we bring you in? +

Ideally 4 to 6 weeks before launch, when the staging site is mostly done. That gives enough time to review, fix things, and re-check before you go live. If you're closer to launch we can still help, we just prioritise harder.

We already launched, is it too late? +

No. A post-launch audit finds everything that should have been caught beforehand and gives you a clean-up plan. The sooner you fix it, the less traffic you lose, so it's worth doing soon if you've already gone live.

Do you work directly with our development team? +

Yes, this is the norm. We give your dev team clear, specific instructions they can implement directly. We've worked with in-house teams, freelancers, and agencies. We can join calls, review pull requests, or just hand over a written spec, whatever fits your team.

We're migrating from an existing site, what's different? +

Migrations need extra work. Mapping every old URL to its new equivalent, setting up redirects, protecting your existing rankings, and watching closely for traffic drops in the weeks after launch. We handle the whole thing, it's one of the highest-stakes moments for your search traffic.

How much does a pre-launch SEO review cost? +

It depends on site complexity and scope. A standard pre-launch review for a new site is a fixed-fee engagement. Migrations with complex redirect mapping are scoped separately. Send us a message and we'll give you a clear quote based on your build.

Launching soon?
Let's make sure it's right.

Send us a message. Tell us about your build and we'll scope a pre-launch review that fits your timeline.

Let's talk → Post-launch audit →