Skip to main content
Zee Academy · Lesson 19 · From Idea to Launch (End-to-End Checklist)

The Complete Checklist Before Your Website Goes Live

Before you send the link to a client or hit publish, go through this tried-and-tested 8-step checklist.

Next lesson

What you will learn

  • Step 1: Check the meta title, description and OpenGraph image for social sharing (WhatsApp preview, Facebook, LinkedIn).
  • Step 2: A favicon in all sizes (favicon.ico, apple-touch-icon, icon.png).
  • Step 3: Test every form (do enquiries arrive by email and get saved in the database?).
  • Step 4: A direct WhatsApp link with a pre-filled message (wa.me/...).
  • Step 5: A 404 page: a custom error page instead of a blank screen.
  • Step 6: Google Search Console: submit your sitemap.xml so Google can find your pages.
  • Step 7: Google Analytics 4 (GA4) or Plausible/Umami to track visits.
  • Step 8: A speed test (Google PageSpeed Insights): aim for 90+ on mobile.

SEO sitemap and robots.txt in Next.js

In the Next.js App Router, create src/app/sitemap.ts and src/app/robots.ts. Next.js will generate them as XML and TXT files automatically.

Step by step

  1. Example sitemap.ts file

    import { MetadataRoute } from 'next';

export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
  return [
    {
      url: 'https://vasadomena.com',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      changeFrequency: 'weekly',
      priority: 1,
    },
  ];
}

    Automatically creates a valid sitemap for Google.

Tip from practice

Once your domain is connected on Vercel, open Google Search Console, verify ownership with a DNS TXT record and submit your sitemap link (https://vasadomena.com/sitemap.xml). It can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for your pages to start appearing in search.