The Playbook / After publish
7. After publish
The site is live. The first 48 hours decide how fast it gets found.
The site is live. The first 48 hours decide how fast search engines and people find it.
Search engines
- Connect Google Search Console and verify the domain.
- Submit the sitemap in Search Console.
- Connect Bing Webmaster Tools (it imports straight from Search Console).
- Connect Yandex Webmaster if any of your audience is there.
- Request indexing on your key pages; if your stack supports IndexNow, ping it on launch and on every future update.
- Verify live: every route returns 200, OG previews render, schema passes a live validation test.
- Purge the CDN or host cache after the deploy so visitors see the real launch version.
People
- Share the launch on your social accounts.
- Update your bios everywhere to link the new site (social profiles, communities, email signature).
- Local business? Create or update your Google Business Profile, and mirror it on Bing Places and Apple Business Connect.
- Tell the people who helped or waited: clients, partners, your list if you have one.
The first week
- Watch Search Console coverage: crawl errors and excluded pages show up within days; fix them while the site is fresh.
- Run a full crawl of the LIVE site (not the preview) and fix what it surfaces.
- Set up an uptime monitor.
- Put the first maintenance date in the calendar: chapter 9 starts now, not someday.
Done when
- ☐ Search Console + Bing connected, sitemaps submitted
- ☐ Key pages submitted for indexing
- ☐ Live verification pass done (200s, OG, schema)
- ☐ Launch shared on your accounts, bios updated
- ☐ Google Business Profile created or updated (local businesses)
- ☐ First-week crawl + coverage check done, uptime monitor on