What the launch readiness checker looks at
Launch day sends your site more first-time visitors, shares and crawler visits than any normal day. The checker loads your page once, the way a crawler does, and runs the checks that matter for that day:
- Does it load? The page answers without an error, over https, and redirects end where they should.
- Can it be indexed? Nothing in robots.txt, a noindex tag or a header keeps search engines out, the canonical points at the right URL, and a sitemap can be found.
- Does it describe itself? A page title and meta description of a sensible length, and a mobile viewport tag.
- Does it share well? Open Graph and Twitter tags, and a share image that loads and has the right size and shape.
- Does it have a favicon? An icon declared in the page, or one at
/favicon.ico.
How to use it
- Enter the address you'll share on launch day, usually your homepage.
- Press Check my site. The result says whether you're ready, almost ready or not ready yet.
- Work down the list of fixes from the top: problems in red first, then warnings.
- Run it again after you deploy. Each fix links to the tool that shows that area in more detail, such as the social preview checker for the share card.
What the three results mean
Ready to launch means every check passed. Almost ready means only warnings are left: the site works and can be indexed, but something like a missing meta description or an overlong title will make it look worse than it should. Not ready yet means at least one check failed, such as a page blocked from indexing, one that returns an error, or a link with no share image.
The checker reads the HTML your server sends and doesn't run JavaScript. It doesn't measure page speed, test sign-up or payment flows, or look at pages beyond the one you enter, so treat a pass as one part of your launch checklist.
Frequently asked questions
- Which URL should I check?
- The one you'll post on launch day. For most products that's the homepage. If you're sending people to a landing page or a pricing page instead, check that one too: each page has its own tags.
- My site works in the browser. Why does the checker report missing tags?
- The tags are probably added by JavaScript after the page loads. The checker reads the HTML your server sends, which is also what social sites and many crawlers read. Render your title, description and share tags on the server.
- Does a warning mean I shouldn't launch?
- No. Warnings are things that make your launch look or perform a little worse, like a share image that gets cropped. Problems marked in red are the ones worth fixing before you launch.
- Does it check page speed or broken links?
- No. It checks that the page loads, can be indexed, describes itself and shares well. It doesn't measure loading time or follow the links on the page.
- How is this different from the other tools here?
- It runs the indexability, social preview and meta tag checks together on one page and adds a favicon check, so you get one ordered list. The separate tools show more detail for each area, like the redirect chain or previews of the share card.
- Is the site I check stored anywhere?
- No. The page and the files around it are fetched to run the check and aren't saved. Each visitor can run a limited number of checks per minute.