Why the first week matters

This guide covers the eight technical fixes that should happen in the first week after any new Mumbai website goes live.

Fix 1: Set up Google Search Console (Day 1)

Google Search Console is the essential interface between your website and Google. It shows you which pages are indexed, which have errors, your organic traffic, and technical warnings.

How to set it up:

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console
2. Add your domain as a property (domain property, not URL prefix)
3. Verify ownership via DNS TXT record (add the record your domain registrar GoDaddy, BigRock, Namecheap)
4. Confirm the property is verified

This must be done first all subsequent monitoring depends on it.

Fix 2: Submit your XML sitemap (Day 1)

Go to Search Console ? Sitemaps ? enter your sitemap URL (typically yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) ? Submit. This tells Google which pages exist on your site and accelerates their discovery.

If your site does not have a sitemap yet: generate one. WordPress: the Yoast or Rank Math plugin generates a sitemap automatically. Static sites: use a sitemap generator tool or build it into your static site generator build process.

Fix 3: Confirm your robots.txt is correct (Day 1)

Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt in your browser. Confirm it:

• Does NOT contain Disallow: / (this would block your entire site)
• Contains Allow: / or specific Disallow rules for admin pages only
• References your sitemap: Sitemap: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

If the page returns a 404, your site does not have a robots.txt. Create one even a minimal one that just allows everything and references your sitemap.

Fix 4: Run a PageSpeed Insights test on your homepage (Day 1)

Go to pagespeed.web.dev and test your homepage on Mobile. Note the LCP, INP, and CLS scores. If LCP is above 2.5 seconds, look at Opportunities to identify the cause. The most common cause for new sites is an unoptimised hero image fix it before launch if possible, or within the first week.

Fix 5: Verify HTTPS is working correctly (Day 2)

1. Visit your site via http:// confirm it redirects to https://
2. Open your browser developer console (F12) on your homepage look for any "Mixed Content" warnings (HTTP resources on an HTTPS page)
3. Check that www and non-www both resolve to your preferred version

Fix any mixed content warnings by updating resource references from http:// to https:// or relative URLs.

Fix 6: Add basic schema markup to key pages (Day 3 4)

At minimum for a new site:

• Organisation schema on the homepage
• LocalBusiness schema if you have a physical address
• BreadcrumbList schema on inner pages
• BlogPosting schema on blog posts

Test with Google's Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results) before considering it done.

Fix 7: Check indexation after 1 week (Day 7)

By Day 7, your homepage should be indexed. Check with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console (enter your homepage URL ? click "Test Live URL"). If it shows "URL is not on Google," click "Request Indexing" to manually prompt Google to crawl it.

For inner pages: use the site:yourdomain.com search operator in Google to see how many pages are indexed. For a new site, expect a handful to a few dozen in the first week. Full indexation of a new site typically takes 2 6 weeks.

Fix 8: Request indexing for key pages (Day 7)

In Google Search Console URL Inspection, request indexing for your 5 10 most important pages: homepage, key service pages, contact page. This speeds up their inclusion in Google's index relative to waiting for Googlebot to discover them organically.

Frequently asked questions

Our site has been live for a month and Google still has not indexed our key pages why? Check for robots.txt blocking, noindex tags, and canonical tag problems. These three issues prevent indexing even if Google has crawled the pages. Use Search Console URL Inspection to see the specific reason any URL is not indexed.

Should we use an SEO plugin for our WordPress site from day one? Yes. Yoast SEO or Rank Math (both free) handle canonical tags, sitemap generation, title tag optimisation, and basic schema markup automatically. Installing from day one prevents the technical debt of retroactively adding these features.

How long before our new site starts getting organic traffic? For a brand-new domain with no existing authority: 3 6 months before meaningful organic traffic for competitive keywords. For low-competition, long-tail keywords: potentially weeks. The indexation and technical foundation in this guide is necessary but not sufficient content and authority building happen over time.