Five Things You Need to Do Right After Launching Your Blog

I've launched enough blogs to know that the first few days after going live feel weird.

You've got this beautiful site sitting there on the internet. Maybe you've written a couple posts. Everything looks good. And then you just.. wait. Refresh your analytics. Check if anyone's visiting. Wonder if Google even knows you exist.

Here's the thing.. most people skip the foundational stuff that actually helps search engines find and rank your content. They just start writing and hope for the best.

I get it. The technical setup isn't as exciting as writing that first post. But I promise you, taking an hour to do these five things will save you months of frustration down the road.

Let me walk you through exactly what you need to do.

One. Connect Your Site to Google Search Console

This is the first thing I do with any new blog. Before I even write a second post. Before I tell anyone about it. I connect it to Google Search Console.

Why? Because Google Search Console is basically Google telling you exactly how it sees your site. It shows you which pages are indexed, what keywords you're ranking for, which pages have errors, and how many impressions and clicks you're getting.

Without it, you're flying blind. You have no idea if Google is even crawling your pages correctly.

Setting it up takes maybe ten minutes. You go to search.google.com/search-console, add your property, verify ownership through a DNS record or HTML file, and boom.. you're connected.

Once it's set up, submit your sitemap. This tells Google exactly which pages exist on your site and helps it crawl everything efficiently. Your sitemap is usually at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml.

I check Search Console probably three times a week. It's become a habit. And every time I launch new content, I can literally watch Google discover it, index it, and start showing it in search results. That feedback loop is invaluable.

Two. Set Up Google Analytics

Okay, Search Console tells you how Google sees your site. Google Analytics tells you what real people are actually doing on it.

You need both.

I've had clients come to me saying their blog isn't working, and when I ask to see their analytics, they just.. don't have any. They have no idea how many people visit, where they're coming from, what pages they read, how long they stay. Nothing.

You can't improve what you don't measure.

Setting up Google Analytics 4 is straightforward. You create an account at analytics.google.com, add your property, get your tracking code, and add it to your site. If you're using this template, there's already a spot for your GA4 measurement ID in the config.

Once it's running, you start seeing patterns. You learn which posts resonate with people. You see how readers navigate through your site. You figure out what's working and what's not.

That data shapes everything you do going forward.

Three. Don't Forget About Bing Webmaster Tools

Everyone obsesses over Google and completely forgets that Bing exists.

But here's the thing.. Bing powers about 30 percent of searches in the US when you include Yahoo and other partners. That's not nothing. And honestly, Bing is often easier to rank on when you're just starting out.

I set up Bing Webmaster Tools for every site I launch. It takes five minutes. You go to bing.com/webmasters, add your site, verify ownership, and submit your sitemap just like you did with Google.

The interface is actually pretty nice. It gives you similar insights to Search Console, shows you errors, lets you see keyword rankings. And I've had sites get meaningful traffic from Bing way before they started ranking on Google.

Plus, there's this cool feature where if you already verified your site in Google Search Console, you can import everything directly into Bing. Literally two clicks and you're done.

Why leave that traffic on the table?

Four. Submit Your Sitemap and Set Up Your Robots.txt

I mentioned sitemaps earlier, but this deserves its own section because it's that important.

Your sitemap is basically a roadmap of your entire site. It lists all your pages, when they were last updated, how often they change, and how important they are relative to each other.

Search engines use this to crawl your site efficiently. Without it, they might miss pages. They might crawl less frequently. They might not understand your site structure.

If you're using Astro like this template does, your sitemap is automatically generated. You just need to make sure it's submitted to both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Then there's robots.txt. This little file tells search engines which parts of your site they should and shouldn't crawl. It's like a bouncer for search engine bots.

You don't want Google wasting time crawling your admin pages or your draft posts. You want it focusing on your actual content. A properly configured robots.txt file helps manage that.

Most people never touch this stuff, and then they wonder why Google isn't indexing their pages correctly. Take the time to get it right from the start.

Five. Do Keyword Research Before You Write

Here's a mistake I made early on.. I would just write about whatever I felt like writing about. Topics I found interesting. Things I wanted to share.

And you know what happened? Almost nobody found those posts.

Because nobody was searching for them.

I was creating content in a vacuum, hoping people would stumble across it. That's not a strategy. That's just hoping for luck.

Now I do keyword research before I write anything. I figure out what people are actually searching for, what questions they're asking, what problems they're trying to solve. Then I create content that answers those specific queries.

You don't need expensive tools for this. Google Search Console shows you what queries you're already getting impressions for. Google's autocomplete suggestions show you what people are typing. The "People also ask" section shows you related questions.

I also use tools like Ubersuggest or even just browsing Reddit and forums to see what questions keep coming up in my niche.

The goal isn't to stuff keywords into your writing. The goal is to understand what people actually need, and then create genuinely helpful content around those topics.

When you do that, ranking becomes so much easier. You're not fighting against the tide. You're working with it.

The Difference It Makes

I know this doesn't sound sexy. Connecting tools, submitting sitemaps, doing research.. it's not as fun as designing your site or writing that perfect first post.

But here's what happens when you skip this stuff.. you launch your blog, you write great content, and nobody finds it. Months go by. You get discouraged. You start wondering if blogging even works anymore.

And the whole time, it's because Google doesn't know how to properly index your site, you have no data to learn from, and you're writing about topics nobody is searching for.

I've seen it happen over and over.

Do these five things in your first week. Get your foundations right. Then when you start creating content, you're actually set up to succeed.

Your future self will thank you for it.