Static Sites on Render: SEO Setup Checklist

Why Static Sites Are Great for SEO

Static sites have inherent SEO advantages:

Fast load times: No server-side processing means quick responses
Predictable HTML: Search engines see exactly what you build
Easy caching: CDN distribution is straightforward
High reliability: No database to go down

But you still need to do the fundamentals right.

The Pre-Launch Checklist

1. Sitemap Configuration

Your sitemap tells search engines what pages exist and how to find them.

Requirements:

Generate sitemap.xml or sitemap-index.xml automatically
Include all canonical URLs
Update it when content changes
Reference it in robots.txt

For Astro: Use @astrojs/sitemap integration with your site URL configured.

2. Robots.txt

A simple but essential file:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap-index.xml

Don’t overcomplicate it unless you have specific pages to exclude.

3. Meta Tags Per Page

Every page needs unique:

<title> tag (50-60 characters ideal)
Meta description (150-160 characters)
Canonical URL
Open Graph tags for social sharing
Twitter Card tags

4. Structured Data (JSON-LD)

Help search engines understand your content:

Organization schema on homepage
BreadcrumbList on interior pages
BlogPosting for blog posts
Product or Service schemas where relevant

5. Performance Optimization

Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor:

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Under 2.5 seconds
FID (First Input Delay): Under 100 milliseconds
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Under 0.1

For static sites on Render, you’re already ahead—but still optimize images and minimize JavaScript.

Render-Specific Setup

Build Configuration

Build Command: npm ci && npm run build
Publish Directory: dist

Headers for Caching

Add a _headers file for Netlify-style static hosting or configure through Render’s dashboard:

/*
  X-Frame-Options: DENY
  X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
  Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin

/assets/*
  Cache-Control: public, max-age=31536000, immutable

Post-Launch Steps

Submit to Google Search Console: Add your property and submit the sitemap
Check indexing: Use “URL Inspection” tool
Test Open Graph: Use Facebook’s Sharing Debugger and Twitter’s Card Validator
Monitor Core Web Vitals: Use Search Console’s experience reports

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Forgetting trailing slashes: Be consistent with URL structure
Duplicate content: Use canonical URLs properly
Missing alt text: Every image needs descriptive alt text
Blocking JavaScript: Don’t prevent crawlers from accessing your JS

Launching a static site? We can help with the technical SEO setup.