Launching and Monitoring Your Nuxt Site
Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console, verify your site, and monitor the Page Indexing report weekly. In 2026, this includes tracking visibility in AI Overviews and Chat citations alongside traditional rankings.
Pre-Launch Checklist
Before deploying to production:
- Production domain configured with SSL certificate
- robots.txt allows search engine crawlers (and AI bots)
- No
noindexmeta tags on pages you want indexed - Sitemap generated at
/sitemap.xml - Canonical URLs point to production domain
- Social preview images working
- Mobile-friendly design
- Core Web Vitals passing (INP focus)
- 404 pages return proper status codes
- Redirects from old URLs configured (if redesigning)
Don't delay your launch chasing perfection. Ship with working fundamentals, then iterate.
Getting Indexed & Cited
Your site needs two things to appear in search results and AI answers: be crawlable and be indexed.
Crawlability means search engines can access your pages. Indexing means they've added your pages to their database for both traditional search and AI model training.
Read the Going Live guide for deployment strategies and common pitfalls.
Submit to Search Engines
Google and Bing won't automatically know your site exists. Set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap:
- Add your property (domain property recommended)
- Verify ownership (DNS record is best for 2026)
- Submit sitemap at Indexing > Sitemaps
For Bing, submit through Bing Webmaster Tools or use IndexNow for instant notification to Bing and Yandex.
Check Indexing & AI Visibility
# Search for your domain
site:yourdomain.com
# Check specific page
site:yourdomain.com/specific-page
Google Search Console shows detailed indexing data under Page Indexing reports. For AI, check the Performance > AI Mode (or AI Overviews Search Appearance) for citation data.
Monitoring Performance
Set up these tools after launch:
| Tool | What It Tracks | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | Impressions (Web & AI), clicks, rankings, indexing | Free |
| Profound / Otterly | AI Citations, ChatGPT/Gemini mentions | Paid |
| GA4 / Plausible / Fathom | Organic traffic, user behavior, RUM | Free / Paid |
| Ahrefs / SEMrush | Backlinks, keyword rankings, competitors | Paid |
See SEO Monitoring Tools for setup guides and recommendations.
Weekly Metrics
Track these metrics every week:
Search Console:
- Total impressions and clicks (Web + AI Mode)
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Average position for target keywords
- AI Citation Rate (how often you appear in AI Overviews)
Analytics & RUM:
- Organic traffic trends
- Top landing pages
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP) at p75
- LCP under 2.5s
- INP under 200ms
- CLS under 0.1
Don't obsess over daily fluctuations. Look for trends over weeks and months.
Common Post-Launch Issues
Site not indexing after weeks:
Check robots.txt, verify no noindex tags, confirm sitemap submitted correctly. See Indexing Issues.
Pages indexed but not cited by AI: Content may lack structured data or direct answers. See AI Search Optimization.
High AI impressions, low clicks: Normal for AI Overviews where users get the answer in-SERP. Focus on "Brand Impressions" as a key 2026 KPI.
Deep Dive Guides
| Guide | What You'll Learn |
|---|---|
| Going Live | First-time indexing, deployment strategies, common Nuxt issues |
| Google Search Console | AI-powered configuration, reports, URL inspection |
| Core Web Vitals | LCP, INP, CLS optimization for Nuxt |
| Indexing Issues | Fix "crawled not indexed" and AI exclusion |
| SEO Monitoring | RUM setup, AI citation tracking, alerts |
| Site Migration | Domain changes, redirects, recovery |
| IndexNow | Instant indexing for Bing/Yandex |
| AI Search Optimization | GEO, AI Overviews, ChatGPT citations |