SEO Site Migration Checklist

A migration keeps its rankings when every old URL 301-redirects to its closest new page, each page keeps its content and metadata, and you watch Search Console for errors in the weeks after launch. Inventory and baseline first, redirects at launch, monitoring after.

Most traffic lost in a migration is lost to missing redirects, not to the new platform. Search engines rank individual URLs, so every old URL that stops resolving takes its rankings and backlinks with it. The checklist below is the order we work in when we move a site.

Before the migration

1. Inventory every URL

Build one list of every URL the old site has ever served, from several sources, because each one misses something:

  • A crawl of the live site (Screaming Frog or a similar crawler).
  • The XML sitemap, which often lists pages the navigation no longer links to.
  • Search Console's Pages and Performance reports, for URLs Google has indexed or shown in results.
  • Analytics landing pages from the last 12 months, so seasonal pages are not missed.
  • Backlinks, from Search Console or a backlink tool, so pages other sites link to keep their value.

2. Record a baseline

Export clicks and impressions per page and the top queries from Search Console, and top landing pages from analytics. After launch, this is how you tell a normal fluctuation from a real loss, and which page caused it.

3. Keep URLs the same where you can

The safest redirect is the one you do not need. If the new platform can serve the same paths, keep them. Change URLs only where the old structure is genuinely broken.

4. Build the redirect map

  • Map every old URL to its closest new equivalent with a permanent (301) redirect.
  • Do not send everything to the home page. Search engines treat a mass redirect to an unrelated page like a missing page.
  • Avoid chains: an old URL should redirect once, straight to its final destination.
  • Retired pages with no equivalent can return 404 or 410; redirect them only if a genuinely related page exists.

5. Carry over the content and on-page SEO

Move each page with its title tag, meta description, headings, body text, image alt text, and structured data. Rewriting copy during a migration is a common hidden cause of ranking drops; if the content needs work, change it after the move has settled.

6. Keep the staging site out of search

Put the staging site behind a login or mark it noindex, and write down that it must be removed at launch. A noindex left on the live site is one of the most damaging and most common launch mistakes.

On launch day

  1. Deploy the redirects with the site, not afterwards.
  2. Test the redirect map: request every old URL and confirm it returns a 301 to a page that returns 200.
  3. Check indexing signals: robots.txt allows crawling, no page carries a leftover noindex, and each page's canonical tag points to its own new URL.
  4. Submit the new XML sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
  5. If the domain changed, verify both domains in Search Console and use Google's Change of Address tool.
  6. Update internal links to point straight at the new URLs instead of relying on redirects, and update the links you control elsewhere: Google Business Profile, social profiles, and email signatures.
  7. Confirm analytics is recording on the new site.

After launch

  • Watch Search Console's Pages report daily for the first week for new 404s and crawl errors, and fix them with redirects.
  • Compare clicks per page against the baseline. Some movement is normal while search engines recrawl. A page that falls and stays down usually has a missing redirect or lost content.
  • Keep the redirects in place for at least a year, which is what Google recommends for site moves, and longer if old URLs still get visits or links.
  • Keep the old domain registered if it changed, so the redirects keep working.

If you are moving off WordPress, our WordPress migration service covers every step above, and our website migration service covers other platforms.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take Google to recover after a site migration?
Google says to expect some ranking fluctuation while it recrawls a moved site. For most small and medium sites, traffic settles within a few weeks; very large sites take longer. If a page is still well below its baseline after two months, check its redirect and content before waiting longer.
Do 301 redirects lose SEO value?
Google has said that permanent server-side redirects pass ranking signals to the new URL. Value is lost when a URL has no redirect or redirects to an unrelated page. Chains slow down crawling and visitors, and Googlebot stops following after several hops, so redirect each old URL once, to its closest equivalent.
Should I redesign my site at the same time as migrating it?
You can, but each change at launch makes problems harder to diagnose. If you redesign during the move, keep the URLs, titles, and body content as close to the old site as you can, and change copy after rankings settle.
Does changing hosts or platforms hurt SEO by itself?
No. Search engines rank pages, not platforms. A move to a new host or CMS that keeps the same URLs and content is close to invisible to them, and a faster site can help.

Related