Website Migration SEO Checklist: Protect Rankings During Redesign

Not all migrations carry equal risk. Understanding your migration type determines how much preparation you need.

Low Risk

• Visual redesign (same URLs) — Template and design changes without URL structure changes. Risk is minimal if content stays the same
• HTTPS migration — Standard practice now. Simple 301 redirects from HTTP to HTTPS

Medium Risk

• CMS replatforming — Moving from WordPress to Shopify, or similar. URLs almost always change, requiring comprehensive redirect mapping
• Site restructuring — Changing URL hierarchy, merging or splitting sections

High Risk

• Domain change — New domain means rebuilding domain authority. Even with perfect redirects, expect 10-30% traffic dip for 3-6 months
• Content consolidation — Merging multiple sites into one, or significantly reducing page count
• International migration — Adding or changing hreflang, country-specific domains, or subdirectory structures

The timeline above shows typical traffic recovery patterns. A well-planned migration recovers within 4-8 weeks. A poorly planned one can take 6-12 months, and some traffic is lost permanently.

Before touching the new site, you need a complete picture of your current SEO assets. This audit becomes your protection document.

Crawl and Index Audit

• Full site crawl — Use Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to crawl every URL on the current site
• Indexed pages — Check Google Search Console for all indexed URLs. This is your "what Google knows about" list
• Sitemaps — Download current sitemaps as a reference
• Robots.txt — Document current directives

Content and Performance Audit

• Top-performing pages — Export the top 100 pages by organic traffic from Google Analytics
• Top-ranking keywords — Export all ranking keywords from Search Console or Ahrefs
• Backlink profile — Export all backlinks pointing to the current domain. These are the most valuable SEO assets to protect
• Internal linking structure — Document the current internal link architecture

Technical Baseline

• Core Web Vitals — Record current scores as a comparison baseline
• Schema markup — Document all structured data currently implemented
• Meta data — Export all titles, descriptions, and canonical tags

Redirect mapping is where migrations succeed or fail. Every old URL that receives organic traffic or has backlinks must redirect to the most relevant new URL via a 301 (permanent) redirect.

The Redirect Spreadsheet

Create a spreadsheet with these columns for every URL:

• Old URL — The current page URL
• New URL — Where it should redirect to on the new site
• Organic traffic (monthly) — From Google Analytics
• Backlinks (count) — From Ahrefs or Majestic
• Top ranking keywords — From Search Console
• Status — Mapped, no equivalent, merged

Redirect Rules

• Always use 301 (permanent) — Never 302 (temporary) for migration redirects
• One-to-one mapping — Each old page redirects to its closest equivalent. Don't redirect everything to the homepage
• No redirect chains — If A redirects to B, and B redirects to C, fix it so A redirects directly to C
• Prioritise by value — Focus mapping effort on pages with the most traffic and backlinks

What About Pages with No Equivalent?

If a page is being removed and has no equivalent on the new site:

• Has backlinks or traffic — Create an equivalent page on the new site. The link equity is too valuable to lose
• No backlinks, no traffic — Return a 410 (Gone) status code, not a 404. This tells Google the removal was intentional

Before going live, test every SEO element on the staging site. This is your last chance to catch problems without consequences.

SEO Testing Checklist

1. Crawl the staging site — Compare the crawl against your pre-migration audit. Flag any missing pages
2. Check all redirects — Test a sample of 50+ redirects manually. Bulk-test using Screaming Frog's list mode
3. Verify metadata — Every page should have a unique title and meta description. Compare against your exported baseline
4. Check canonical tags — Every page should have a self-referencing canonical. Watch for staging URLs in canonicals
5. Validate schema — Test structured data using Google's Rich Results Test
6. Test robots.txt — Ensure the staging robots.txt blocks crawlers, and the production version allows them
7. Verify sitemap — Ensure the new sitemap includes all intended pages with correct URLs
8. Check internal links — Run a crawl to find broken internal links on the new site
9. Core Web Vitals — Test page speed on the staging site. Flag any significant regressions

Launch day should be methodical, not exciting. If you've done the prep work, launch is just executing the plan.

Launch Checklist

1. Deploy redirects first — Redirects should be in place before the new site goes live
2. Switch DNS / deploy new site — Follow your platform's migration guide
3. Verify redirects are working — Spot-check 20+ critical redirects immediately
4. Submit new sitemap — Upload the new sitemap to Google Search Console
5. Request indexing — Use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing for your top 20 pages
6. Remove staging noindex — If you used noindex on staging, verify it's removed on production
7. Check robots.txt — Verify the production robots.txt allows crawling
8. Verify analytics — Confirm Google Analytics and any conversion tracking is firing correctly
9. Monitor Search Console — Check for crawl errors, indexing issues, and security warnings

When to Launch

Launch on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning. This gives you the working week to monitor and fix issues. Never launch on a Friday afternoon.

The work doesn't end at launch. Post-migration monitoring is what separates successful migrations from disasters discovered too late.

Week 1: Daily Monitoring

• Check Search Console for crawl errors and indexing issues daily
• Monitor organic traffic in real-time (some fluctuation is normal)
• Fix any broken redirects or 404 errors immediately
• Watch for unexpected noindex tags or canonical issues

Weeks 2-4: Weekly Monitoring

• Compare organic traffic week-over-week against pre-migration baseline
• Track keyword ranking changes for your top 50 keywords
• Review new pages being indexed vs old pages being dropped
• Check backlink profile for any links pointing to 404 pages

Weeks 5-12: Monthly Monitoring

• Compare monthly organic traffic against the same month last year
• Review Search Console Coverage report for indexing issues
• Monitor Core Web Vitals for any regression
• Remove redirects from the old domain once Google has fully transitioned (usually 6-12 months post-migration)

When to Worry

A 10-20% traffic dip in the first 2 weeks is normal. If traffic drops more than 30%, or hasn't recovered by week 6, investigate: check redirects, indexing status, and canonical tags first.

Our Technical SEO services are built around this exact framework, designed for businesses that need predictable growth.