Website migration guide
Traffic drops after a migration come from broken redirects, unmapped URLs, and content lost in the move. This checklist covers what to lock down before, during, and after.
A website migration SEO checklist has three phases. Before: inventory every URL, benchmark rankings and traffic, and write the full old-to-new redirect map. During: build and verify on staging, put 301 redirects live at cutover, update canonicals and internal links, and submit the new sitemap. After: monitor Search Console, fix 404s, and keep the redirects in place. Google's own guidance says to keep redirects for at least a year.
The phases follow Google Search Central site-move guidance (updated 20 August 2026). Each list is the minimum, not the whole job.
Most traffic lost in a migration was decided before launch, by what was left out of the map.
Any URL with impressions, clicks, or backlinks must appear in the redirect map. Pages with no traffic still need a decision: redirect, merge, or let 404.
Rankings, indexed pages, organic traffic, and conversions, captured before the move so you can tell settling from damage.
One entry per old URL, one-to-one, with no wildcard rules for pages that carry rankings and no redirect chains.
Titles, meta descriptions, headings, structured data, and image alt text carried over field by field, not regenerated.
robots.txt, XML sitemap, canonical tags, and hreflang checked on staging, with the staging site blocked from indexing until launch.
The old site stays live and trading until cutover is verified, so a failed check means the cutover simply does not happen that day.
Rate each URL by what it carries: organic traffic, inbound links, and conversions. The pages that carry the most are the ones whose redirects get verified first and whose content must not change. Then rate the move itself: how many URLs change, whether data can be extracted cleanly, and which integrations break. That inventory is what the $495 Migration Risk Assessmentproduces before any quote is set, and the website migration cost guideshows what published quotes look like.
When URLs do not change, there are no redirects to write, and Google's hosting-move guidance (updated 10 December 2025) applies. The old host stays live until its traffic reaches zero.
To a few hours, at least a week before the move.
Upload and test, including Googlebot access.
In a low-traffic window.
Server logs and crawl activity on both hosts.
Only after its traffic reaches zero.
Google says to expect temporary ranking changes during a move, and that a medium-sized site can take a few weeks or more before the new URLs are shown.
Search Console index coverage and sitemap reports show whether the new URLs are being found, and which old URLs now return 404.
Use permanent redirects, because Google treats them as a canonical signal, and keep them for at least a year.
Assessment first, a fixed quote after it, and 90 days of rank monitoring once the site is live.
Export limits and redirect rules for each platform pair we move.
A technical audit gives you the URL and issue inventory this checklist starts from.
Head-to-head comparisons with ownership, upkeep, and exit costs sourced from vendors.
Going deeper
A list of the checks that keep search rankings intact during a platform, domain, or hosting move: URL inventory and benchmarks before, redirects and verification during cutover, and monitoring after. It exists because rankings attach to URLs, and a missing redirect orphans a page.
Google's site-move guidance says to keep redirects for at least a year so ranking signals can transfer. In practice, keep any redirect for a URL that still has inbound links or traffic for as long as it does.
Expect some fluctuation. Google's guidance says to expect temporary changes during a move, and that for a medium-sized site it can take a few weeks or more for the new URLs to be shown. A complete redirect map and unchanged content keep it temporary.
Only when you move from one domain or subdomain to another. Google's guidance says the tool is not needed for a platform change that keeps the same domain.
If URLs stay the same, there are no redirects to write. Google recommends lowering the DNS TTL at least a week ahead, testing the new host including Googlebot access, and keeping the old host running until its traffic reaches zero.
Yes. The $495 Migration Risk Assessment on the website migration services page inventories your URLs, maps your SEO equity, and audits data extraction before quoting a fixed price, and the fee credits toward the migration.
Website migration
The technical audit gives you the URL and issue inventory this checklist starts from, so the migration plan is built on what is actually on the site.
