Website Migration SEO Checklist

Migration SEO protects existing value

A website migration is risky when pages, URLs, metadata, internal links, and crawl rules change at the same time. The SEO job is to protect useful assets before the new site replaces the old one.

That means deciding what should stay, improve, merge, redirect, remove, or stay out of the index before templates, navigation, and content are locked.

• Current sitemap and crawl export
• Priority URLs with traffic, links, enquiries, or commercial value
• Old-to-new redirect map with owners
• Metadata, canonical, schema, and internal-link checks
• Post-launch monitoring for publication, errors, and enquiry paths

Start with a URL inventory and decision map

The first migration deliverable should be a complete URL inventory. Each important route needs a decision: keep, improve, merge, redirect, remove, or unpublished.

This protects the redesign from accidental deletion. It also gives developers, content owners, and stakeholders one shared source of truth before launch.

• Keep pages that already have a useful job and stable destination
• Improve pages where content, headings, supporting detail, or CTAs need work
• Merge pages that split the same intent across weak routes
• Redirect removed URLs to the closest useful replacement
• unpublished pages that must stay public but should not be search targets

Check technical signals before launch

A migration checklist should compare the source and target site before go-live. Important pages should have crawlable content, unique metadata, matching canonicals, accurate structured data, and internal links that point to the final URLs.

Redirects should avoid chains, loops, and generic homepage fallbacks. The new sitemap and robots rules should support the migration plan rather than contradict it.

• Titles, descriptions, headings, and canonical URLs
• Sitemap inclusion and robots directives
• Breadcrumb, Article, Service, WebPage, and FAQ schema where visible content supports it
• Navigation, footer, blog, service, pricing, and work-page internal links
• Analytics, forms, conversion events, 404 handling, and browser QA

After launch, watch the recovery window

Migration work continues after deployment. Submit the new sitemap, check important pages manually, review Search Console coverage, inspect 404s and redirects, and confirm that forms and analytics still work.

Rankings can move during a migration. The practical aim is not to promise no movement; it is to reduce avoidable loss by making every important change deliberate and observable.

Migration SEO risk map

• Inventory: export current URLs, sitemap entries, priority pages, published pages, backlinks, and known redirects.
• Decisions: label each route keep, improve, merge, redirect, remove, or unpublished before build sign-off.
• Signals: check metadata, canonicals, headings, schema, sitemap, robots, and internal links on the target site.
• Redirects: map old URLs to the closest useful final route and avoid chains, loops, or homepage dumping.
• Monitoring: inspect live pages, 404s, form routes, analytics, Search Console coverage, and query/page movement.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Launching the redesign before the old URL set has been exported and classified.
• Redirecting deleted pages to the homepage instead of the closest useful replacement.
• Changing content, URLs, metadata, and crawl rules at once without a post-launch monitoring plan.

What 760 Studios would review first

• Priority URLs to protect first
• Redirect map and canonical conflicts
• Post-launch checks for publication, 404s, forms, and analytics