Site migration & redesign checklist

Migrating a domain, replatforming a CMS, or redesigning an existing site carries a specific risk a brand-new launch doesn't: you already have rankings, backlinks, indexed URLs and traffic to lose. This checklist covers the extra work a migration needs on top of everything in the pre-launch checklist.

Before you start

• The reason for the migration is clear—a redesign, a new CMS, a new domain, consolidating multiple sites—since that shapes what actually needs to be preserved
• A full crawl of the existing site is taken and archived before anything changes, using a site crawler (such as Screaming Frog SEO Spider, free for small sites) to capture every current URL, title, meta description and status code
• Current analytics and Search Console data is exported and archived as a baseline to compare against after launch
• A list of the site's highest-traffic and highest-value pages is identified specifically, so they get extra attention and verification later

URL & redirect mapping

• Every old URL is mapped to its new equivalent in a spreadsheet before development starts, not improvised page by page during launch
• Redirects are 301s (permanent) for genuinely permanent moves, pointing to the single most relevant new page—not a blanket redirect of every old URL to the new homepage
• There are no unnecessary redirect chains (old URL → interim URL → final URL should be old URL → final URL directly)
• URLs that no longer have any reasonable equivalent are handled deliberately—either redirected to the closest relevant page or allowed to 404 on purpose, not left as an accidental broken link

Content & structure changes

• If page content, headings or structure are changing significantly, the change is deliberate—not an accidental byproduct of a template swap
• Pages that are being consolidated or removed are redirected to the single best remaining page covering that topic
• Internal linking is rebuilt for the new structure, not left pointing at old, since-redirected URLs throughout the new site
• Structured data is re-implemented and re-validated on the new platform, not assumed to carry over automatically (see the structured data checklist)

Technical validation on staging

• The new site is fully built and tested on a staging environment that's blocked from public indexing before anything goes live
• Every item in the pre-launch checklist and QA & cross-browser checklist is run against the new site specifically, not assumed carried over from the old one
• Redirects are tested in bulk before launch, not spot-checked on a handful of pages
• Sitemap, robots.txt and canonical tags on staging are confirmed correct for when they go live—and confirmed staging itself isn't accidentally left indexable

Launch & cutover

1. Take a final backup and export of the outgoing site immediately before cutover
2. Deploy the new site and redirects together—never leave a gap where old URLs 404 before redirects are live
3. Confirm DNS, SSL and email-sending records (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) all survived the change intact—see the email deliverability checklist
4. Spot-check a meaningful sample of redirects on the live domain immediately after cutover, not just on staging
5. Resubmit the sitemap in Google Search Console under the correct property once the new site is live

Post-migration monitoring

• Search Console coverage and performance reports are checked daily for the first couple of weeks, watching specifically for a spike in 404s or a drop in indexed pages
• Organic traffic and rankings for the previously identified high-value pages are compared against the pre-migration baseline
• Server logs or analytics are checked for 404s hitting old URLs that weren't caught in the original redirect map, and gaps are patched promptly
• Any drop in traffic or rankings is investigated immediately rather than dismissed as normal fluctuation—the earlier a migration issue is caught, the easier it is to fix

Pair this with the technical SEO checklist for the underlying redirect and indexing mechanics, and the launch day checklist for the general go-live sequence.