Website Migration SEO Checklist: Move Without Losing Traffic

This website migration SEO checklist walks you through the checks to run before, during and after a move, including the post migration monitoring in Search Console that most checklists skip.

Which type of website migration carries the most SEO risk?

The riskiest migrations are the ones that change several things at once, such as a new domain, new URL structure and new content on the same day. A simple move from HTTP to HTTPS with identical URLs carries far less risk than a full rebuild on a new platform.

Name your migration type before planning, because it decides how much of this checklist you need:

• Protocol change (HTTP to HTTPS): redirects and canonicals, low risk.
• Platform change (for example to WordPress): URLs, templates and internal links often change, medium to high risk.
• Domain change: every URL changes, plus the Change of Address tool, high risk.
• Redesign with content changes: rankings can move even with perfect redirects, because the pages themselves are different.

When a client wants all four at once, I usually suggest splitting the work into two phases.

What should I do before a website migration?

Before a website migration, you should record how the current site performs, crawl every URL, and build a redirect map that sends each old URL to its closest new equivalent. Most traffic losses I see after migrations trace back to a missing or lazy redirect map.

1. Export the last 12 months of Search Console performance data by page and query.
2. Crawl the old site and save the full URL list, titles, meta descriptions, canonicals and status codes.
3. Export your top linked pages from a backlink tool or Search Console’s Links report.
4. Build the new site on a staging server that is password protected or set to noindex.
5. Create a spreadsheet mapping every old URL to one new URL. Avoid sending everything to the homepage.
6. Keep titles, headings and main content on important pages unless there is a clear reason to change them.
7. Verify the new domain or property in Search Console if the domain is changing.
8. Pick a quiet traffic period for launch, never the week before your peak season.

Google’s own site move guide stresses the same point: map old URLs to new ones before you start, then redirect according to that map.

What should happen on migration day?

On migration day you switch the new site live, enable the 301 redirects from your map, remove any staging noindex or password, and submit the new sitemap in Search Console. Do these in that order and test each one before moving on.

• Remove “Discourage search engines” or any noindex left from staging.
• Check robots.txt on the new site does not block important sections.
• Test a sample of 50 old URLs: each should return one 301 to the right new page.
• Check canonical tags point to the new URLs, not the old or staging domain.
• Update internal links so they point straight to new URLs rather than through redirects.
• Submit the new XML sitemap and, for a domain change, use the Change of Address tool.

Do 301 redirects pass link equity?

Permanent 301 redirects are Google’s recommended way to move a page, and Google uses them as a strong signal that the redirect target should be the canonical URL, so links to the old address are credited to the new page once Google processes the move. That is why every valuable old URL needs its own redirect.

Google’s redirects documentation recommends permanent server side redirects whenever possible. Instant meta refresh redirects are also read as permanent, while JavaScript redirects should be a last resort because Google may not see them if rendering fails.

What should I check after a website migration?

After a website migration, check that old URLs redirect correctly, new URLs are getting indexed, and traffic is moving from the old URLs to the new ones in Search Console. This monitoring phase is where problems are cheapest to fix, yet most checklists end on launch day.

My post migration monitoring schedule:

1. Day 1: crawl the old URL list and confirm 301s; crawl the new site for 404s, noindex tags and wrong canonicals.
2. Days 2 to 7: inspect your top 20 pages with URL Inspection and request indexing for new URLs.
3. Week 2: check the Page indexing report for spikes in “Not found (404)”, “Page with redirect” and “Duplicate without user-selected canonical”.
4. Weeks 2 to 6: compare clicks per page against your pre-migration export; investigate any page that lost most of its traffic.
5. Month 3: recheck backlinks to old URLs and ask owners of your most important links to update them.

A rise in “Page with redirect” after a move is normal. My guide to the Page with redirect status explains when it matters, and the broader guide to Search Console indexing errors covers the rest.

How long does SEO take to recover after migration?

SEO usually takes a few weeks to settle after a well planned migration of a small or medium site, and longer for large sites, according to Google’s site move guide. Rankings can fluctuate during that time while Google recrawls and processes the redirects.

If traffic has not recovered after two to three months, something is usually wrong: missing redirects, changed content, lost internal links, or a technical block. Check those before assuming Google needs more time. Keep redirects active for at least one year, and Google suggests keeping them indefinitely if you can, because users and old links will keep arriving.

What does a migration redirect map look like with real numbers?

The time spent is mostly in the mapping and testing, not the redirects themselves. If you want a migration handled end to end, my website redesign service includes the redirect map and three months of monitoring, and the free SEO audit checklist helps you run the post launch checks yourself.

Frequently asked questions