SEO Website Migration Checklist

What is SEO-Friendly Website Migration?

An SEO-friendly website migration involves moving a website from one domain, platform, or structure to another while preserving, or ideally improving its SEO performance. The goal is to ensure that search engines and users can still find your website easily after the migration, without losing any rankings, traffic, or visibility.

Whether it’s moving to a new domain, redesigning your site, or migrating to a more advanced platform, a successful SEO-friendly migration ensures that the website’s SEO efforts are maintained throughout the process. If you fail to plan for SEO, you could experience drops in search rankings, broken links, or a decrease in organic traffic.

Impact of Website Migration on SEO

Website migration can have a significant impact on SEO—both positive and negative. If done improperly, you may face issues like losing your search rankings, drops in traffic, and a poor user experience. For instance, missing or incorrect redirects could result in 404 errors, making your site harder to find and causing users to leave, which can hurt your SEO performance.

On the other hand, a well-executed migration can improve your SEO. This could involve better site structure, faster loading speeds, or switching to a more secure domain (HTTP to HTTPS), all of which can boost your rankings in search engines. This is why careful planning, testing, and post-migration monitoring are essential to minimize risks and ensure SEO success.

Most Common Types of Site Migration

Several types of website migrations exist, and each comes with its own set of SEO challenges and solutions. Here are the most common types:

• Domain Migration: Moving your website from one domain (e.g., example.com) to a new domain (e.g., newexample.com). This is one of the riskiest migrations because it involves changing the website’s entire address.
• Website Redesign: Updating the design and layout of your website while keeping the core content intact. This type of migration usually enhances user experience, but if the URL structure or internal links are altered, it could affect SEO.
• Platform Migration: Moving your site to a new content management system (CMS) or platform (e.g., from WordPress to Shopify). This can improve functionality but must be handled carefully to retain SEO settings and features.
• Site Structure Migration: Changing the structure of your website, such as modifying URL patterns or reorganizing content. A cleaner, more logical structure can boost SEO, but changes in the URLs need proper 301 redirects to avoid losing SEO value.
• Content Migration: Transferring your website’s content (text, images, media) to a new structure, platform, or domain. It’s crucial to maintain metadata, headers, and internal links to preserve SEO.
• Subdomain to Subdirectory Transition: Moving content from a subdomain (e.g., blog.example.com) to a subdirectory (e.g., example.com/blog). This can improve SEO because search engines often rank subdirectories higher than subdomains.
• HTTP to HTTPS Migration: Upgrading your site’s security by moving from HTTP to HTTPS. HTTPS is a ranking factor in Google, so this migration can boost SEO, but you need to ensure proper 301 redirects from the old HTTP pages to the new HTTPS ones.
• Server Migration: Changing the hosting provider or moving your website to a new server. While this usually doesn’t directly affect SEO, a slow or unreliable new server could impact your site’s speed and uptime, which are critical for SEO.

A Comprehensive SEO Site Migration Checklist

Website migration can be broken down into three distinct phases: Pre-Migration, Migration, and Post-Migration. Each phase involves crucial steps to ensure a smooth and SEO-friendly transition.

Part-1: Pre-Migration

The pre-migration phase is all about planning and preparation. It’s critical to get this phase right to ensure a smooth transition without harming your website’s SEO performance. Below is a step-by-step guide to preparing for an SEO-friendly migration.

1. Create your SEO Migration Plan and Strategy

A comprehensive SEO migration plan is essential to ensure that all key aspects of your website transition are covered. The plan should be detailed and include specific steps that address SEO-related concerns. Here’s what your plan should include:

Migration Goals: Clearly define the reasons for migration. Are you moving to a new domain? Redesigning your website for better UX? Switching to a faster hosting provider? Understanding the “why” behind the migration will guide the “how.”

SEO Preservation: Identify the critical SEO assets that need to be preserved, such as:

• High-ranking pages
• Valuable backlinks
• Structured data

Timeline and Milestones: Set a clear timeline for each phase of the migration, including deadlines for tasks in pre-migration, migration, and post-migration stages. It’s essential to have a realistic timeline, as rushing this process can cause SEO issues later.

Responsibilities and Key Stakeholders: Assign tasks and responsibilities to the right team members, such as developers, SEO specialists, content managers, and project managers. Everyone involved should understand their role and be prepared to collaborate.

Backup and Rollback Plan: It’s important to have a contingency plan in case the migration encounters unexpected issues. Back up your entire website before the migration, including databases, content, and all important files. If something goes wrong during the migration, you’ll be able to quickly restore the old version of the site.

1. Plan the perfect moment for your migration

One of the most crucial aspects of a successful migration is timing. The best time to migrate is when your website experiences its lowest traffic. This helps minimize any negative impact on user experience and revenue.

Here’s how to plan the right timing:

• Use Google Analytics: Analyze your website traffic to determine low-traffic periods. For example, weekends or late nights might be ideal for many businesses, but this will vary depending on your industry and audience.
• Avoid Peak Periods: Do not schedule the migration during high-traffic periods such as product launches, holiday seasons, or sale events. These are times when traffic and sales are at their highest, and downtime or performance issues could result in significant losses.
• Prepare for Unplanned Delays: Schedule the migration with enough buffer time to handle unforeseen issues. For instance, allow for extra hours or days after the migration for testing and troubleshooting.

1. Decide What Type of Migration You Want

Different types of migrations come with unique SEO challenges, so you must clearly define the kind of migration you’re performing. This will shape your entire migration plan. Common types of migration include:

• Domain Migration: Moving your site to a new domain (e.g., from example.com to newexample.com). This type of migration carries a high SEO risk, as it involves changing the site’s entire address.
• Platform Migration: Switching from one CMS (Content Management System) to another (e.g., from WordPress to Shopify). Each platform has its own SEO considerations, so ensure your new CMS supports all the necessary SEO settings.
• Website Redesign: If you’re redesigning your site to improve UX or mobile-friendliness, you need to carefully preserve URL structures and on-page SEO elements to avoid losing rankings.
• HTTPS Migration: Moving from HTTP to HTTPS for added security. Google considers HTTPS a ranking factor, so this migration can positively impact SEO, but only if done correctly with proper redirects.
• Site Structure Migration: Reorganizing your site’s URL structure (e.g., moving from example.com/services/service1 to example.com/products/product1). Be sure to implement the correct redirects for all changed URLs.

Each type of migration requires its own strategy, so be clear on what kind of migration you are undertaking before moving forward.

1. Make a Copy of Your Site

A staging environment is a private copy of your website where you can test all the changes before making them live. This is crucial for detecting any issues without affecting your live website or your visitors.

Key steps in creating a staging environment:

• Clone Your Live Site: Create an exact replica of your live site on a separate server. This clone will be used for testing purposes. Many hosting providers offer one-click staging environments for easy setup.
• Test Changes Safely: Apply the changes to the staging site first (e.g., design changes, platform changes, URL structure changes). You’ll use this environment to detect errors before they go live.
• Block Search Engine Crawlers: Prevent search engines from crawling your staging environment by adding a noindex tag or updating your robots.txt file to disallow all crawlers. You don’t want the staging site to appear in search results, which could cause duplicate content issues.
• Test Everything in the Staging Site: Make sure that every feature, link, form, and button works properly. Test the SEO elements as well (metadata, internal links, alt text for images, etc.) before proceeding with the live migration.

1. Secure Your Staging Site from Unwanted Access

It’s essential to block search engines and unauthorized users from accessing your staging site. If a search engine indexes your staging site, it could lead to duplicate content issues and diluted SEO rankings.

• Robots.txt File: Update the robots.txt file in your staging environment to disallow all crawlers. This will prevent search engines from crawling the staging site.
• Noindex Tag: Add a noindex tag to the pages in the staging environment to ensure they are not indexed in search results.
• Password Protection: Implement password protection for your staging site to prevent unauthorized users from accessing it. This adds another layer of security and ensures that only authorized personnel can make changes.

1. Run an SEO Audit of Your Staging Website

Before you begin the migration, it’s essential to audit your current website. The audit will help you understand the existing strengths and weaknesses of your site’s SEO, and it will highlight areas that need special attention during migration. Here’s what to audit:

• Crawlability: Use tools like Screaming Frog or SEMrush to check how well search engines are crawling your site. Look for crawl errors, broken links, and blocked pages.
• On-Page SEO Elements: Review all meta titles, meta descriptions, headers (H1, H2, etc.), and alt text for images. Ensure they are optimized for SEO.
• Mobile Friendliness: Test how mobile-friendly your website is using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Mobile optimization is crucial for SEO, as Google uses mobile-first indexing.
• Page Speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights to check how fast your website loads. Page speed is a significant ranking factor, so any slow-loading pages should be optimized before migration.
• Backlink Profile: Analyze your backlinks using tools like Ahrefs or Moz to understand which pages are attracting the most valuable links. These pages should be prioritized during migration to preserve their link equity.
• Keyword Rankings: Identify your top-performing pages by looking at their rankings for important keywords. These are the pages that you should focus on preserving during the migration.

1. Run a full website crawl to extract all URLs

A crucial part of the pre-migration process is ensuring that you don’t lose any important pages or URLs during the transition. Run a complete crawl of your current website using a tool like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or SEMrush. Here’s what to do:

Generate a List of All URLs: Crawl the entire site and extract a full list of URLs. This includes not only your main content pages but also:

• Blog posts
• Category pages
• Product pages (if applicable)
• Image URLs
• PDF files or other resources

Categorize and Prioritize Pages: Categorize your URLs based on their importance. Pages that generate high traffic, have valuable backlinks or rank for important keywords should be prioritized in the migration plan.

Check for Broken or Redirected URLs: During the crawl, identify any broken links or pages that are already being redirected. These need to be addressed before or during the migration to avoid creating unnecessary redirect chains.

1. Extract every image URL and evaluate their ranking performance

Images are an important part of SEO, especially for websites that rely on image search traffic. During migration, ensure that all image URLs are migrated properly and that their SEO value is retained. Here’s what to do:

• Extract All Image URLs: Use the crawling tool to extract all image URLs on your current site. Include every image file, not just those in the main content.
• Review Image Optimization: Check if all images are optimized for SEO by reviewing:
• Alt Text: Ensure that every image has relevant, descriptive alt text. This not only helps with SEO but also improves accessibility.
• File Names: Ensure that image file names are descriptive and include target keywords where appropriate.
• Compression and Loading Times: Use tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim to ensure that all images are compressed and optimized for fast loading times.
• Review Image Ranking Performance: Use Google Search Console or SEMrush to evaluate which images are generating organic traffic. Ensure that these high-performing images are properly migrated.

1. Identify Top Content, High-traffic Pages, High-value Backlinks, and Ranking Keywords

During migration, some pages need extra attention because they contribute significantly to your website’s SEO. Identifying these pages will help ensure that their SEO value is preserved during the migration. Here’s what to focus on:

Top-Performing Pages: Use Google Analytics to identify which pages are bringing in the most traffic. Focus on:

• Pages with the most organic traffic.
• Landing pages with high conversion rates.
• Pages that rank highly for competitive keywords.

High-Value Backlinks: Use Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to identify the pages with the most backlinks. Backlinks are crucial for maintaining SEO authority, so these pages should be handled carefully to avoid losing their link equity during the migration.

Ranking Keywords: Identify which pages are ranking for your most valuable keywords using Google Search Console. Make sure that these pages are migrated properly and retain their optimization for these keywords.

1. Build a Dynamic URL roadmap

A URL roadmap is a document that maps the old URLs to the corresponding new URLs. This is essential for maintaining SEO rankings, as it ensures that all valuable pages are redirected properly during migration. Here’s how to create it:

Map Old URLs to New URLs: For every old URL, list the corresponding new URL that it will be redirected to. For example:

• Old URL: www.oldsite.com/product-a
• New URL: www.newsite.com/shop/product-a
• Create 301 Redirects: Plan for setting up 301 redirects for each page. A 301 redirect tells search engines that the old URL has permanently moved to the new one, allowing the SEO value of the old page to pass to the new one.

Avoid Redirect Chains: Make sure that the old URLs redirect directly to the new URLs without passing through multiple redirects. Redirect chains can slow down page load times and cause search engines to lose track of your URLs.

Prepare for Dynamic URLs: If your site generates dynamic URLs (such as e-commerce product pages with parameters), ensure that these are accounted for in your URL mapping.

1. Develop the New Website in the Test Environment

Once your staging environment is set up, it’s time to start building your new website. Here’s what to consider:

• Duplicate the Live Site: Replicate all key aspects of the live site in the staging environment. This includes design, navigation, functionality, and SEO settings.
• Test New Site Features: Test any new features or functionalities that will be introduced with the migration. Ensure that everything works correctly, from responsive design to e-commerce checkout functionality.
• Ensure Mobile Optimization: Google uses mobile-first indexing, so ensure the new site is fully optimized for mobile devices. Test how the site looks and performs on different screen sizes and operating systems.
• Optimize for Speed: Page speed is a ranking factor, so make sure your new site loads quickly. Use Google PageSpeed Insights and other performance tools to test loading times and optimize any slow pages.

1. Block the New Website from Being Indexed and Crawled

While your new website is under development, it’s critical to prevent search engines from crawling and indexing it. Here’s how to do it:

• Robots.txt File: Add a robots.txt file that blocks all crawlers from accessing the new site. This prevents search engines from indexing the new content prematurely.
• Noindex Tags: Add noindex meta tags to all pages on the new site. This ensures that even if search engines manage to crawl the site, it won’t show up in search results until you’re ready.
• Password Protection: Add password protection to the new site to prevent unauthorized access by both users and search engines.

1. Conduct a comprehensive audit and crawl of the new website in the test environment

Once the new site is built in the staging environment, conduct a comprehensive audit to ensure everything is in place before going live. Here’s what to focus on:

• Crawl the New Site: Use tools like Screaming Frog or SEMrush to crawl the new site. This will help identify any technical SEO issues, such as broken links, missing metadata, or crawl errors.
• Check On-Page SEO Elements: Ensure that meta titles, descriptions, headers, and alt text are properly implemented on every page. Make sure that each page is fully optimized for its target keywords.
• Test Internal Links: Ensure that all internal links are working correctly and pointing to the appropriate new URLs.
• Validate Structured Data: If your site uses structured data (such as schema markup), ensure it is correctly implemented on the new site. Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to validate your markup.

1. Perform on-page SEO for the Website in the Test Environment

Before you launch, perform a final check of all on-page SEO elements in the staging environment. Here’s what to optimize:

• Meta Titles and Descriptions: Ensure that all pages have unique, keyword-optimized meta titles and descriptions. Make sure these elements are transferred from the old site to the new one without any changes.
• Header Tags (H1, H2, etc.): Check that header tags are used correctly to structure the content on each page. H1 tags should include primary keywords, while H2 and H3 tags should logically structure the subtopics.
• Image Alt Text and File Names: Ensure that all images have optimized alt text and descriptive file names. Images should be compressed for fast loading without sacrificing quality.
• Keyword Optimization: Double-check that each page is optimized for its target keywords and that the keyword density is appropriate for SEO best practices.

1. Set Up and Verify Redirects in the Test Environment

Before going live, verify that all 301 redirects are correctly set up in the staging environment. This ensures that when users or search engines visit an old URL, they are directed to the new URL without any issues. Here’s what to check:

• Test Redirects: Use tools like Redirect Path or Screaming Frog to test all redirects. Ensure that all old URLs correctly point to their new versions and that no “404 Not Found” errors occur.
• Check for Redirect Chains: Ensure that each old URL points directly to the new URL and doesn’t pass through multiple redirects. Redirect chains can slow down page load times and confuse search engine crawlers.
• Verify Canonical Tags: Ensure that canonical tags are pointing to the correct version of the URL to avoid duplicate content issues.

Part-2: Migration

The migration phase is when you officially move your website from its old state (domain, platform, or structure) to the new one. This phase involves ensuring that everything is functioning as planned and that there is minimal disruption to your website’s SEO.

1. Launch Your New Website

Once the preparation phase is complete and all tests have been run in the staging environment, it’s time to go live. Here are the key steps involved:

Update DNS Settings: Point your Domain Name System (DNS) records to the new server or hosting provider. This will make your new site live. Depending on your hosting provider, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours for the DNS changes to propagate worldwide.

Final Checklist Before Launch:

• Double-check all 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones.
• Verify that the robots.txt file is configured correctly to allow search engines to crawl your new site.
• Ensure that canonical tags are set up properly to avoid duplicate content issues.

Go Live: After completing the above steps, you can now make the new website live by making the DNS changes or publishing the new version.

1. Ensure Your New Website is Fully Indexable and Crawlable

Once the new website is live, it’s crucial to ensure that search engines can crawl and index it. If your new site cannot be crawled, search engines won’t discover your updated content, which can lead to a severe drop in rankings. Here’s how to ensure your site is fully crawlable:

• Check Robots.txt: Confirm that your robots.txt file is not blocking important sections of your website. You can use tools like Google Search Console to test your robots.txt file and ensure it is configured correctly. Remove any lines that were blocking crawlers during development.

• Remove Noindex Tags: If you used noindex tags on your staging environment, make sure they are removed from your live site. Any noindex tags left on key pages will prevent search engines from indexing your content.

• Ensure Canonical Tags are Correct: Confirm that canonical tags are properly set up to avoid duplicate content issues. Your canonical tags should point to the preferred version of each page (usually the new URLs).
• Check Page Load Speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to ensure your site is loading quickly, which is important for both SEO and user experience.

1. Add Tracking Codes and Create a Clear Annotation

It’s essential to set up tracking correctly to monitor how your new website performs post-migration. This involves ensuring that all analytics tools are functioning as expected.

• Add Google Analytics Tracking Code: Ensure that Google Analytics (or any other analytics tool you use) is installed on your new website. This will allow you to track traffic, user behavior, and conversions immediately after the migration.
• Reinstall Google Tag Manager (GTM): If you’re using GTM to manage scripts, ensure that the GTM container is correctly installed on your new site. All tags in GTM should be configured to track the appropriate events (page views, clicks, etc.).
• Create an Annotation in Google Analytics: Mark the migration date in Google Analytics with an annotation. This will help you track changes in traffic, user behavior, and performance after the migration. If rankings or traffic drop post-migration, this will allow you to identify when the migration took place and investigate potential causes.

1. Check Every Redirect for Smooth Navigation

Redirects are critical for maintaining SEO value during a migration. Even if you’ve thoroughly tested redirects during the staging phase, it’s essential to test them again after the site goes live.

• Check All 301 Redirects: Ensure that all old URLs are correctly redirecting to the new URLs via 301 redirects. This ensures that users and search engines are directed to the correct content without encountering 404 errors.
• Use Redirect Testing Tools: Tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or SEMrush can be used to check for broken or incorrect redirects. Run a full crawl of your site after the launch to ensure no redirect loops or chains exist.
• Verify External Backlinks: Use a backlink analysis tool (like Ahrefs or Moz) to identify high-value external backlinks and confirm that they are correctly pointing to the new URLs. If these links point to old, broken URLs without a proper redirect, you could lose valuable SEO equity.

1. Run a Complete Crawl and Audit After the Launch

After the new site is live, running a full site crawl and SEO audit is essential to ensure that everything is functioning correctly. This step will help you spot issues that may have been missed during testing or that only appear in the live environment.

Crawl the Entire Site: Use tools like Screaming Frog or SEMrush to perform a full crawl of your new site. Pay special attention to:

• Broken internal or external links.
• Missing metadata (titles, descriptions, headers).
• Orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them).
• Canonical tag issues.

Audit On-Page SEO Elements: Ensure all important SEO elements (meta titles, descriptions, headers, alt texts) are in place and optimized correctly for all key pages.

1. Resolve any Issues right away for quick results

As you crawl and audit the site, any issues you find must be fixed as soon as possible. The sooner you resolve problems, the sooner search engines can crawl and index your new site correctly. Common issues to address include:

• Fix Broken Links: Broken links can harm user experience and result in SEO penalties. Fix any broken internal or external links you find.
• Update Missing or Incorrect Metadata: If any pages are missing meta titles, descriptions, or other on-page elements, add them immediately.
• Check for Redirect Chains and Loops: If you discover any redirect chains or loops, simplify the redirection path to improve SEO and load time.

1. Keep the Existing XML Sitemap Until Search Engines Have Fully Recrawled

Your old XML sitemap should remain accessible to search engines until they’ve fully recrawled your new site. This will help Google and Bing understand the changes made to your website and find the new URLs.

• Submit New XML Sitemap: Once the new site is live, submit a new XML sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. This will help search engines discover all the new URLs on your site.
• Monitor Crawling Progress: Use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to check how well search engines are crawling and indexing your new site. Keep an eye on any crawl errors or indexing issues.

1. Start Tracking Your New Site’s Rankings with Powerful SEO Tools

Once your new site is live, it’s crucial to track its SEO performance to ensure that rankings, traffic, and conversions are stable. Here’s how to monitor performance:

• Use Rank Tracking Tools: Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz can help you track your rankings for important keywords post-migration. Keep a close eye on any significant ranking changes.
• Monitor Traffic and Behavior with Google Analytics: Track any fluctuations in traffic patterns. If you notice a significant drop in traffic or conversions, investigate the causes (e.g., broken redirects, indexing issues, etc.).

Part-3: Post-Migration

The post-migration phase is all about monitoring, maintaining, and improving your new site’s SEO performance. Ongoing optimization and tracking will ensure that your website continues to perform well after the migration.

1. Automate Your New Site’s Crawls

Regular automated site crawls can help catch issues that may arise over time, such as broken links or missing metadata. Schedule weekly crawls, and increase the frequency to daily in the days immediately following the migration. Tools to use include:

• SEMrush Site Audit or Ahrefs Site Explorer: These tools can automatically crawl your site and alert you to any new issues that appear.
• Google Search Console: Use this to monitor crawl errors, mobile usability issues, and indexing status.

1. Track Your New Site’s Rankings, Performance, Traffic, and Conversions on a Daily Basis

After migration, it’s crucial to continuously track your site’s performance to assess the migration’s impact. Here’s how:

• Google Analytics: Monitor your website traffic, bounce rate, session duration, and user behavior daily. Watch for any sudden drops in organic traffic, which could signal an issue.
• Google Search Console: Check for any indexing issues, crawl errors, or manual penalties. Use the Performance Report to track changes in keyword rankings and click-through rates (CTR).
• Rank Tracking Tools: Tools like SEMrush or Moz can help you monitor your keyword rankings and compare pre- and post-migration performance. Keep an eye on high-value keywords and their positions in search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Conversion Tracking: Ensure that your Google Analytics Goals or other conversion tracking tools are functioning properly. Monitor conversion rates closely after migration to identify any potential issues.

1. Resubmit an Updated Sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

After your new site is live and running, you should resubmit a fresh XML sitemap to ensure search engines can crawl your new pages effectively.

• Submit New XML Sitemap to Google Search Console: This helps Google understand the structure of your new site and quickly find all your updated pages.
• Submit XML Sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools: Don’t forget to submit your sitemap to Bing as well. While Google drives most search traffic, Bing is still an important player for some sites.
• Ensure All Important Pages Are Indexed: Track indexing progress in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. If some pages are not being indexed, investigate the possible causes (e.g., crawl errors, incorrect canonical tags).

1. Keep Track of Indexing on Google and Bing

Post-migration, it’s vital to monitor how well your new site is being indexed by search engines. Use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to stay informed about any issues.

Monitor the Coverage Report (Google Search Console): This report will show you which pages are being indexed and which are not. Check for any Excluded Pages or pages with crawl errors.

Fix Any Indexing Issues Promptly: If you find pages that are not being indexed, review the potential causes, such as:

• Incorrect noindex tags.
• Disallowed pages in robots.txt.
• Broken links prevent crawling.

Conclusion

Migrating a website is a complex process, but by following this SEO Site Migration Checklist in detail, you can ensure a seamless transition that preserves your SEO rankings and performance. Proper preparation, thorough testing, and ongoing monitoring are essential to mitigating the risks and maximizing the benefits of a successful website migration.