Website Migration Checklist: A Complete Guide to a Smooth and SEO-Friendly Move

Website migration is the process of making significant changes to a website’s structure, technology, design, or location without compromising its search engine visibility. Whether you’re switching platforms, redesigning your website, moving to a new domain, or implementing a secure HTTPS protocol, migration must be handled with care.

Done right, it can result in improved user experience, faster load times, and better performance. Done wrong, it can tank your SEO, wipe out rankings, and cost you traffic and revenue. This guide walks you through a complete website migration checklist to ensure a smooth transition while protecting your SEO investment.

Pre-Migration Planning

Before touching a single URL, you need a clear plan. Start with a full website audit to understand your site’s current state. Benchmark existing SEO performance by documenting your top-performing pages, keyword rankings, backlink profile, traffic sources, and indexed URLs.

Set up robust tracking using Google Analytics (including GA4) and verify everything with Google Search Console. Don’t forget to back up your entire website—files and databases included. This gives you a fallback option if anything breaks.

SEO Considerations Before Migration

Your SEO website migration strategy begins with identifying which pages drive the most traffic and conversions. These should be prioritised and preserved.

Map current URLs to the new ones in a detailed spreadsheet. This URL mapping forms the basis for your 301 redirects SEO strategy. Every old URL must point to its new counterpart to prevent broken links and loss of link equity.

Audit and prepare metadata for all pages—titles, meta descriptions, headers—ensuring relevance and uniqueness. Plan your internal linking structure and make sure canonical tags are accurately set to avoid duplication issues after the move.

Technical Preparations

Before going live, deploy your new site in a staging environment and test it thoroughly. Check for mobile-friendliness, responsiveness, and loading speed using Core Web Vitals metrics.

Validate structured data using Google’s Rich Results Test. Ensure your technical SEO migration elements—like schema markup and hreflang tags—are error-free. This will smooth the transition and keep your SEO signals intact.

Migration Execution Checklist

Timing matters. Launch your migration during off-peak hours to minimise the impact on real-time users. Immediately implement your pre-planned 301 redirects.

Here’s a practical checklist table to guide your execution:

Task	Description
Schedule migration	Choose a time with the lowest expected traffic
Implement 301 redirects	Redirect all old URLs to new URLs with correct status codes
Upload new sitemap	Submit the updated XML sitemap to Google Search Console
Monitor crawl errors	Use Screaming Frog, Ahrefs or GSC to find and fix broken links
Ensure HTTPS is configured	Redirect all HTTP pages to HTTPS if applicable
Check robots.txt	Ensure it allows bots to crawl the new site
Validate tracking	Confirm all analytics and conversion tracking is active

If you’re switching from HTTP to HTTPS, double-check that your SSL certificate is valid and every URL correctly redirects to the secure version.

Post-Migration Checks

After launch, monitor everything. Use Search Console to track indexing status and look for anomalies. Compare your new crawl stats, rankings, and organic traffic to your pre-migration benchmarks.

Fix any crawl errors immediately. Pay attention to page speed and performance dips. Request re-indexing for updated or newly launched pages to speed up discovery by Google.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

A few oversights can do serious damage. These include:

• Missing or misconfigured 301 redirects, causing broken links and lost equity.
• Failing to update canonical tags, which leads to duplicate content issues.
• Forgetting to reinstall tracking codes or verify your new property in Google Search Console.
• Accidentally allowing staging site pages to be indexed.

Avoid these and you’ve dodged the most common SEO pitfalls.

Tools to Use

Here’s a quick reference of tools to streamline your website migration:

Tool	Purpose
Google Search Console	Monitor indexing, submit sitemaps, check for crawl issues
Google Analytics / GA4	Track performance pre- and post-migration
Screaming Frog	Crawl site, audit redirects, find broken links
SEMrush / Ahrefs	Track keyword rankings, backlinks, and perform audits
GTmetrix / PageSpeed Insights	Measure loading speed and Core Web Vitals

Downloadable Resource

Don’t leave it to chance. Download our Free Website Migration Checklist PDF for a printable, step-by-step guide to keep by your side during the migration.

Conclusion

A successful website migration hinges on preparation, precision, and post-launch monitoring. Use this website migration checklist to reduce risk, maintain your search rankings, and give your users a seamless experience. From pre-migration SEO audits to final performance checks, every step matters.

If you’re planning a migration or redesign, let the experts at E-Web Marketing help. We specialise in SEO website migration and technical SEO audits that keep your visibility intact and your traffic growing. Check out our Technical SEO Guide and How to Improve Core Web Vitals to deepen your understanding and stay ahead.
Let’s make your move a smart one.