Website Migration SEO Checklist: Keep Rankings

Why Migrations Go Wrong

Moving to a new website or platform? We plan redirects and launch checks as part of every rebuild. Talk to us before you switch.

A new website should bring in more enquiries than the old one. Sometimes the opposite happens. The site launches, looks great, and over the next few weeks calls from Google dry up. In most cases the cause isn't the design. It's that the move from the old site to the new one wasn't handled with search engines in mind. Pages disappeared, URLs changed without redirects, or the new site was accidentally hidden from Google.

This website migration SEO checklist covers the steps that protect your existing rankings when you redesign, change platforms (for example, from Wix or WordPress to a custom build), move to a new domain, or switch from http to https.

What Counts as a Migration?

Any change that affects URLs, content or how search engines access your site:

• Redesign with new page structure or URLs.
• Platform change, such as WordPress to Next.js, or Wix to WordPress.
• Domain change, such as moving from a .com to a .com.au, or rebranding.
• Protocol or subdomain change, such as http to https, or www to non-www.
• Content consolidation, such as merging several pages into one.

The more of these happen at once, the more risk there is. If you can, avoid changing domain, platform and content all in the same launch.

Phase 1: Before You Start Building

1. Record a baseline

You can't tell whether a migration worked unless you know where you started. Record:

• Organic traffic and conversions from Google Analytics, by page.
• Clicks, impressions and top queries from Google Search Console, by page.
• The pages that generate the most enquiries, calls and sales.
• Rankings for your most important keywords, if you track them.

2. Crawl the old site

Use a crawler (such as Screaming Frog, Sitebulb or a similar tool) to get a full list of URLs on the current site, including pages, images, PDFs and any old URLs that still return content. Combine this with:

• URLs from your XML sitemap.
• Pages with traffic in Analytics and clicks in Search Console.
• Pages with links from other websites, which you can find in Search Console's Links report.

This combined list is your migration inventory. Pages that don't appear in the crawl but have traffic or backlinks are the ones most often lost.

3. Decide what happens to every URL

For each old URL, decide one of three outcomes:

• Keep: the page moves to the new site with the same URL.
• Redirect: the page moves to a new URL, or is merged into a closely related page.
• Remove: the page has no value and no equivalent. Let it return a 404 or 410, and don't redirect it to the home page.

Record the decision in a spreadsheet with "old URL" and "new URL" columns. This redirect map is the most important document in the whole migration.

Phase 2: While the New Site Is Being Built

4. Keep (or improve) the content that ranks

Pages that rank well usually rank because of their content. If the redesign cuts a detailed service page down to two sentences, it may lose rankings even with a perfect redirect. Carry over the substance, and update it rather than deleting it.

5. Carry over on-page SEO

For each important page, make sure the new version has:

• A unique, descriptive title tag and meta description.
• One clear H1 and a logical heading structure.
• Internal links to and from related pages.
• Image alt text.
• Structured data where relevant, such as LocalBusiness, FAQ or Article schema.

6. Block the staging site, and plan to unblock it

Your staging or preview site should not be indexed. Use password protection where possible rather than relying only on a noindex tag or robots.txt. Write a launch task to remove these blocks, because forgetting to remove a noindex tag or a "Disallow: /" rule is one of the most common migration mistakes.

7. Check canonical tags and absolute URLs

On the new site, canonical tags, sitemap URLs, Open Graph URLs and internal links should point to the live domain, not the staging domain or localhost. This is easy to miss when environment settings are copied from development.

8. Prepare the redirects

Implement your redirect map as 301 (permanent) redirects, one-to-one wherever possible:

• Redirect each old URL directly to its final destination. Avoid chains (A → B → C).
• Redirect to the most relevant equivalent page, not the home page.
• Include variations: http and https, www and non-www, trailing slashes, and old URL parameters if they had traffic.

Phase 3: Launch Day

9. Pre-launch checks

• The new site loads on the live domain over https.
• The staging noindex and robots.txt blocks are removed.
• robots.txt allows crawling and lists the new XML sitemap.
• The XML sitemap contains only live, indexable, canonical URLs.
• Analytics and conversion tracking are installed and recording.

10. Test the redirects

Run your list of old URLs through a crawler or redirect checker. Every old URL should return a single 301 to the correct new URL, and that URL should return 200. Fix any 404s, chains or loops straight away.

11. Tell Google

In Google Search Console:

• Submit the new XML sitemap.
• Use URL Inspection to request indexing of your most important pages.
• If you changed domain, use the Change of Address tool in the old property.

Also update your Google Business Profile website link, social profiles and any directory listings you control.

Phase 4: After Launch

12. Monitor for at least a few months

Rankings often move around for a while after a migration as Google recrawls the site. Keep an eye on:

• Search Console's Pages report for spikes in "Not found (404)" or "Excluded" pages.
• Clicks and impressions for your key pages compared with the baseline.
• Enquiries and conversions in Analytics.
• Server logs or crawl reports for redirect errors.

13. Keep redirects in place

Leave 301 redirects in place for the long term. Removing them a few months later can bring back the problems you worked to avoid. Keep your old domain registered if you moved to a new one.

14. Update internal links

Once the site is stable, update internal links that still point to redirected URLs so they go straight to the final page. Redirects work, but direct links are cleaner and faster.

Common Migration Mistakes

• Redirecting every old page to the home page.
• Launching with a noindex tag or blocked robots.txt.
• Dropping blog posts or service pages that brought in traffic.
• Forgetting image, PDF and old campaign URLs.
• Leaving canonical tags pointing to staging.
• Changing domain, platform and content all at once.
• Not recording a baseline, so no one knows what changed.

If you're moving off a website builder, our article on signs you've outgrown Wix covers what to plan for. If you're moving from WordPress to a modern framework, see our guide to headless WordPress with Next.js.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I lose rankings when I migrate my website?

Some short-term fluctuation is common while Google recrawls the site. A well-planned migration with complete 301 redirects, preserved content and correct technical settings minimises the risk of a lasting drop.

How long should 301 redirects stay in place?

Keep them for the long term. There's little cost in leaving them, and removing them can break links from other sites and bookmarks.

Should I redirect deleted pages to my home page?

No. Redirect a page only when there's a genuinely relevant equivalent. Otherwise, let it return a 404 or 410.

Do I need to tell Google I've changed my website?

Submit your new sitemap in Search Console and request indexing for key pages. If you moved to a new domain, use the Change of Address tool as well.

Planning a Migration?

A migration is the one part of a website project where cutting corners can cost you months of leads. Our local SEO services include migration planning, redirect mapping and post-launch monitoring. Contact us to talk through your move.

Related guide: Google Search Console Setup Guide

Related guide: How to Transfer a .com.au Domain Safely