Website Migration SEO Checklist

A poorly executed site migration can wipe out years of SEO progress overnight. This checklist keeps your rankings intact.

Redesigning your site, switching platforms, or moving to a new domain are all high-risk moments for SEO. Done right, a migration is invisible to your rankings. Done wrong, it can cause traffic to crater. Use this checklist — the same process we follow for Las Vegas clients — to migrate safely.

Before the Migration

Preparation is where migrations succeed or fail. Establish a complete baseline so you can measure impact and roll back if needed.

• Crawl and archive your entire current site (URLs, titles, metadata)
• Record baseline rankings, organic traffic, and top-performing pages
• Map every old URL to its new destination for 301 redirects
• Benchmark Core Web Vitals and page speed
• Set up a staging environment blocked from indexing

During the Migration

• Implement 301 redirects for every changed URL — no redirect chains
• Preserve title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and on-page content
• Migrate structured data and canonical tags
• Keep internal links pointing to final destination URLs
• Remove the staging site's no-index before going live

After the Migration

The work isn't done at launch. The days and weeks after go-live are critical for catching issues before they hurt rankings.

• Submit the new XML sitemap in Google Search Console
• Monitor crawl errors, 404s, and redirect issues daily at first
• Watch rankings and traffic closely for four to eight weeks
• Fix any broken links or missed redirects immediately
• Confirm analytics and conversion tracking still fire correctly