SEO migration checklist for URL and platform changes

Destination decisions for the old inventory

Build the old-URL inventory from a crawl, sitemaps and Search Console records. Add landing pages from analytics and URLs with relevant external links so the plan includes pages that the current navigation misses. Preserve the old page's purpose beside its proposed destination.

For each URL, decide whether it stays, moves to an equivalent page, merges into a relevant replacement or is removed without a replacement. Check the content match manually for important landing pages. Sending unrelated retired pages to the homepage gives visitors no useful continuation. Google's site-move guidance warns against irrelevant bulk redirects, which may be treated as soft 404s.

Prelaunch checks on the destination site

1. Test mapped destinations for the intended response and content. Verify navigation to them and update internal links to the final URLs.
2. Review canonical tags and hreflang annotations where used. New pages should reference the intended new URLs, including their language counterparts.
3. List staging access restrictions and noindex directives that must change at launch. Assign an owner to each removal and verify the public state afterward.
4. Test lead forms and checkout separately from SEO checks. Save the earlier traffic baseline and record the launch time so measurement failures can be distinguished from search changes.

Redirect and cutover acceptance

For permanent URL moves, use server-side 301 or 308 redirects where possible. Test the old inventory against the deployed rules, following each redirect to its final destination. Prefer a direct redirect to the destination and repair loops or unnecessary chains. A test of the destination alone misses failures in the old URL's route.

• Publish an updated sitemap containing the intended new URLs and check that it can be fetched.
• For a qualifying domain or subdomain move, submit Change of Address in Search Console. That tool does not apply to a path-only move or an HTTP-to-HTTPS move.
• Keep permanent redirects for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year, as recommended in Google's site-move documentation.

Postlaunch monitoring and exception handling

Monitor old and new URL groups in Search Console and analytics. Check crawl failures and indexation alongside the landing pages that previously received organic visits. Google can show ranking fluctuations while it recrawls and reindexes a moved site, so a single day's traffic does not validate the migration.

Investigate a failed mapping or blocked template immediately with the saved acceptance record. Use the indexation audit for affected URLs and the schema audit for template-generated markup. Leave the URL map, exceptions and named maintenance owners with the release so the next repair starts from evidence.

Brief checklist

• Test mapped destinations for the intended response and content. Verify navigation to them and update internal links to the final URLs.
• Review canonical tags and hreflang annotations where used. New pages should reference the intended new URLs, including their language counterparts.
• List staging access restrictions and noindex directives that must change at launch. Assign an owner to each removal and verify the public state afterward.
• Test lead forms and checkout separately from SEO checks. Save the earlier traffic baseline and record the launch time so measurement failures can be distinguished from search changes.