SEO

SEO Migration Checklist

A website migration changes how your site is built, structured or hosted — and it’s a big deal for SEO. Get it wrong and your site can lose visibility because search engines don’t know where your content and authority have gone.

An SEO website migration protects your rankings, traffic and visibility while your site evolves.

This SEO migration checklist reflects how our technical SEO and content strategy teams manage the SEO side of website migrations, from early strategy to post-launch performance reviews. Follow it closely to make sure your visibility moves with you.

Fixing a migration after it’s gone wrong is far more costly and time-consuming than getting it right the first time. If your migration has gone wrong, or you want to avoid that risk entirely, get in touch and we’ll help you put it right.

Download our SEO Migration Checklist (PDF) to use on your next project.

Types of Website Migration

This SEO migration checklist supports migrations including:

  • Website domain changes
  • URL structure changes
  • Site design changes
  • UI/UX design changes
  • Content changes (adding or removing pages)
  • Platform switches or CMS upgrades
  • Migrations from HTTP to HTTPS

SEO Checklist for Website Migration

Here’s our simply step-by-step checklist for website migrations.

Phase 1: Strategy & Scope

What does success look like? Define this early, before anything changes.

This phase sets the direction for the entire migration and helps identify the biggest opportunities (and the biggest risks).

  • Agree on the migration type: Confirm whether this is a domain change, URL restructure, redesign, CMS upgrade, HTTPS migration, or a combination of these.
  • Identify organic growth opportunities and risks: Understand which parts of the site are currently driving visibility and where change could introduce risk.
  • Conduct a content performance audit: Review how existing content performs to work out what needs protecting, improving or consolidating.
  • Create a project plan: Set realistic objectives, timelines and responsibilities so every stage of the SEO migration process is accounted for.

Dig deeper into website migration strategy and scoping with our dedicate blog on the first steps of a migration.

Phase 2: Pre-Launch Preparation

Take a snapshot of your site, data and benchmarks. This phase ensures nothing important is lost before development and testing begins.

  • Benchmark current SEO performance: Record baseline rankings, organic traffic and priority pages so post-migration performance can be compared.
  • Prepare an SEO specification for the new site: Define key SEO requirements such as URL structure, CMS functionality and how metadata should be handled.
  • Conduct a full website crawl: Capture the existing site’s structure, URLs and key SEO signals to support accurate testing and migration planning.

Phase 3: Pre-Launch Testing (Staging Website)

Test the new site in a controlled environment before launch. This is where SEO is validated on a staging version of the site.

  • Review page templates and content: Ensure key SEO elements are present and, at a minimum, match the previous website.
  • Review internal linking and site structure: Check that navigation and internal links support crawlability and a logical page hierarchy.
  • Conduct a technical SEO review: Validate core technical signals such as indexability, mobile setup and structured data at a high level.
  • Set up analytics tracking: Ensure GA4 is configured correctly so performance can be monitored from day one.

Phase 4: Launch Day Spot Checks

Validate everything as the site goes live. Launch day is where issues most commonly surface, so checks need to be fast and focused.

  • Crawl the new website: Run initial checks to surface obvious errors or unexpected changes.
  • Spot-check crawlability and indexing signals: Confirm search engines can access the site and nothing critical is blocked or marked noindex.
  • Validate redirects and migrated content: Ensure old URLs resolve correctly and that metadata, copy and internal links have migrated as planned.
  • Complete final content checks: Sense-check priority pages to confirm content displays correctly in the live environment.

Phase 5: Post-Migration Checks

Monitor stability during the critical early period. The first couple of weeks after launch are the most important for catching issues early and protecting visibility.

  • Monitor indexation and crawl behaviour: Track how search engines process the new site and address errors or anomalies quickly.
  • Track ranking and traffic movement: Watch for unexpected drops or gains and assess whether they relate to technical changes or natural reprocessing.

This stage effectively acts as your post-migration SEO checklist, helping stabilise performance after launch.

Phase 6: Performance Review

Measure impact and confirm long-term stability. Review performance against your pre-migration benchmarks to gauge success.

  • Compare performance against baseline: Review rankings, visibility and organic engagement to confirm the migration has been successful.
  • Identify next optimisation opportunities: Use insights from the migration to inform ongoing SEO and content improvements.

Download our SEO Migration Checklist to use on your next project.

Need help managing a site migration?

We focus on the SEO side of website migrations: protecting rankings, traffic and visibility while your developers handle the build.

Our team combines deep technical SEO expertise with content strategy to manage website migrations safely and methodically, without risking the visibility you’ve worked hard to build.

If you’d like support managing your SEO site migration, get in touch and we’ll talk you through the next steps.