Migrations & Replatforming
SEO Checklist for Website Migration
By Adnan Ashraf · Published 21 Apr 2026 · 7 min read · 54 guides in the library
Pre, during, and post launch: indexation, redirects, sitemaps, hreflang, and validation your team can actually run.
Pre-migration: export current XML sitemaps, internal link samples, and top queries from Search Console. Baseline key rankings and landing URLs. Build a redirect map and test it in staging with representative URL sets, including edge cases and partner links.
During migration: block staging from indexation, then remove blocks at go-live. Ensure canonical tags and robots directives are correct in production, not copy-pasted from dev. Update sitemaps, submit in Search Console, and verify hreflang and domain property settings for international sites.
Content parity: check critical templates for title patterns, noindex where intended, and schema for products, articles, and organization. For large catalogs, sample deep pages, not only the home page.
Post-migration: monitor index coverage, crawl stats, and soft 404s. Fix redirect chains, parameter issues, and unexpected noindex tags quickly. Log file analysis is valuable for large sites to see how Google actually crawls the new structure.
Document decisions: what changed, what was merged, and what was intentionally removed. Future teams (and future you) will need that context for the next redesign.
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