Migration field guide
A website migration checklist that protects traffic and operations
A migration is successful when visitors, search engines, forms, email and internal teams can continue working after the switch.
Inventory the current site before changing it
Begin with a crawl of indexable URLs, redirects, canonical tags, metadata, structured data, media files and important internal links. Record analytics, Search Console and conversion baselines so the result can be compared after launch. Forms, payment flows, downloads, account areas, webhooks and scheduled jobs also belong in the inventory because a visually correct page can still hide an operational failure.
Build a one-to-one redirect map
Every valuable old URL should resolve in one hop to the closest equivalent new URL. Redirecting everything to the home page discards context and creates a poor experience. The map should also identify pages that remain unchanged, content that is intentionally consolidated and URLs that should return a genuine removal status. Canonicals, hreflang references and internal links must point directly to final destinations.
Treat DNS and email as production dependencies
Lowering DNS time to live before the cutover can shorten propagation, but each record still needs to be copied accurately. Mail exchange, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, verification and application records are easy to overlook when only the website is discussed. A rollback plan should preserve the previous hosting state until the new site, certificates and critical integrations have been verified from outside the development environment.
Measure the launch instead of declaring it finished
After release, crawl the public domain again and compare status codes, canonical targets, indexability, structured data and content counts with the baseline. Test conversions on real mobile and desktop browsers, inspect server logs and watch search coverage over the following days. A migration handover should document the redirect map, DNS state, backups, credentials ownership and the checks that were completed.
Minimum launch controls
- Complete URL, content and integration inventory
- Tested one-hop redirect and canonical map
- Verified DNS, TLS and business email records
- Analytics, consent and conversion-event parity
- External crawl, rollback point and post-launch monitoring
