Website migration SEO checklist

A website migration SEO checklist is the evidence set that keeps a site’s URLs, canonical signals and crawl paths intact through a domain, platform or path change. SiteBienfait builds that checklist as a redirect map plus an SEO contract before cutover. Google Search Central, updated 2026-08-20, states that 301 and other permanent redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank.

What belongs in a website migration SEO checklist?

Six artefacts carry a migration: a complete URL inventory, a one-to-one redirect map, a canonical and sitemap plan, a content parity list, a measurement baseline from Search Console, and a rollback plan. Each one is a document that can be reviewed before the move and re-checked after it, rather than a step someone remembers on launch night.

Google Search Central, updated 2026-08-20, lists the same shape from the search engine’s side: prepare the new site and test it, prepare a mapping from current URLs to new ones, configure server redirects, then monitor traffic on both the old and new URLs. A checklist that skips the mapping has nothing to verify.

How is the URL inventory built before anything moves?

Start from three overlapping lists: every URL a crawl reaches through internal links, every URL in the current XML sitemap, and every page that collected impressions or links in the last twelve months. Merge them and de-duplicate, because each source misses pages the others catch.

Then classify each row. A page is kept (same path), moved (new path, needs a redirect), merged (two pages become one) or removed. Google Search Central, updated 2026-08-20, is explicit that content that is not moving to the new site should return a proper 404 or 410 response rather than a redirect to the homepage. A catch-all redirect hides which pages were deliberately dropped.

Which redirect type belongs in the map?

Permanent moves use a server-side 301 or 308. Google Search Central, updated 2026-04-14, explains that permanent redirects tell Googlebot the redirect target should be canonical, and that server-side redirects have the highest chance of being interpreted correctly. Meta refresh works when server configuration is unavailable. JavaScript redirects are a last resort, recommended only when server-side or meta refresh redirects are impossible.

Temporary situations are different. A page that will return within days uses a 302, because the same page states that temporary redirects do not move the canonical signal away from the source URL.

What must be true on cutover day?

Both properties are verified in Search Console, every verified variant included. Redirects are live and tested. Canonical tags on the new site point at the new URLs, not the old ones. The new sitemap is submitted and the old one removed. Google Search Central, updated 2026-08-20, also notes that the new site should expect heavier crawling after the move, so server capacity is part of the plan.

For a domain change only, submit Change of Address for every verified variant of the old domain. Google Search Central, updated 2026-08-20, states the tool is not needed for HTTP to HTTPS moves, www to non-www changes or path changes within one domain.

What is checked in the weeks after the move?

Expect fluctuation. Google Search Central, updated 2026-08-20, describes ranking fluctuation while the site is recrawled and reindexed, and says a move is complete only once Googlebot has visited every URL on both the old and the new site. Monitor four things: old URLs redirecting, new URLs indexed, query impressions transferring, and the sitemap report showing the new URLs picked up.

Keep the redirects in place for at least a year. Removing them early severs the only path between an external link and its new destination.

SiteBienfait’s migration route turns the inventory and mapping into a change set with a preview, a gate and a rollback. Before that, the redirect map checker compares a live URL list with a new one and shows which paths are preserved, redirected or missing. The companion guide on building a 301 redirect map from a crawl covers the row-by-row method.

Sources

• Google Search Central, Move a site with URL changes, last updated 2026-08-20.
• Google Search Central, Redirects and Google Search, last updated 2026-04-14.
• Google Search Central, Build and submit a sitemap, last updated 2026-07-08.
• Google Search Central, How to specify a canonical URL, last updated 2026-07-10.