Site Migration SEO Checklist with Auditite

Overview

Site migrations are the highest-risk events in SEO. A single missed redirect or changed URL pattern can wipe out months of ranking progress. Use this checklist to protect your organic traffic before, during, and after migration.

Pre-Migration Phase

• Document current organic traffic baseline (sessions, revenue, top landing pages)
• Export full crawl of the existing site with all URLs, status codes, and metadata
• Map every old URL to its corresponding new URL in a redirect spreadsheet
• Identify the top 100 landing pages by organic traffic and verify each has a 1:1 redirect
• Audit all inbound backlinks and ensure the most valuable ones point to pages with redirects
• Download current XML sitemaps and robots.txt as backups
• Screenshot Google Search Console performance data for the last 12 months
• Set up a staging environment that search engines cannot access (password protection or IP restriction)
• Test the staging site with a full crawl to catch broken links and missing content
• Verify all structured data is implemented correctly on the new site
• Confirm canonical tags point to the correct new URLs
• Check that hreflang tags (if applicable) are updated for the new URL structure
• Ensure the new site has equivalent or better page speed performance

Migration Day

• Implement all 301 redirects simultaneously with the launch
• Verify redirects are working by testing a sample of 50+ URLs across different templates
• Upload the new XML sitemap to the new site
• Update robots.txt to allow crawling of the new site
• Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console
• If changing domains, add and verify the new domain in Google Search Console
• Use the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console (for domain migrations)
• Test the site on mobile devices to confirm responsive behavior
• Verify HTTPS is enforced on all pages with valid certificates
• Check that Google Analytics and other tracking scripts are firing correctly

Post-Migration Monitoring (Week 1)

• Monitor Google Search Console for crawl errors daily
• Check server logs for 404 spikes that indicate missed redirects
• Track indexed page count in Google Search Console — it should gradually shift to new URLs
• Verify top 20 keywords are still ranking within expected positions
• Run a full crawl of the live new site and compare against the staging crawl
• Check that all internal links point to new URLs directly (not through redirects)
• Monitor Core Web Vitals for any performance regressions

Post-Migration Monitoring (Weeks 2-8)

• Compare organic traffic week-over-week against the pre-migration baseline
• Document any ranking drops and investigate whether they correlate with redirect gaps
• Update any external profiles, social media links, and directory listings to the new URLs
• Reach out to high-value backlink sources and request they update their links
• Continue monitoring crawl stats in Search Console for the full stabilization period
• Run a backlink audit to confirm link equity is flowing through redirects

Common Migration Pitfalls

Redirect Mapping Errors

The number one cause of migration traffic loss is incomplete redirect coverage. Every single URL that ever received traffic or backlinks must redirect. Use server log data in addition to crawl data to find URLs you might have missed.

Relative URL References

When migrating CMS platforms, watch for internal links, images, and scripts that use relative paths. These can break silently if the URL structure changes.

Staging Environment Leaks

If search engines index your staging site, you will have duplicate content issues. Always verify that staging is blocked before populating it with content.

Premature Redirect Removal

Keep 301 redirects active for at least one year after migration. Removing them too early causes immediate traffic loss on pages that still have cached old URLs in search results.

Success Criteria

A successful migration should show:

• Less than 10% organic traffic dip in the first two weeks
• Full traffic recovery within 4-8 weeks
• Zero critical crawl errors related to the migration
• All top 50 keywords maintaining position within two ranking spots