WEBSITE MIGRATION SEO CHECKLISTWebsite migration SEO checklist: redesign without losing the map
A visual redesign can look successful while search traffic quietly breaks. Treat the old website as an inventory: record URLs, intent, rankings, conversions, assets, metadata, and redirects before the new design is approved.
Real codeDraft before publishVersion historyDocument and media library
Freeze a crawlable baseline, map every valuable old URL, preserve or deliberately improve intent, test redirects and canonicals, and keep the old-to-new evidence available to the person who publishes the release.
Start with the delivery question, not the demo
A search for website migration SEO checklist can begin with an attractive demo or a short feature list. That is a useful first screen, but it rarely answers the delivery question: can the people responsible for the public website work from Collect old URL exports, Search Console and analytics data, sitemap, metadata, forms, downloadable files, and redirect rules and Write one measurable primary action for moving to a better site while preserving useful search paths and measurable conversions, keep claims reviewable, and make the next change without starting over? The real risk is usually not a missing screen in the first build. It is the useful source material is trapped in old url exports, search console and analytics data, sitemap, metadata, forms, downloadable files, and redirect rules.