ClawCraft
WEBSITE MIGRATION SEO CHECKLIST

Website 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.

Website launch checklist, international map, and analytics report

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.

Old website URL cards flowing through redirects into organized new pages and a search verification path
Migration is a map from old search paths to reviewed new pages, not only a visual refresh.

The operational problem behind this search

  • The useful source material is trapped in old URL exports, Search Console and analytics data, sitemap, metadata, forms, downloadable files, and redirect rules
  • The page is designed before the team agrees on moving to a better site while preserving useful search paths and measurable conversions
  • Generic generation hides the missing evidence: crawl results, redirect tests, owner-approved content, analytics annotations, and post-launch monitoring

What changes with a persistent website agent

  • A focused page organized around moving to a better site while preserving useful search paths and measurable conversions
  • A durable project that preserves old URL exports, Search Console and analytics data, sitemap, metadata, forms, downloadable files, and redirect rules
  • A reviewable Draft whose claims can be checked against crawl results, redirect tests, owner-approved content, analytics annotations, and post-launch monitoring

Turn the shortlist into one small, reviewable test

Use one real page, one approved evidence pack, and one named reviewer to test the workflow. Ask each option to produce a Draft, then check the path from source material to page, the quality of the review conversation, and the precision of the publish boundary. A useful result is not simply that a page appeared quickly; it is a focused page organized around moving to a better site while preserving useful search paths and measurable conversions. This keeps the comparison grounded in work the team can inspect rather than in a generic claim about which tool is “best”.

From company material to a published website

From company material to a published website

01

Organize evidence

Put the campaign brief, company files, portfolio, resume, event details, documents, images, and video in the project library and label each item’s intended use.

02

Create a Draft

The agent reads the audience, goal, facts, and assets, proposes the information architecture, implements real code, and runs foundational build checks.

03

Review the result

Owners inspect the Draft, task evidence, completion summary, and version boundaries, then request another edit if needed.

04

Publish deliberately

Only an explicit owner action moves the public domain to the new version. The same project remains available for changes informed by traffic and feedback.

Source materials and website draft connected across a studio desk

Prepare this evidence pack

  • Collect old URL exports, Search Console and analytics data, sitemap, metadata, forms, downloadable files, and redirect rules
  • Write one measurable primary action for moving to a better site while preserving useful search paths and measurable conversions
  • Mark crawl results, redirect tests, owner-approved content, analytics annotations, and post-launch monitoring as approved, missing, private, or reference-only

Who this workflow fits

  • Teams redesigning an existing company site or replacing a CMS
  • Teams that need a real URL, responsive code, analytics, and later revisions
  • Projects where reviewers must approve the page before traffic is sent

Limits and cases to evaluate separately

Frequently asked questions

Can AI redesign an old website without SEO risk?

It can accelerate inventory and drafting, but URL mapping, redirects, canonical decisions, analytics, and final content approval still need human ownership.

Can the page keep changing after launch?

Yes. ClawCraft keeps the source files, coded website, Drafts, published version, and task history together so a later brief can produce another reviewable Draft.

Does an AI-generated page publish automatically?

No. Generation creates a Draft. The current public version stays online until the project owner reviews and explicitly publishes the replacement.

Continue with a related path

The first release should make the next decision easier

After the first release, document what changed, who approved it, and which page or conversion signal will decide the next iteration. That creates a practical operating record instead of a one-off prompt. Keep the boundary visible: A new visual design is not a migration plan; deleted URLs and unreviewed claims can create lasting search and trust damage.. If a workflow can support that discipline while still helping the team move quickly, it is a stronger candidate for a company website than one judged only by its first visual result.