Website Migration SEO Checklist: Before, During and After the Move

Site migrations are the most common cause of sudden, lasting traffic loss we see. A redesign that changes URLs, a move to a new domain, or a switch from WooCommerce to Shopify can all erase years of search visibility if old URLs aren’t mapped and redirected properly.

The good news is that migrations are predictable. Google publishes detailed guidance on site moves, and the steps below follow it: prepare a URL map, redirect every old URL to its closest new equivalent, update all signals, and monitor until Google has processed the move.

Types of migration and their risk

Migration	URLs change?	Main risks
Redesign on the same platform	Sometimes	Lost content, changed URLs, new templates with noindex or missing links
HTTP to HTTPS	Yes (protocol)	Mixed content, redirect chains, sitemap still listing HTTP
Domain change	Yes (host)	Redirect coverage, Change of Address, previous owner’s penalties on a used domain
Platform change (e.g. WooCommerce → Shopify)	Usually	Platform-forced URL structures, lost metadata and structured data
Merging sites	Yes	Duplicate content, unclear destination pages

Before the move

1. Benchmark: export Search Console performance by page and query, analytics landing pages, and a full crawl with titles, status codes and canonicals.
2. Verify everything: add all variants of both old and new sites in Search Console (or Domain properties).
3. Check a new domain’s history: look for manual actions and URL removals left by a previous owner.
4. List every old URL: combine your CMS export, sitemaps, analytics, server logs and Search Console’s Links report. Include images, PDFs, videos, CSS and JavaScript.
5. Build the URL map: one row per old URL with its new destination. Map to the closest equivalent, not the home page.
6. Decide what’s not moving: retired content should return 404 or 410.
7. Check server capacity: Google temporarily crawls a new site more heavily than usual.

Launch day

1. Put the new site live and remove any staging noindex and robots.txt blocks.
2. Activate server-side permanent redirects (301 or 308) from every mapped old URL. Avoid chains; Google suggests keeping them short and redirecting directly to the final URL.
3. Make sure each new URL has a self-referencing canonical, and update hreflang annotations if you use them.
4. Update internal links to point straight to new URLs rather than through redirects.
5. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console. Keeping the old sitemap for a short time helps you watch Google process the redirects.
6. For domain or subdomain moves, use the Change of Address tool in the old property. It isn’t needed for HTTP to HTTPS or path changes.
7. Re-upload any disavow file to the new property if you had one.

Redirect rules that protect your rankings

• Redirect each old URL to its closest equivalent; avoid sending many unrelated URLs to the home page.
• Keep parameters that matter (pagination, product variants) or map them deliberately.
• Don’t redirect to URLs that 404 or redirect again.
• Avoid JavaScript and meta-refresh redirects; Google treats JavaScript redirects as a last resort.
• Keep redirects for as long as possible, generally at least one year.

Google’s site-move documentation also says you don’t need to worry about losing link credit with 301 redirects. What loses visibility is missing or wrong redirects, not the redirects themselves.

After the move: monitoring

When	Check
Day 1	Crawl old URL list: every URL returns one redirect to a 200 page; key pages indexable
Week 1	Page indexing report for spikes in Not found (404), Redirect error, Blocked by robots.txt
Weeks 1–4	Search Console performance for old vs new property; analytics landing pages; server logs for Googlebot errors
Month 2–3	Rankings and traffic compared with the benchmark; fix pages that lost the most
12 months+	Keep redirects; update external links you control (profiles, ads, partners)

Some ranking fluctuation is normal. Google says that for medium-sized sites it can take a few weeks or more for new URLs to appear, longer for large sites, and that Google must see every old and new URL at least once.

Common migration mistakes

• Leftover noindex or robots.txt blocks from staging.
• Redirects pointing to URLs that don’t exist (look for a jump in “Not found”).
• Redirecting everything to the home page.
• Sitemaps not updated with new URLs.
• Lost on-page elements: titles, meta descriptions, headings, structured data and image alt text.
• Insufficient server capacity for increased crawling.
• Removing redirects after a few months.

Platform moves add their own issues. Shopify, for example, uses fixed URL patterns for products and collections, so mapping has to be planned carefully; our platform SEO service covers these moves. If your Google Shopping feed changes domain, update Merchant Center at the same time; see verifying and claiming your website.

Checklist summary

• ☐ Benchmark exported (Search Console, analytics, crawl)
• ☐ All old URLs collected, including media and documents
• ☐ URL map complete; retired content set to 404/410
• ☐ Redirects tested on staging; no chains or loops
• ☐ Staging blocks removed at launch
• ☐ Canonicals, hreflang, internal links and sitemaps updated
• ☐ Change of Address submitted (domain moves only)
• ☐ Page indexing, 404s and server logs monitored weekly for the first month
• ☐ Redirects kept for at least a year

Run the technical SEO checklist on the new site within the first week, and see how to fix indexing problems if pages don’t reappear.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Google Search Central: Site moves with URL changes
• Google Search Central: Redirects and Google Search
• Google Search Central: How to specify a canonical URL
• Google Search Central: Build and submit a sitemap
• Search Console Help: Page indexing report

Last reviewed October 12, 2026.