Website Migration SEO Checklist: Before, During & After

Before the migration

Create a complete URL inventory, benchmark rankings and traffic, map redirects, validate templates on staging, and protect the staging environment from indexation.

During launch

Implement server-side redirects, update internal links and canonicals, publish correct sitemaps and robots rules, and test critical templates immediately.

After launch

Crawl the old and new URL sets, verify redirects and response codes, monitor Search Console and analytics, and resolve redirect chains, missing pages and canonical conflicts.

Keep the migration measurable

Record launch dates and annotations, retain pre-launch benchmarks, and report changes by page type and search intent rather than relying only on sitewide totals.