SEO Checklist for Website Migration (SMEs)

A website migration — whether it’s a domain change, CMS switch, URL restructure, HTTP-to-HTTPS upgrade, or full redesign — is one of the highest-risk events in a website’s SEO history. Done without a proper SEO protocol, migrations routinely cause 30-50% drops in organic traffic that take 6-18 months to recover. Done with a thorough SEO checklist, migrations preserve organic rankings and traffic while achieving the structural improvements the migration was intended to deliver. This checklist covers every critical SEO step for SME website migrations.

Pre-Migration: Documentation and Baseline

• Export all current URLs: use Screaming Frog to crawl and export every URL on the current site (including subpages, blog posts, category pages, and image files). This is your migration map — every URL needs either a redirect or explicit documentation of why it was intentionally removed.
• Document organic rankings baseline: export current keyword rankings from Google Search Console before migration. This is your post-migration comparison baseline — you’ll need it to identify specific ranking drops that require attention.
• Export Google Search Console data: download impressions, clicks, and CTR for the last 12 months by page. Record which pages drive the most organic traffic.
• Identify top-performing pages: list the 20-30 pages with the most organic traffic, highest conversion rates, and most external backlinks. These are your highest-priority preservation targets.
• Document all external backlinks: export your backlink profile from Ahrefs or Google Search Console. After migration, backlinks pointing to old URLs need redirect coverage — broken backlinks lose the link equity they represent.

Pre-Launch: Staging Environment Verification

• Block staging environment from indexing: before launching the new site, ensure the staging environment has `Disallow: /` in robots.txt and noindex meta tags on every page. A staging environment indexed by Google creates duplicate content problems that complicate post-migration recovery.
• Map all redirect chains: every old URL should redirect to its new equivalent via a single 301 redirect. Avoid redirect chains (A→B→C) — each hop loses equity and adds latency.
• Verify redirect completeness: every URL in your exported URL list should have a documented redirect destination or an explicit reason for deletion. No URL should return a 404 on the new site without review.
• Check all internal links: internal links on the new site should point to new URLs, not to old URLs that will redirect. Redirected internal links waste crawl budget and create unnecessary latency.
• Verify canonical tags: all pages on the new site should have correct self-referencing canonical tags pointing to the new URLs (not old URLs).
• Test structured data: validate structured data on key pages using Google’s Rich Results Test on the staging environment. Ensure schema markup transferred correctly.
• Verify page speed: run Lighthouse on key staging pages. A migration that degrades page speed also degrades Core Web Vitals scores — fix performance issues before launch, not after.

Launch Day Checklist

• Remove staging noindex/disallow settings and deploy the live site.
• Verify redirects are active in production (not just staging) by testing 20+ key old URLs.
• Submit the new XML sitemap to Google Search Console immediately after launch.
• Request indexing for the homepage and top 10 most important pages in Google Search Console using the URL Inspection tool’s “Request Indexing” feature.
• Verify the new domain/URL is added to Google Search Console with both www and non-www variants (if applicable) verified.

Post-Launch: Monitoring and Recovery

• Monitor Coverage report daily for Week 1: watch for sudden spikes in 404 errors or “Excluded” URLs. Address new 404s immediately by adding missing redirects.
• Compare organic traffic weekly vs. pre-migration baseline: track total organic sessions and page-level organic traffic in GA4. A 10-15% temporary dip is normal; drops over 25% on key pages warrant immediate investigation.
• Check rankings for top 50 keywords at Week 1, Week 2, and Week 4: significant ranking drops for priority keywords indicate pages that need specific attention (missing redirect, content issue, canonical error).
• Verify external backlinks are resolving correctly: run a spot-check of your top backlink sources to ensure they’re reaching the correct new URL (not returning 404 or redirecting to the homepage instead of the specific page).
• Update Google Business Profile and other business listings: if the domain changed, update all external citations (GBP, social profiles, directories, partner sites) with the new URL.

Conclusion: SEO Migration Support with Les Communicateurs

A properly executed website migration preserves organic rankings while achieving the structural improvements that motivated the migration. The checklist above — followed rigorously — eliminates the most common causes of post-migration traffic drops. SMEs that skip this process risk months of recovery from avoidable ranking losses.

Les Communicateurs provides SEO migration planning, implementation oversight, and post-migration monitoring for SME website migrations. Contact us before your next migration to ensure your organic traffic is protected.