Site migrations are high-stakes projects. Model the potential revenue upside of a successful migration against the catastrophic downside of a failed one to build the case for proper investment and planning.
Potential Annual Gain
$265,000
Potential Annual Loss
$300,000
A site migration is one of the riskiest moments in a website's lifecycle. Executed properly, it can unlock new levels of growth. Done poorly, it can destroy years of accumulated SEO value overnight. This checklist covers the critical steps to ensure a smooth transition.
This is the most critical phase. Do not rush it.
Coordination is key on launch day.
The work isn't over at launch. Monitor closely for the next several weeks.
The single biggest risk is a failure to properly implement one-to-one 301 redirects. If your old, high-authority URLs redirect to the new homepage or result in 404 errors, you will lose the vast majority of your accumulated SEO value, and your traffic and rankings will plummet. Other risks include accidentally blocking search engines from crawling the new site or introducing major technical SEO issues with the new design.
A 301 redirect signals a permanent move. During a migration, you should use a 301 redirect for every URL that is changing. For example, 'https://oldsite.com/service' should 301 redirect to 'https://newsite.com/our-service'. This tells search engines to transfer all the ranking signals and link equity from the old URL to the new one.
It can take several weeks to a few months for Google to fully crawl the new site, process all the redirects, and update its index. It's normal to see some ranking and traffic fluctuations during this period. The key is to monitor your data closely in Google Search Console to ensure the process is happening smoothly.
A redesign typically refers to changing the look and feel of a site while keeping the underlying platform and URL structure the same. A migration is a broader term that involves more significant changes, such as moving to a new domain, switching from HTTP to HTTPS, or changing the entire content management system (CMS). All migrations involve a redesign, but not all redesigns are full migrations.
A redirect map is the single most important document for a successful migration. It's a spreadsheet that meticulously lists every URL from the old site in one column and its corresponding new URL in another. This map serves as the blueprint for developers to implement the 301 redirects, ensuring no SEO authority is lost in the transition.
Immediately after launch, check that your 301 redirects are working correctly. Ensure the old 'robots.txt' is not blocking the new site and that the new site does not have any 'noindex' tags. Submit your new sitemap to Google Search Console and use the "Inspect any URL" tool on key pages to confirm Google can access and render them correctly.