Website Cost Calculator
Checklist • SEO & Migration
Website Migration SEO Checklist
A practical SEO migration checklist for URL mapping, redirects, canonicals, sitemaps, internal links, Search Console and post-launch monitoring.
Use this Resource
How to use it
A migration should preserve the signals users and search engines already rely on while the website changes underneath.
Use this checklist whenever a redesign changes URLs, domains, CMS structure or large parts of the information architecture. Google recommends planning URL mappings, permanent redirects and post-move monitoring rather than treating SEO migration as a launch-day task.
Before development finishes
- Export the current crawlable URL list, XML sitemap and priority organic landing pages.
- Record important backlinks, search traffic and high-performing query/page combinations.
- Decide which URLs remain unchanged, which move and which disappear.
- Avoid changing domain, CMS, URL structure and content strategy simultaneously unless necessary.
Build the URL map
- Map each old URL to the closest relevant new destination.
- Do not redirect unrelated removed pages to the homepage simply to avoid a 404.
- Preserve query-relevant content where it still serves users.
- Identify legacy files, PDFs and image URLs that receive links or organic traffic.
Prepare redirects & canonicals
- Use permanent redirects for permanently moved URLs.
- Avoid redirect chains where an old URL points through several intermediate destinations.
- Make sure canonical tags on the new site point to the final indexable URLs.
- Update internal links to the new URLs instead of relying on redirects internally.
Technical launch checks
- Remove staging noindex rules and crawl blocks intended only for development.
- Verify robots.txt reflects the production site.
- Publish an XML sitemap containing the new canonical URLs.
- Check status codes for priority URLs, redirects, removed pages and the custom 404.
- Verify analytics and Search Console ownership remains available.
Search Console & monitoring
- Submit the new sitemap after launch.
- Monitor indexing, clicks and priority landing pages for unexpected changes.
- Check server logs or crawl data for repeated requests to unmapped old URLs.
- Expect some fluctuation while Google recrawls and reprocesses moved URLs.
- Keep redirects in place long enough for users, links and search engines to transition.
Post-launch content QA
- Check titles, H1s and primary content on migrated pages.
- Verify internal navigation and contextual links point to live destinations.
- Review image alt text and media references after migration.
- Compare organic landing-page performance against the saved pre-launch baseline.
Research references
Need help applying it?
Explore Antibe Services
Use the resource to get clearer. Use us when you are ready to turn the decisions into the actual website.
The resource should expose the important questions before the work becomes a list of disconnected tasks.
Ready to move from planning to execution?