SEO-Friendly Website Migration Checklist

Website migration is the process of making major changes to a website’s technology, structure, design, or location, often with the goal of improving the site’s user experience and SEO performance.

Common reasons for website migration include:

• Moving to a new framework or website platform such as WordPress or Wix to enhance performance, security, or functionality.
• Changing website architecture to improve user experience and SEO results.
• Switching from HTTP to HTTPS for securing visitor information and adhering to Google's recommendations.
• Moving to a new server to increase site speed, which benefits both visitors and search engines.
• Changing the domain name, often as part of a rebranding effort, and moving old content to the new site.

Yes, website migration typically has a negative impact on SEO in the short term due to the time it takes for search engines to understand the changes made to the site. However, in the long term, the impact is positive if the site has indeed improved.

To minimize the negative impact on SEO during website migration, it is essential to follow website migration best practices. This includes careful planning, setting clear objectives, familiarizing with the migration process, collecting benchmarks, assembling a skilled team, creating a realistic timeline, and conducting a technical SEO audit.

A website migration checklist should include the following steps:

1. Preparing for the migration by creating an SEO migration plan.
2. Preparing for your specific migration type (domain change, hosting provider change, HTTP to HTTPS, platform change).
3. Making a copy of your site for a safe testing environment.
4. Blocking access to your staging site to prevent search engines from indexing it prematurely.
5. Preparing the new site with necessary changes.
6. Setting up Google Analytics 4 on your staging site.
7. Running a technical SEO audit on your staging site.
8. Giving Googlebot temporary access to your staging site for crawlability testing.
9. Updating your DNS TTL value if changing hosting providers.
10. Mapping old URLs to new URLs if changing domain or URL structure.
11. Performing final checks on your staging site.
12. Completing the migration by recording the current site status, creating a content backup, and updating DNS settings.
13. Enabling redirects and removals.
14. Completing SEO-focused tasks in Google Search Console.
15. Updating external links.
16. Monitoring the migration using tools like Site Audit, GA4, and GSC.
17. Tracking your keyword rankings.
18. Adding a Semrush note about your migration.
19. Canceling your old hosting if applicable.
20. Troubleshooting any issues post-migration.