Know what moves. Check what matters.
A practical checklist for planning a website migration: content, URLs, integrations, access, launch checks, and the review after going live.
Discuss your projectPlanning your website
Before design: Build the inventory.
List the current pages, CMS collections, downloads, forms, and connected tools. Review existing Search Console and Analytics data alongside the content. Decide what to keep, change, combine, or remove.
- Record current URLs and their proposed destinations.
- Identify content owners and approval requirements.
- Confirm access to the CMS, hosting, domain, and analytics.
Before development: Agree the move.
Define the new content structure and who is responsible for transferring each part. Document the redirect map and the integrations that must still work. Confirm how content changes during the build will be handled.
Before launch: Test the complete journey.
Review the built site with real content and test the actions visitors need to take. Check the migration against the inventory, not just the new navigation.
- Review important URLs, redirects, canonical links, and indexing settings.
- Submit test enquiries and verify their destination.
- Check mobile layouts, keyboard use, and content accuracy.
- Confirm domain access, launch approval, and a recovery plan.
After launch: Verify the live website.
Check the public pages, redirects, forms, sitemap, and analytics on the live domain. Use Search Console to review crawling and indexing as fresh data becomes available. Investigate unexpected changes; no migration process can promise unchanged rankings.
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