Website Redesign SEO Migration Checklist

The task and the failure mode

Built for: Teams replacing a live website, CMS, information architecture, domain, or frontend rendering system without losing established search demand and lead evidence.

A visually successful launch can lose search demand when high-value URLs disappear, redirects are guessed, content or proof is cut, raw rendering regresses, or analytics changes without a baseline and rollback plan.

Workflow

01Export the complete live route, search, backlink, conversion, content, and ownership inventory.
02Map keep, update, consolidate, redirect, remove, and investigate decisions in the downloadable ledger.
03Validate staging architecture, content parity, raw rendering, canonicals, links, schema, analytics, and conversions.
04Freeze owners, launch checks, rollback thresholds, and the approved redirect map before deployment.
05Crawl and monitor old and new route groups at defined intervals, preserving evidence and unresolved exceptions.

Evidence to retain

Prelaunch URL and redirect ledger with old URL, decision, destination, reason, owner, and test status.
Baseline by page, query, route group, links, conversion path, and business outcome.
Tested redirects, raw metadata, rendered content, analytics events, launch log, rollback criteria, and postlaunch crawl evidence.

Sample

Example redirect-map row

Old URL: /services/ac-repair
Decision: 301 redirect to the approved canonical replacement.
Destination: /air-conditioning-repair
Validation: One hop, 200 destination, self-canonical, internal links updated, conversion path tested.

Boundaries and caveats

Redesigns can change demand and conversion even when the technical migration is correct, so annotate external and commercial changes.

Do not redirect unrelated retired URLs to the homepage or claim recovery before Search Console and lead cohorts have enough postlaunch data.

Website redesign SEO migration checklist

30-point redesign migration release gate