Checklist to migrate a site without losing Google traffic

Changing platform, domain or URL structure is one of the moments when the most organic traffic gets lost. It is almost never Google's fault: it is because URLs that had visits and links end up returning 404. This list is here so that does not happen.

Before migrating

1. Inventory of current URLs. Crawl the whole site and export every URL that returns 200. Add the ones in the sitemap and the ones in Search Console (Performance → Pages).
2. Identify the pages that matter. The ones getting organic traffic and the ones with external links. Those are the ones that cannot fail.
3. Build the redirect map. A spreadsheet with two columns: old URL → new URL. Every old page must go to its closest equivalent, not to the home page.
4. Save a reference point. Export your rankings and clicks for the last 3 months so you can compare later.

The day of the migration

1. 301 redirects live from the first minute. One redirect per URL, no chains (A → B → C).
2. Check the new site has no noindex and no robots.txt with Disallow: /. It is the most common mistake when going from a staging environment to production.
3. Canonical tags pointing to the new URLs.
4. A new sitemap with the new URLs, submitted in Search Console.
5. If you changed domain, use the Change of address tool in Search Console.

After migrating (the first weeks)

• Test the whole redirect map: every old URL must return a 301 to a URL that returns 200.
• Crawl the new site looking for broken internal links: menus, footers and old posts often still point to the previous URLs.
• Check Search Console daily during the first week: new 404 errors, excluded pages, coverage drops.
• Update the links you control: social profiles, email signatures, Google Business Profile, directories.
• Do not delete the redirects. Keep them for at least a year, ideally forever.

What is normal and what is not

A slight traffic dip for 2 to 4 weeks is normal while Google processes the redirects. If after a month you are still well below where you were, the most likely cause is important URLs that were not redirected or that are returning errors: go back to the inventory from step 1 and check them one by one.

If you want to see the state of your site without installing anything, scan your site free with CLIC404: it reviews broken links, security headers and basic SEO in a single report.