I am an SEO professional and believe me, I have specialized in this gig, and when I say these migrations are no joke, I mean every syllable of it. You may think of the most difficult job as anything, but if you are migrating a website, I can tell you that it will beat your ideal most difficult task. Why? Because it is one of the most complex and risky things you can do in the online world. Anything can go wrong and the result will be heavy traffic losses, serious drops in search engine rankings, and something called indexing nightmares that all SEO professionals are very well aware of. So, for your ease, here are some points you must consider before hacking your way into the migration world.
1. Set Boundaries
This is not just a statement for statement’s sake. It’s quite typical, I know: some team decides to launch into a migration with little knowledge of its risks and all of it goes horribly wrong. And in case, you doubt yourself, don’t be afraid to ask a professional. In particular because CMS and Domain Migrations don’t forgive mistakes; one single miscalculation and the whole website could be destroyed for good causing ranking drop and indexing problems where the recovery could take time ranging from several months to many years.
When I work with clients, I make sure they understand that even in a perfect migration, position losses, index fluctuations, and profile changes are almost guaranteed. You need to prepare your team and stakeholders for this. No one likes surprises, especially when they come in the form of traffic plunges.
2. Expect Position Losses and Index Fluctuations
Even if you carry out a clean migration, expect index dropout and position fluctuation. That’s just part of the game. Google’s crawlers need time to reprocess your site in its new configuration or location. You might lose some rankings temporarily, but with a solid migration plan, those positions should bounce back over time.
This is a critical point that many overlook, and I’ve had to have difficult conversations with stakeholders who expected immediate gains post-migration. Instead, the key is mitigation, not complete avoidance. Prepare everyone for the inevitable changes and emphasize that they are part of the process.
3. Address CMS-Specific Pitfalls
So before making a migration it’s very important to have as much knowledge as possible about the target CMS. Each CMS has their strengths and weaknesses and believe me, there are some out there that aren’t the best. For instance, if you are changing your online store from WooCommerce to Shopify, you should note the less than perfect canonical tag setup in Shopify.
I learned the hard way that these CMS-specific issues can wreak havoc if not dealt with before the migration. You need to thoroughly audit the target CMS and address any potential pitfalls upfront, whether it’s canonical tag misconfigurations, sitemap issues, or how URLs are structured.
4. Clean Up Before You Move
Here’s a checklist I always use to ensure I don’t migrate a mess:
Redirect Chains:
Clean up your internal 301s, 302s, and 308s. A migration is a perfect time to tidy up any redirect chains. The last thing you want is to add more complexity post-migration, so break those chains and make sure all redirects are as direct as possible.
404 Errors:
Don’t migrate broken links. Internal 404s or external links leading to dead pages will create indexing headaches for you later on. I always audit for these issues before any migration starts.
Inconsistent Internal Links:
Make sure your internal linking structure is consistent. I’ve seen sites with a mix of www vs non-www and trailing slash vs non-trailing slash URLs. This leads to duplicate content issues that Google will not forgive easily.
Canonical Configuration:
If you’ve allowed your canonical tags to get messy over time, now’s the time to fix them. Many CMS platforms don’t handle this well, and if you migrate without addressing this, you’re carrying over problems that can seriously damage your rankings.
Non-Indexed Pages:
Reducing the number of non-indexed pages is another crucial step pre-migration. Pages that are not indexed can slow down your entire process. The “carry over” effect is real, and bringing non-indexed pages into your new site can complicate your post-migration indexing.
Alternate Pages with Canonicals:
If you have many alternate pages with canonical tags, look into these before migrating. This could involve double trailing slashes, repetitive subfolders, or unnecessary parameters. You want to minimize the chances of creating child canonical URLs that Google might struggle with after migration.
5. Perform a Content Audit Pre-Migration
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is migrating dead content. Whether you’re changing domains or CMS, performing a content audit is essential. Cull anything that has no value. Google is notorious for dumping a bunch of dead content into the “crawled/discovered currently not indexed” bucket post-migration, especially if there’s a lot of low-quality material on your site.
I always recommend a thorough content audit before migration, especially when moving to a new CMS. This will ensure that you’re only migrating content that’s valuable and likely to be indexed in the new environment.
6. Plan Your Redirects
If you’re changing domains, you’ll need a comprehensive redirect map. This is non-negotiable. I always start by exporting a list of all indexed URLs and mapping them to their new counterparts. Ensure that no content is referring to the old domain, as this can cause indexing problems and lead to unnecessary drops in rankings.
This is another area where you want to be meticulous. Any redirect chains or errors here can cause crawl inefficiencies, leading to lost traffic and ranking declines.
7. URL Policies & Robots.txt
Consistency is key when setting up your new URL structure. You’ll want to ensure that policies around HTTPS, www vs non-www, and trailing slashes are in place and enforced correctly across the site. Mismatches here can lead to duplicate content issues and seriously harm your SEO performance.
Post-migration, always check that your robots.txt file is properly configured. If it’s returning a 404 or is misconfigured, you could accidentally block Googlebot from crawling your new site.
8. Staging Site and Redirect Mapping
Before the migration begins, one often overlooked yet crucial step is to make sure your staging site is not indexable. Trust me, there’s nothing worse than having Google accidentally crawl and index your staging environment—it can cause major SEO headaches. Always check and double-check the robots.txt settings on the staging site to ensure it’s blocking all crawlers effectively.
Additionally, you’ll need to create a complete redirect map using all available resources. I use every tool at my disposal—like Google Search Console, internal crawls, and analytics—to ensure all indexed URLs from the old domain or CMS are properly redirected to their new locations. This is non-negotiable for preserving your existing SEO equity.
Ensure the staging site has proper titles, descriptions, and H1 tags on all key pages. I treat the staging site like a live environment and get all on-page SEO elements sorted before pushing it live.
9. Update Tracking and Collect Pre-Migration Data
One of the key aspects of migration is ensuring that all tracking scripts (Google Analytics, tag managers, conversion pixels) are properly updated on the new site. You don’t want to miss out on critical post-migration data simply because your tracking was broken.
It’s also important to collect pre-migration data so you can compare your site’s performance before and after. I gather detailed reports on current traffic, rankings, and crawl stats. This gives me clear benchmarks to measure the success of the migration.
10. Sitemap Changes and GSC Submission
Last but not the least, if the migration affects the sitemap structure, the sitemap needs to be updated and as soon as the migration is done this sitemap has to be submitted to the GSC. This in turn assisted Google to easily identify your pages for re-indexing and take a shorter time to get back into the task hence shortening time of down time.
Additional Critical Pre-Migration Steps
Make sure the staging site is not indexable:
Before launching any migration, ensure that your staging environment is blocked from being indexed by search engines. One simple mistake, like leaving your staging site open to Google, can lead to duplicate content issues and ranking penalties. A quick robots.txt setup or noindex tag can save you from these problems. I always run a final check to make sure the staging site is not accessible to crawlers before moving forward.
Create a complete redirect map using all available resources:
One of the most important tasks in migration is to create a map of redirects. I recommend using all available data sources: There should be server logs, Google Analytics and Search Console data, raw crawl data etc. Make sure every URL has a corresponding redirect to its new location. Mismatched or missed redirects can cause a severe loss of rankings, as search engines won’t be able to find your content.
Ensure the staging site has titles, descriptions, and H1s on all important pages:
From our experience, it is a common mistake during the pre-migration phase not to pay attention to basic on-page SEO components such as titles, meta descriptions, or H1 tags, which are displayed in the staging environment. But these have to be optimized and available and prepared before you turn the switch on.
Ensure tracking is updated on the new site:
Among all the steps, one of the most important yet often neglected is to update your analytics tracking. When tracking codes are put in Google Analytics, Tag Manager or any other system of tracking, the codes have to be installed on the new site in the proper manner. This makes it easier to check on the impact of the migration and is vital in that you should be able to check up on any problems after the launch.
Collect data points before the migration to measure success:
You won’t be able to measure the success of your migration if you don’t know where you started. I always collect baseline data from Google Analytics, Search Console, and third-party tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. Metrics like traffic, rankings, crawl rates, and indexation will help you identify issues post-migration and measure recovery.
If the sitemap is changing, make sure it is updated and submitted to GSC:
If your sitemap is going to be dynamic after migration you have to make sure that the sitemap is updated and index submitted to Google Search Console right after. This helps Google crawl and index the new structure efficiently. I usually resubmit the sitemap as soon as the migration is live to ensure there’s no delay in indexing.
Migrating Without the Headaches
Website migrations are always complex, however, if certain factors are properly and adequately considered as well as sticking to such steps it is very unlikely to lose traffic or ranking. This is the simplest way of saying it, but at the end of the day, SEO is all about being more proactive than reactive. Spend as much time as possible in shifting, do not forget about cleaning your current site, auditing your content, and setting policies. Want to remind you though that things are to change – just make sure your stakeholders are aware of this and do not lose your temper as your site is still under construction.
By doing the above mentioned, you will have a much better chance of migrating and making the migration a success.
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+971 582 871635