Post-migration Technical Seo Checklist for Developers

by

When a website undergoes a migration, whether it’s a domain change, platform switch, or URL restructuring, ensuring that your SEO remains intact is crucial. A comprehensive post-migration technical SEO checklist helps developers identify and fix potential issues that could harm your search engine rankings.

Pre-Migration Preparation

  • Backup your website and database to prevent data loss.
  • Perform a full SEO audit of the current site to establish a baseline.
  • Create a detailed URL mapping plan to track old and new URLs.
  • Ensure all important pages are indexed before migration.

Post-Migration Checklist

1. Verify Website Accessibility

  • Check that the website loads correctly on all devices and browsers.
  • Ensure that the new URLs are live and accessible.
  • Test server response codes to confirm 200 OK status for all pages.

2. Update and Submit Sitemaps

  • Create an updated XML sitemap reflecting the new URL structure.
  • Submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
  • Remove or deindex old sitemaps to prevent confusion.

3. Check Robots.txt and Redirects

  • Update robots.txt to allow search engines to crawl the new site.
  • Implement 301 redirects from old URLs to corresponding new URLs.
  • Test redirect chains to avoid redirect loops or errors.

4. Analyze Site Performance

  • Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to assess load times.
  • Optimize images and scripts for faster performance.
  • Ensure mobile responsiveness is maintained or improved.

Post-Migration Monitoring

1. Track Indexing and Rankings

  • Monitor Google Search Console for crawl errors and indexing issues.
  • Check keyword rankings to identify any drops or improvements.
  • Identify and fix pages that are not being indexed properly.
  • Use crawling tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to find broken links.
  • Update or remove broken internal and external links.
  • Ensure all redirects are functioning correctly.

Conclusion

Successful website migration requires careful planning and execution. Following this technical SEO checklist ensures that your site maintains its visibility and ranking in search engines after migration. Regular monitoring and prompt fixes are key to a smooth transition.