1️⃣ Plan Before You Move #
✅ Understand the impact
- Migrations can cause temporary ranking dips.
- Medium sites: few weeks for recovery; large sites: longer.
✅ Change one thing at a time
- Don’t mix domain change, CMS change, and redesign together.
✅ Choose the right timing
- Do it during low traffic periods.
✅ Verify both old & new properties in Search Console
- Include all variants (http, https, www, non-www).
2️⃣ Prepare the New Site #
✅ Set up CMS + content
- Import all pages, media, and downloads.
- Ensure canonical tags, hreflang (if multilingual), and metadata are correct.
✅ Check robots.txt & noindex
- Prepare final robots.txt for launch.
- Remove noindex before migration.
✅ Ensure server capacity
- Expect higher Googlebot crawl load post-migration.
3️⃣ Create URL Mapping
✅ List all old URLs
- From sitemaps, analytics, Search Console, server logs.
✅ Map to new URLs
- One-to-one mapping is ideal.
- Consolidated content can redirect multiple old URLs to one relevant new page.
✅ Include all assets
- Map images, videos, JS, CSS to new paths.
4️⃣ Redirect Strategy #
✅ Use 301 or 308 (permanent redirects)
- Best for SEO & signal transfer.
- Avoid chains (max 3 hops, preferably direct to final URL).
✅ Implement redirects at server level
- Apache: .htaccess rules
- NGINX: rewrite or return
- CMS: built-in redirect plugins (if supported)
✅ Avoid irrelevant redirects
- Don’t send all pages to homepage (Google may treat as soft 404).
5️⃣ Launch the Move #
✅ Turn on redirects
✅ Remove temporary crawl blocks
✅ Submit Change of Address in Search Console (if domain change)
✅ Submit new sitemap
- Include only new URLs.
- Remove old sitemap once migration is stable.
6️⃣ After the Move #
✅ Keep redirects for at least 1 year
- Ideally, keep indefinitely.
✅ Update links
- Internal links (based on mapping).
- External links (contact top referring sites).
- Social profiles, ad campaigns.
✅ Monitor traffic & crawl
- Search Console → Index Coverage: Watch old URLs decrease, new URLs increase.
- Analytics: Expect traffic shift from old to new domain.
⚠ Common Mistakes to Avoid #
❌ Forgetting to remove noindex or blocking via robots.txt
❌ Redirecting to wrong/non-existent URLs
❌ Not updating sitemaps
❌ Insufficient server resources for increased crawl load
💡 Pro Tip (FSIDM Style):
Create a “Site Migration Visual Blueprint” showing:
- Pre-migration checklist
- Redirect mapping flow
- Post-migration monitoring graph (traffic shift old → new)