Define the migration
List every material change: domain, protocol, platform, rendering, URL patterns, navigation, content, templates and tracking. A visual redesign with unchanged URLs can still be a search migration when headings, links or source HTML change.
Build the source inventory
Combine crawl data, XML sitemaps, analytics landing pages, Search Console pages, backlink destinations and platform exports. No single source sees every valuable URL. Record status, canonical, indexability, traffic, links and the proposed destination.
Map and test redirects
Map each changing URL to the closest useful equivalent. Avoid redirect chains, loops and broad homepage fallbacks. Test the map against a staging or local representation, then check that internal links and canonicals point directly to final URLs.
Compare staging with production
Crawl representative old and new templates and compare titles, headings, copy, links, directives, structured data, status and rendered content. Confirm staging blocks are removed only on the production release, never before.
Monitor the transfer
Validate production immediately, submit the correct sitemap and monitor crawl errors, indexation, target pages, query groups and conversions. Keep the migration team available while search engines reprocess the estate.
Need this applied to your site?
Bring us the evidence, constraints and search problem. We will identify the useful next step.
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