Site migrations are where years of SEO work go to die. This rarely happens because migrations are inherently destructive, but because SEO planning usually starts after the design is signed off, the URLs are decided, and the launch date is fixed, which is roughly three months too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We get called about migrations in two ways. Occasionally before, when there’s time to do it properly. More often after, when organic traffic dropped 60% the week of launch and nobody knows why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second call is avoidable. Here’s what proper migration SEO looks like, in the order it has to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The overwhelming majority of migration traffic losses come from three things: missing or wrong 301 redirects, a staging site’s<\/strong> noindex<\/strong> shipping to production, and URL changes made without SEO input.<\/strong> Plan migration SEO before design is finalised, build a complete redirect map from a full crawl of the old site, test everything on staging, and monitor daily for the first month. Expect a temporary dip even when everything goes right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2192 Book a free pre-migration audit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Any change that alters your URLs, hosting, platform, domain, or site structure, including redesigns that keep the same domain.<\/strong> People tend to think “migration” means changing domains, but a redesign that reorganises your URL structure carries most of the same risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The types, roughly in ascending order of risk:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each needs the same discipline; the bigger ones just need more of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the old URLs stop resolving and nothing tells search engines where the content moved; every page that 404s loses its rankings and every link pointing at it stops passing authority.<\/strong> Missing redirects are the single largest cause, followed by staging-environment settings shipping to production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The recurring causes, in the order we find them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crawl the existing site completely, benchmark current performance, build a one-to-one redirect map, and test the whole thing on staging before anything goes live.<\/strong> Pre-launch is where migrations are won; there is no equivalent amount of post-launch work that compensates for skipping it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pre-launch checklist:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Map every old URL to the single most relevant new URL, one to one, using 301 (permanent) redirects while avoiding chains, loops, and defaulting everything to the homepage.<\/strong> Build it from your full crawl, not from memory or the sitemap alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Practical rules:<\/p>\n\n\n\n One subtlety worth knowing: if you’ve migrated before, your old redirects need re-mapping to the new destinations too. Otherwise you build chains three hops deep, and equity leaks at each step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Verify the site is indexable, spot-check redirects live, submit the new sitemap, and confirm analytics is firing in that order within the first hour.<\/strong> Launch day is about catching catastrophic errors fast, not optimisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The immediate checklist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you find a sitewide noindex, fix it immediately and request indexing on key pages. Caught within hours it’s usually recoverable; caught in three weeks it isn’t, cleanly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monitor daily for the first two weeks, then weekly for three months \u2014 watching indexation, crawl errors, rankings on your benchmark terms, organic traffic by page, and conversions.<\/strong> A temporary dip is normal; a sustained one is a problem to diagnose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch specifically:<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat counts as a site migration?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Why do sites lose traffic after migration?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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What do I need to do before launch?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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How should I build a redirect map?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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What do I do on launch day?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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What should I monitor after launch?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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