Website Migration Checklist

Initial Setup

Inventory your current site and pull baseline analytics.

Know your current traffic, top pages, and Core Web Vitals scores before you migrate. You need a real before-and-after comparison, not just a gut check.

Export your current sitemap or build one.

A complete list of your existing URLs is the foundation for your redirect map. Without it, you'll miss pages.

Build your redirect map.

Every URL that's changing needs a 301 redirect to its new destination. Map old URL → new URL before migration day. AI tools can help draft this from a CSV of your old URLs. It's one of the genuinely useful automation tasks here.

Agree on what success looks like.

Define acceptance criteria before you start: which pages must load correctly, which integrations must work, which metrics you'll check post-launch. Successful acceptance should trigger decommissioning of the old environment.

Establish a rollback plan.

Know exactly what you'll do if something goes wrong. What conditions trigger a rollback? Who makes the call? How long can you stay in maintenance mode before it becomes a problem?

Confirm access for all relevant parties.

DNS access, new host access, Google Search Console, Google Analytics. Confirm before migration day, not during.

Set a migration window and notify stakeholders.

Pick a low-traffic time. Tell the people who need to know. DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours, so plan for a window, not a moment.

Advance Preparation

Archive the existing site and its data.

Screenshots of key pages, a downloaded copy of the site, exports of any CMS data. You want a snapshot you can reference if something is disputed later.

Export and package your data.

If you're moving from a platform with a CMS (WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace), export your content now. Most platforms have a CSV or XML export. Some also offer an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server -- worth checking before you do it manually, since an AI agent can pull content, media, and settings directly without a manual export step. Don't wait until migration day.

Set up and test in the new environment.

Build and verify in a staging or preview environment before touching DNS. Vercel, Netlify, and similar hosts give you preview URLs for exactly this. If you used a dev environment, make sure it's inaccessible externally before go-live. You don't want to accidentally test in the wrong place.

Configure initial settings on the new platform.

Project name, favicon, timezone, password protection (while you're building), and any platform-specific settings. Better to sort this in advance than to discover missing configuration after launch.

Confirm third-party integrations work in the new environment.

Analytics, forms, payment processors, email signups, CRMs. Test each one end-to-end in staging before launch.

Migration

Put up a maintenance page if needed.

For most modern hosting setups (Vercel, Netlify), you can do a zero-downtime migration by swapping DNS while the new site is already live on a preview URL. If you need a maintenance window, keep it short and communicate it.

Implement your redirect map.

All 301 redirects from your old URLs should be in place before DNS switches. Test a sample before and after.

Update DNS.

DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate globally. Record the TTL value before you change it. A lower TTL ahead of migration means faster propagation.

Spot-check content across the new site.

Top pages, navigation, forms, embeds, images. Don't rely on automated checks alone. Click through the site like a first-time visitor.

Verify redirects are working correctly.

Spot-check a sample of your old URLs. They should 301 to the correct new destinations, not 404.

Post-Launch

Verify Google Search Console is tracking the new site.

Submit your sitemap to Search Console and confirm the new domain is verified. Set up a new property if the domain changed.

Check that your analytics are recording correctly.

Confirm sessions, events, and conversions are flowing through. Re-establish any custom reports or dashboards that were tied to the old setup.

Monitor Core Web Vitals on the new site.

Compare your baseline from before migration. If scores have degraded, investigate before the new site gets indexed widely.

Confirm backup processes are running.

If your new host doesn't handle backups automatically, set them up now.

Check logs for errors in the first 24–48 hours.

404s, redirect loops, and broken integrations often surface in the first day. Check server logs or your host's error dashboard.

Consider your AI crawler policy.

New site, new robots.txt. Decide whether you want to allow or block AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot). The default is to allow them. If that's not your intent, block them explicitly.