A professional end-to-end framework for domain, platform, or structural migrations.

1. Pre-Migration Discovery & Benchmarking

1.1 Baseline Performance

  • Export all current rankings (top 100 keywords).

  • Export organic landing pages and traffic (GA4 → Reports → Traffic acquisition).

  • Benchmark conversion metrics, leads, revenue, and engagement.

  • Capture Search Console performance for the past 12 months.

1.2 Crawl & Index Audit

  • Full site crawl (Screaming Frog / Sitebulb).

  • Identify all current URLs, status codes, canonicals, robots rules, hreflang, schema, pagination.

  • Flag thin content, duplicated content, orphan pages, parameter URLs, near-duplicates.

1.3 Technical Inventory

  • CMS versioning, plugins, templates, modules, custom scripts.

  • Structured data inventory (FAQ, Article, Product, Organisation, LocalBusiness).

  • Internal linking and navigation hierarchy mapping.

  • Sitemaps and feeds.

1.4 Content Mapping

  • Catalogue all URLs with metadata (title, description, H1).

  • Identify pages to keep, merge, rewrite, or retire.

  • Determine which 404s will be reinstated or redirected.

2. Strategic Planning

2.1 URL Mapping

  • Create a document with:

    • Current URL → New URL

    • Redirect type (301)

    • Notes (merge, remove, canonicalisation adjustments).

2.2 Site Architecture

  • Validate proposed menu structure.

  • Ensure category hierarchy is logical and keyword-aligned.

  • Plan archive pages, tag pages, or elimination of thin taxonomy.

2.3 Canonical Strategy

  • Define canonicals for:

    • Filters

    • Pagination

    • Duplicate variants

    • Alternative versions

    • Syndicated content

2.4 International & Multi-Location Considerations

  • Prepare hreflang mapping if applicable.

  • Plan location-based landing pages.

  • Validate NAP and local schema.

3. Development Phase

3.1 Staging Environment

  • Block indexation using noindex or password protection.

  • Ensure staging is separate from production.

3.2 Technical SEO Implementation

  • Ensure:

    • Redirects are configured.

    • Canonicals function correctly.

    • Robots.txt does not block required assets.

    • XML sitemaps reflect the new structure.

    • Schema is valid (use Rich Results Test).

    • Remove outdated schema types.

    • Internal links updated to point to final URLs (no 302 or 307 internally).

3.3 UX & Navigation

  • Validate breadcrumbs.

  • Ensure category → product and product → category linking is consistent.

  • Confirm header, footer, and sidebar internal links are updated.

3.4 Metadata

  • Rewrite titles and descriptions aligned with keyword targeting.

  • Remove duplicated metadata from inherited templates.

  • Include OpenGraph and Twitter Cards.

4. Content Migration

4.1 Content Quality Checks

  • Ensure all text, media, PDFs, videos transfer correctly.

  • Validate image filenames, alt tags, and compression.

  • Retain or improve E-E-A-T content signals.

4.2 Content Enhancements

  • Add missing FAQs.

  • Add local-intent or transactional-intent text.

  • Expand thin pages or merge overlapping content.

5. Redirect Launch Plan

5.1 Bulk Redirect Deployment

  • Implement 301 redirects for every mapped URL.

  • Test through:

    • Screaming Frog Redirect Chains Report

    • HTTP status checker

  • Remove redirect chains and loops.

  • Ensure 404s are only for pages intentionally removed.

5.2 Update External Integrations

  • Change URLs in:

    • Google Business Profile

    • Social media bios

    • Email footers

    • CRM automations

    • Paid ads

    • Affiliate links

    • Partner sites where possible

6. Launch Day Checklist

6.1 Technical Verification

  • Remove noindex and staging blocks.

  • Validate robots.txt is production-ready.

  • Validate XML sitemaps and submit in Search Console.

  • Ensure canonical tags match the new domain and architecture.

  • Validate structured data in production.

6.2 Live Crawl

  • Full Screaming Frog crawl of the live site.

  • Validate all internal links resolve correctly.

  • Test all redirects.

  • Ensure no soft 404s.

  • Confirm all hreflang tags resolve.

6.3 Analytics

  • Validate GA4 tracking.

  • Validate all conversions, events, and GTM triggers.

  • Ensure cross-domain tracking where applicable.

7. Post-Launch Monitoring (0–30 Days)

7.1 Daily Checks (First 7 Days)

  • Monitor Search Console coverage.

  • Check server logs for crawl errors.

  • Validate page indexing.

  • Monitor 404 spikes.

  • Review ranking fluctuations.

7.2 Weekly Checks

  • Compare traffic and keyword trends.

  • Monitor conversion performance.

  • Address crawl anomalies.

  • Review Core Web Vitals.

7.3 Internal Link Re-Optimisation

  • Boost priority pages by improving internal linking.

  • Add contextual links from blogs, FAQs, guides.

  • Fix orphan pages.

8. Post-Migration Enhancements

8.1 Content Expansion

  • Publish new supporting clusters around priority keywords.

  • Update guides, FAQs, and evergreen cornerstone content.

  • Rebuild new category landing pages if needed.

8.2 Digital PR & Link Reclamation

  • Request link updates for high-value backlinks.

  • Build new authority links to the primary domain.

  • Reclaim unlinked brand mentions.

8.3 Technical Performance Optimisation

  • Minify CSS/JS.

  • Improve Time to Interactive.

  • Optimise image delivery (AVIF/WEBP).

  • Remove unused scripts.

9. 90-Day Review

9.1 Full Migration Audit

  • Compare pre- and post-migration KPIs.

  • Look at indexing, rankings, traffic, revenue.

  • Review site architecture success.

  • Plan next phase content and link acquisition.