Editorial guide
Site migration SEO checklist
Written by Fysal Amin. This is the workflow we use on CMS replatforms and domain moves — not a tool mirror page. Each step links to a free Scrawl checker you can run in the browser with no login.
Goal: prove that after cutover, important URLs still return the right status, pass equity through a single 301, remain crawlable and indexable, and do not ship a staging robots.txt or broken sitemap by accident.
1. Snapshot status codes before cutover
Export your top URLs from Search Console or your sitemap. Run them through the Bulk Status Checker and save the CSV. You need a before picture: which URLs were 200, which already redirected, which were already broken.
Open Bulk Status Checker →2. Validate every planned 301
Paste old URLs into the Redirect Chain Checker (or Bulk Redirect Checker for large maps). Expect one 301 hop to the final destination ending in 200. Flag chains longer than two hops, 302s that should be 301s, and anything ending in 404/500.
Open Redirect Chain Checker →3. Confirm robots.txt is production-safe
Staging files often Disallow: /. Test the homepage and key templates with the Robots.txt Tester as Googlebot. If anything important is blocked, fix the file before you announce the new site.
Open Robots.txt Tester →4. Check canonicals and indexability
Sample template pages (home, category, product/post). Canonical Checker should show self-referencing https URLs. Google Index Checker should pass HTTP 200, robots allow, no noindex, self-canonical, no unexpected redirect.
Open Canonical Checker →5. Re-submit a clean sitemap
Validate XML with the Sitemap Validator, then crawl listed URLs with the Sitemap Health Auditor. Remove 404s and noindex URLs from the sitemap before submitting in Search Console.
Open XML Sitemap Validator →6. Spot-check Core Web Vitals on key templates
Migrations often ship heavier themes. Run Core Web Vitals on mobile for home and a money page. Fix LCP images and CLS reserved space before traffic returns.
Open Core Web Vitals Checker →
After go-live
Re-run the same Bulk Status list within 24 hours. Request indexing for the homepage and top landing pages in Google Search Console. Watch Coverage and Page Experience for two weeks. If rankings dip, check Redirect Chain Checker on the money URLs first — long chains and soft 404 landing pages are the usual culprits.
More context: About Scrawl, SEO guides, and contact if you spot an error in this checklist.