Website migration SEO checklist with your redirect map
Moving to a new domain, CMS or URL structure is when sites lose half their traffic overnight, usually because of missing redirects. This prompt has your todo.is agent crawl your current site, record every URL and its SEO details, build a redirect map to the new URLs, and give you a before, launch-day and after checklist, then watch the new site for problems.
The prompt
- Prepare an SEO checklist for my website migration from [OLD SITE] to [NEW SITE]. Type of move: [MIGRATION TYPE]. Planned launch date: [LAUNCH DATE]. Crawl the old site and save every URL with its title, meta description, H1, canonical, status code and internal links. If I attach [NEW URL LIST], match each old URL to its new URL by path and content, and list old URLs without a good match. Build a 301 redirect map in Excel. Then write a checklist in three parts: before launch (staging blocked from Google, analytics and Search Console ready, benchmarks saved), launch day (redirects tested, robots.txt, sitemap, canonicals, noindex removed), and the first 30 days. After launch, check a sample of 50 old URLs every day for a week and message me on [WHERE TO SEND] if any return 404 or redirect chains.
What to change
- [OLD SITE]: e.g. "oakandpine-furniture.com".
- [NEW SITE]: The new domain or staging URL, e.g. "oakpine.com" or "staging.oakandpine-furniture.com".
- [MIGRATION TYPE]: e.g. "new domain", "WordPress to Shopify", "new URL structure", "HTTP to HTTPS" or a mix.
- [LAUNCH DATE]: e.g. "November 12". Avoid your busiest season.
- [NEW URL LIST]: A CSV or sitemap of the new site's URLs. Write "none yet" and your agent will draft new URLs from the old structure.
- [WHERE TO SEND]: Slack, email, WhatsApp, Telegram or Discord.
Example result
- Migration: oakandpine-furniture.com to oakpine.com (WordPress to Shopify)
- Redirect map summary
- • 412 old URLs crawled
- • 371 matched one-to-one (products, categories, blog posts)
- • 23 will merge into a parent page (old tag and filter pages)
- • 18 need your decision (old campaign pages with backlinks)
- • Shopify uses /products/ and /collections/, so every product URL changes. All need 301s.
- Before launch
- • Save benchmarks: top 100 pages by clicks from Search Console, current rankings, crawl file
- • Keep the staging site blocked (password or noindex)
- • Upload the redirect map and test 20 URLs on staging
- • Copy titles, meta descriptions and alt text for the top 100 pages
- • Make sure analytics and conversion tracking work on the new store
- Launch day
- • Remove the staging block and any noindex tags
- • Test redirects for the top 100 pages: one hop, 301, correct target
- • Check robots.txt does not block /collections/ or /products/
- • Submit the new sitemap in Search Console and use the Change of Address tool (new domain)
- • Update internal links, the Google Business Profile, social profiles and email footers
- First 30 days
- • Daily for a week: 50 old URLs checked, alert on 404s or redirect chains
- • Watch Search Console Pages report for new errors
- • Compare clicks for the top 100 pages each week. A dip in weeks 1 to 4 is common; keep watching if it lasts longer.
- • Ask the sites behind your most valuable backlinks to update the URL
- • Keep the old domain and redirects in place for at least a year
How to do it with todo.is
- Fill in both sites, the type of move and the date, and attach the new URL list if you have it.
- Paste the prompt into todo.is at least two weeks before launch.
- Your agent crawls the old site, builds the redirect map and the checklist, and sets up the daily checks after launch.
- Share the Excel file with your developer, and reply to your agent's alerts during launch week.
Tips for a better result
- Crawl the old site before anything changes. Once it's gone, you can't easily see what URLs it had.
- Redirect to the closest matching page, not the homepage. Mass homepage redirects lose most of their value.
- Change as little as possible at once. Moving domain, design and content together makes problems hard to trace.
- Keep redirects for at least a year, and ideally longer, especially for pages with backlinks.
website migration SEO checklist: FAQ
- How long does it take to recover SEO after a website migration? A well-planned move often settles within a few weeks to a few months. Missing redirects or big content changes can make it much longer.
- Should I use 301 or 302 redirects for a migration? Use 301 (permanent) redirects. They tell search engines the move is final and pass the old page's signals to the new one.
- Can the agent set up the redirects? It builds the redirect map in a format your platform or developer can import. It doesn't change your server settings itself.
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