A redesign changes what customers see. A migration can also change the addresses, content and signals search engines rely on. Plan both before launch.
The first job is continuity. Avoid mixing an essential platform move with unnecessary URL changes and wholesale rewrites unless those changes have a clear reason and have been reviewed.
1. Record the baseline
Save Search Console query and page evidence alongside analytics, orders or qualified enquiries. Keep dates, filters and definitions. Search clicks and analytics sessions are different measures; a mismatch is not a reason to discard either.
2. Monitor valuable searches
Record relevant queries and their normal variation, including location and device context where applicable. Choose a baseline period that reflects the business, not a universal minimum. Rankings are one signal alongside clicks and conversions.
3. Preserve what customers need
Review valuable pages, their content, titles, headings and internal links. Carry useful material into the new site and preserve original URLs where practical. Observing that a page ranks does not tell you exactly which element caused it.
4. Reconcile the URL inventory
Combine crawls, sitemaps and historical search evidence. Give each known URL a deliberate outcome. Review duplicates and indexing directives, but don’t try to force sitemap and index totals to match.
5. Map changed addresses
Map each moved page to its relevant replacement. Keep retained pages at their existing addresses where possible. Removed content without a suitable replacement needs an intentional response, not a blanket redirect to the homepage.
6. Test before cutover
Prepare and test redirects before launch, then activate them with the move. Check status codes, final destinations, canonical URLs, internal links and forms. Verify that preview indexing restrictions will not carry into production. Keep a rollback plan that accounts for new enquiries and orders, not just old files.
7. Publish the sitemap and monitor the result
A historical launch review found internal links still pointed at the staging hostname. A homepage that looks right does not prove the migration works. Crawl the actual launch hostname and inspect link destinations, not just the page design. Confirm the platform exposes the controls you need and schedule cutover when the people who can fix or roll back a failure are available. There is no universal number of preparation hours or automatic ranking deadline tied to a weekday.
Generate the sitemap from the intended indexable canonical pages and make it available to Search Console. Verify the actual production routes after cutover. Monitor important pages, search performance and commercial outcomes, and investigate material changes rather than reacting to every daily fluctuation.
For the wider planning checklist, see redesigning without losing search continuity, or discuss a migration through our SEO service.