Website migration SEO is the work that stops a redesign from wiping the organic traffic you already have. Most drop-offs after a rebuild are not mysterious algorithm changes. They are missing redirects, broken internal links, or pages that never made it back into the index.
Before you touch production
- Export what ranks. Search Console queries and pages, plus any ranking tool you trust. Note title, URL, impressions and clicks for the last three to six months.
- Decide keep, merge or retire. Keep ranking URLs where the intent is unchanged. Merge thin pages into stronger ones. Retire only what you will redirect.
- Draft the redirect map. Old path to new path, one-to-one where possible. Avoid chains and soft 404s.
- Capture metadata and schema. Titles, descriptions, canonicals, and any structured data that describes the organisation or services.
- Baseline speed and coverage. Screenshot Core Web Vitals and index coverage so you can compare after launch.
During the build
- Build the new site with the redirect map as a deliverable, not a post-launch favour.
- Preserve or improve internal links between money pages.
- Keep a staging environment that search engines cannot index.
- Write content that still answers the queries those URLs were winning, even if the design changes.
At launch
- Deploy 301 or 308 redirects for permanent moves. Use them for www to apex and old paths to new paths.
- Submit the new XML sitemap and remove obsolete URLs from the old one.
- Check robots.txt still allows crawling of public pages.
- Spot-check the top ranking URLs in an incognito browser and in Search Console’s URL inspection.
In the two weeks after
Watch impressions and clicks on the inventory you exported. Investigate any sharp drop on a URL that should still exist. Fix soft 404s and redirect mistakes quickly. A quiet week of monitoring often saves months of recovery.
This is the same discipline we use when a site moves stack or redesigns under website design and build, and when a baseline is needed first under SEO and auditing.
If you are deciding whether you need a redesign at all, start with when a UK site needs a redesign.