Decide what is changing
Write down which of these apply: domain, platform, URL structure, hosting, protocol or host, merging or splitting sites. The more you change at once, the harder it is to tell what caused a drop in traffic.
Inventory URLs and map redirects
- Build the URL list from a crawl, Search Console, analytics landing pages and backlinks.
- Give every old URL with traffic, links or indexed status a 301 to its equivalent page, in one hop.
- Don't redirect many pages to the homepage. It is usually treated as a soft 404.
Keep staging out of the index
Protect staging with HTTP basic authentication or an IP allowlist, and put the removal of every block on the launch checklist.
Prepare DNS, SSL and email
- Export the DNS zone, and lower the TTL on the records you will change at least one full old TTL before the switch.
- Issue certificates for every hostname, apex and www, before traffic arrives.
- Copy MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records exactly.
Launch and the weeks after
- Test every form, tracking tag and conversion.
- Run the old URL list through a crawler: each one returns a single 301 to a page that returns 200.
- Watch Search Console for 404s, and keep the redirects permanently.