Founder of Goodspeed
An SEO migration checklist is the set of checks that protects your search visibility when you change platform, domain or URL structure. In short: benchmark everything before you touch the site, map every old URL to a new one with a permanent redirect, carry over metadata, tracking and structured data, then watch Search Console closely for 30 days after launch. No checklist can guarantee rankings, but a careful migration removes most of the avoidable risk, and some temporary movement while Google reprocesses the site is normal.
Who can do this for you?
Goodspeed, a Framer Enterprise partner, runs migrations as a fixed product. We audit your current site first, sign off a redirect map with you before anything moves, launch with zero downtime in about five weeks, then monitor redirects, crawl errors and rankings for 30 days. Migrations start from $10,000. See our Migration service.
The checklist below is split into four phases: before, during, launch day and the 30 days after. Each line is short and checkable, so copy it into your project tool and give every line an owner. If you are still deciding what to change and what to keep, read our SEO migration strategy guide first, then come back here to execute.
Before: benchmark and crawl the current site
You cannot prove a migration went well without a baseline. Capture it before anyone opens the new build, because once the old site is gone, so is your chance to measure it.
Benchmark
Export Search Console performance data (clicks, impressions, queries) by page for the full 16 months it keeps.
Record organic sessions and conversions per landing page from your analytics for at least the last 90 days.
List your top pages by organic clicks and by backlinks. These are your protected pages and they get checked first at every stage.
Snapshot rankings for priority keywords in your rank tracker so you have a dated baseline.
Run a performance test on each key template so you can compare like for like later.
Crawl
Crawl the full live site with a tool such as Screaming Frog or Sitebulb, with JavaScript rendering on if the current site needs it.
Merge the crawl with URLs from your XML sitemap, Search Console, analytics and backlink tool. Crawlers miss orphan pages; those sources do not.
Log existing problems (redirect chains, 404s, duplicate titles) so they are not blamed on the migration later.
Done properly, this is a website audit with a migration lens: you are not fixing everything yet, you are recording what exists and what earns traffic.
Before: URL inventory and redirect map
The redirect map is the single most important document in any website migration checklist. It is where most of the avoidable traffic loss is either prevented or created.
Build one spreadsheet with every URL that has traffic, links or indexation. Columns: old URL, new URL, status, template, owner, notes.
Mark every row keep, merge or retire. Keep URLs identical wherever you can; the safest redirect is the one you never need.
Map each changed URL to its closest equivalent new page, one to one. Never point everything at the homepage.
Include the awkward variants: trailing slashes, uppercase paths, indexed query parameters, old campaign URLs, and PDFs or images that earn links.
Flatten existing redirect chains so every old URL points straight at its final destination.
For retired pages with no equivalent, decide deliberately between a relevant parent page and a 404 or 410.
Get the map signed off by marketing and whoever runs paid campaigns before the build starts.
Google's own guidance on site moves with URL changes recommends permanent server side redirects and a clear old to new URL mapping. That is exactly what this sheet becomes. If you want the wider picture of the types of move (platform, domain, structure), our glossary entry on website migration covers them.
Before: export content, metadata and tracking
This is your content migration checklist and CMS migration checklist in one. The goal is a complete, structured copy of everything the new site needs, plus a list of everything the old site was quietly doing.
Content and metadata
Export page and CMS content in a structured format (CSV, JSON or API) rather than copy and paste.
Capture title tags, meta descriptions, H1s, canonical tags, Open Graph tags and robots directives for every URL.
Download original media at full resolution and keep the alt text with each file.
Record the structured data on each template, such as Organization, Article, FAQ, Product and BreadcrumbList.
Note any hreflang setup if you serve more than one country or language.
CMS structure
List every CMS collection with its fields, field types and references between collections.
Decide how each collection maps to the new CMS before importing. Our CMS migration guide covers modelling collections in Framer.
Tracking and integrations
List every script on the site: tag manager, analytics, heatmaps, chat, consent manager and ad pixels.
Document your tag manager container, analytics events and the conversions each form triggers.
List every form and where its submissions go (CRM, inbox, Slack, webhook).
Note any embed or integration that depends on a specific URL, class name or element ID.
During: staging, redirects, canonicals and structured data
Build the new site somewhere search engines cannot see it, and put the SEO plumbing in as you go rather than bolting it on in launch week.
Staging
Build on a staging URL protected by a password or noindex, never on the live domain.
Rebuild templates using the URL structure agreed in the redirect map.
Import CMS content, then spot check long, short and oddly formatted entries.
Redirects
Load the full redirect map into the new platform. In Framer this sits in the site settings, and folder level wildcard rules can cover consistent patterns.
Confirm every redirect is permanent (301) and that none chain or loop.
Canonicals, metadata and indexing
Apply the exported titles and descriptions page by page, changing them only where you have a reason.
Check every page has a self referencing canonical on the production URL, not the staging one.
Write down exactly how and when the staging block comes off, so it is not forgotten on launch day.
Check the XML sitemap only lists indexable URLs that return a 200. Most builders, Framer included, generate it for you, so review what it outputs rather than assuming.
Structured data
Re-add schema markup to each template and validate it with Google's Rich Results Test.
During: internal links, forms, integrations and QA
Most post launch fire drills come from this phase being rushed. A form that silently stops reaching the CRM costs more than a ranking wobble.
Internal links
Point internal links at the new URLs directly, not through redirects.
Rebuild navigation, footer and breadcrumbs so protected pages keep the same prominence.
Crawl staging and fix every internal 404 and redirected link.
Forms and integrations
Rebuild every form, submit a test entry and confirm it lands in the CRM with the right fields and source.
Reinstall your tag manager or analytics and confirm events and conversions fire in preview or debug mode.
Check the consent banner so tags only fire the way your policy says they should.
Test embeds, chat widgets, booking tools and any API connections.
QA
Compare old and new crawls: page counts, titles, H1s, status codes and content length.
Check every template on mobile and desktop and in the main browsers.
Run performance tests on key templates and compare against your baseline.
Do an accessibility pass: heading order, alt text, colour contrast and keyboard navigation.
Get final sign off from marketing, sales operations and whoever owns paid traffic.
Platform specific steps vary. See our guides to moving from Webflow to Framer and from WordPress to Framer for the details of each.
Launch day checklist
Launch day should be boring. If the earlier phases are done, it is mostly switching things over and checking them in the right order.
Launch with a buffer before any press, funding announcement or big campaign, not on the same day.
Lower the DNS TTL a day or two ahead so the switch propagates faster.
Point the domain and confirm SSL is active, and that http, https, www and non www all resolve to one version.
Remove the staging password or noindex and confirm production pages return a 200 and are indexable.
Run the redirect map through a bulk checker, starting with your protected pages.
Confirm the Search Console property is still verified and submit the new XML sitemap.
Use URL Inspection on the homepage and top pages and request indexing.
Submit a live test form and watch it arrive in analytics real time reports and the CRM.
Update URLs in paid ads, email templates, social profiles and anything else you control.
Keep the old site export and crawl files somewhere safe for reference.
The 30 days after launch
This is the phase most teams skip, and the one where small problems are cheapest to fix. Expect some movement in rankings and impressions while Google recrawls and reprocesses the site. What you are looking for is pages that drop and stay down, not day to day noise.
Week one
Check Search Console daily for crawl errors, 404s and new issues in the Page indexing report.
Recrawl your full list of old URLs and confirm every one redirects to the right place.
Compare form submissions and conversions against your baseline.
Weeks two to four
Compare clicks and impressions by page against your benchmark every week.
Track priority keywords and investigate any protected page that has not recovered after a few weeks.
Add redirects for any new 404s and update the map so it stays the source of truth.
Check the Page indexing report to see new URLs being indexed and old ones dropping out.
Ask the owners of your most valuable backlinks to update links to the new URLs.
At day 30, write a one page report covering traffic, rankings, conversions and issues fixed.
Leave the redirects in place long term. Google's guidance is to keep them for at least a year, and in practice there is rarely a good reason to remove them at all.
What this looks like on a real migration
Zen Educate, a Series B edtech working across the UK and US, moved to Framer with us page by page with zero downtime. Moving page by page meant each batch had its own redirects and QA, so there was never a single risky switch.
Their CMS was rebuilt as four content hubs, and the tools the team relied on, including GTM, Zoho, Heap and Hotjar, kept working through the move because they were inventoried before the build started. The payoff came after launch: 10x more growth experiments. Read the Zen Educate case study.
For the end to end view of moving to Framer, from choosing the platform to training your team, read the ultimate guide to migrating to Framer.
Run your migration with fewer surprises
A migration does not have to be a gamble. Benchmark first, sign off the redirect map, build the SEO in on staging, launch in a calm window and watch the data for 30 days. That will not guarantee your rankings, but it gives you the best odds and tells you quickly if something needs fixing.
If you would rather hand this checklist to a team that runs it every month, see how our Migration service works: a fixed scope, an audit first, a redirect map you sign off, about five weeks to launch and 30 days of monitoring after.
Written By
Founder of Goodspeed
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