Site Migration GeoRedirect Checklist: 50 Things to Check
60% of site migrations lose organic traffic due to redirect mistakes. This 50-point checklist covers everything to verify before, during, and after your migration.
Site migrations are high-stakes operations. A single missed redirect can erase years of SEO equity. According to SEMrush data, 60% of site migrations result in organic traffic loss, and the primary cause is redirect mismanagement. This checklist covers the 50 things you need to verify before, during, and after your migration.
Pre-migration planning (items 1-15)
- 1. Crawl your existing site and export all URLs
- 2. Document every existing redirect (301, 302, meta refresh)
- 3. Map old URLs to new URLs in a redirect mapping spreadsheet
- 4. Identify your top 100 pages by organic traffic
- 5. Identify your top 100 pages by backlink count
- 6. Check for existing redirect chains and resolve them
- 7. Check for existing redirect loops and fix them
- 8. Document all canonical tags on the old site
- 9. Document all hreflang tags on the old site
- 10. Export your XML sitemap URLs
- 11. Screenshot Google Search Console performance as a baseline
- 12. Note your current Core Web Vitals scores
- 13. Identify all geo-targeting rules on the old site
- 14. Verify your staging environment is blocked from indexing
- 15. Set a rollback plan with a specific timeline
GeoRedirect implementation (items 16-30)
- 16. Implement 301 redirects for all permanently moved URLs
- 17. Use 302 redirects only for geo-targeting rules
- 18. GeoRedirect HTTP to HTTPS if changing protocols
- 19. GeoRedirect non-www to www (or vice versa) consistently
- 20. Handle trailing slash variations
- 21. GeoRedirect old pagination URLs to new structure
- 22. GeoRedirect old category/tag URLs if taxonomy changed
- 23. Set up wildcard redirects for pattern-based URL changes
- 24. Verify no redirect chains exceed 3 hops
- 25. Verify no redirect loops exist
- 26. Test redirects for query parameter preservation
- 27. Test redirects for fragment/hash preservation
- 28. Verify redirects work for both mobile and desktop user agents
- 29. Confirm geo-targeting redirects still function correctly
- 30. Test all redirects return correct status codes
Content and SEO verification (items 31-40)
- 31. Update canonical tags to point to new URLs
- 32. Update hreflang tags to reference new URL structure
- 33. Update internal links to use new URLs directly
- 34. Submit updated XML sitemap to Search Console
- 35. Update robots.txt for the new domain/structure
- 36. Verify structured data references new URLs
- 37. Update Open Graph and Twitter Card URLs
- 38. Check that no content is accidentally blocked by robots.txt
- 39. Verify all images load correctly on new URLs
- 40. Test page speed on the new site
Post-migration monitoring (items 41-50)
- 41. Monitor Google Search Console for crawl errors daily
- 42. Check for 404 spikes in server logs
- 43. Monitor organic traffic in analytics for 90 days
- 44. Track indexed page count in Search Console
- 45. Verify top pages maintain their rankings
- 46. Check that backlinks are being followed to new URLs
- 47. Monitor Core Web Vitals for regressions
- 48. Test geo-targeting rules from multiple locations
- 49. Update external links where possible (social profiles, directories)
- 50. Keep old redirects active for at least 12 months
How GeoSwap helps with migrations
“Site migrations are the most common cause of geo-targeting breakage. Rules configured on old URL patterns stop working silently on the new structure.” GeoSwap's redirect managementmakes it easy to audit and update geo-targeting rules during migrations, with chain detection and SEO safety warnings built in.
Print this checklist. Use it. Our free redirect checker and HTTP header checker can help you verify each redirect after implementation. A methodical approach to redirects is the difference between a successful migration and months of traffic recovery.
