Before you migrate
Most migration traffic losses are baked in before launch — a missing redirect map, changed URL patterns, or content that didn't make it across. The pre-launch audit is where those get caught.
We crawl the current site to build a full inventory of every indexed URL and its ranking value, then map each old URL to its new destination so nothing lands on a dead 404.
- Full crawl and inventory of current indexed URLs and their traffic and rankings
- One-to-one redirect map from every old URL to its new equivalent
- Baseline snapshot of rankings, traffic, and indexed pages to compare against later
- Content parity check so pages, titles, and internal links carry over
- Staging-site review with noindex confirmed before launch
Launch day and redirects
Redirects are the backbone of a safe migration. Every old URL needs a permanent 301 to its closest match — not a blanket redirect to the homepage, which Google treats as a soft 404 and drops.
At launch we verify the redirects fire correctly, the staging noindex is removed, and the new XML sitemap is submitted so Google discovers the new structure fast.
- Confirm 301 (permanent) redirects, not 302, on every mapped URL
- Eliminate redirect chains and loops that dilute signals and slow crawling
- Remove staging noindex and robots blocks so the live site can be indexed
- Submit updated XML sitemaps and the change-of-address signal where applicable
- Verify canonical tags, hreflang, and internal links point to live URLs
After launch monitoring
A migration isn't done at launch. Google needs weeks to recrawl and reprocess the new URLs, and problems show up gradually in the coverage and crawl reports.
We watch Search Console for spikes in 404s, redirect errors, and dropped pages, and compare traffic against the pre-launch baseline so any real loss gets caught while it's still recoverable.
- Monitor Search Console coverage for new 404s, soft 404s, and crawl errors
- Track indexing of the new URLs and de-indexing of the old ones
- Compare post-launch traffic and rankings to the pre-migration baseline
- Catch and fix missed or broken redirects surfaced by crawl data
More on seo audits
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose rankings when I migrate?
Some short-term fluctuation is normal while Google recrawls and reassigns the value of your old URLs to the new ones. A well-planned migration with clean 301 redirects usually recovers within weeks. The permanent losses happen when redirects are missing, point to the wrong pages, or content is dropped in the move — which is exactly what the audit prevents.
What's the most common migration mistake?
Redirecting everything to the homepage instead of mapping each old URL to its specific new equivalent. Google reads a homepage-wide redirect as a soft 404 and drops those pages. The second most common is forgetting to remove the noindex tag that was protecting the staging site.
Should the audit happen before or after launch?
Both. The pre-launch audit builds the URL map and redirect plan and catches problems while they're cheap to fix. The post-launch checks confirm everything fired correctly and monitor for issues that only appear once Google starts recrawling. Book the free consultation before you set a launch date so there's time to do it right.