SEO Migration Checklist (2026): What We Learned Moving Our Own Site

Changing hosts, domains, URLs or platforms? The 20-step SEO migration checklist we used on our own site, with AI crawler checks. Get a free review.

Last updated: Nov. 6, 2026

Summary

An SEO migration is any change to a site’s host, domain, URL structure, design or platform that can affect how search engines and AI systems find it. To protect traffic, map every old URL to one new URL with a 301 redirect, run technical checks on launch day and monitor for at least four weeks. Google says it can take a few weeks or more for new URLs to replace old ones in results.

Know what kind of migration you are running

Our rule: Change one thing at a time. Google recommends the same. If you switch hosts, themes and URLs in the same week and traffic drops, you will not know why.

What happened when we moved stradiji.com

We moved our site from WP Engine to Hostinger on Nov. 1, 2026. Our priority market is the U.S., so we picked a Boston data center. DNS stayed at name.com. Because Google Workspace email and HubSpot records live in the same DNS zone, we changed only the A record.

Before the switch, we saved a fingerprint of all 815 URLs in our sitemap: status code, title, meta description, canonical, meta robots, schema count and H1. After the switch, we ran the same list against the new server. All 815 returned 200 and the fingerprints matched. We then compared hreflang tags URL by URL against the last crawl on the old host. Nothing was lost.

Three things still surprised us. Each one became a line in this checklist:

• The migration tool rewrote URLs in the database. Connecting the domain changed www addresses to non-www across thousands of database cells. We fixed it with a search-and-replace, dry run first.
• Some image file names broke. Long dashes in file names were stored as plain text, so WordPress could not find the files. We scanned the full media library and copied the affected files under the correct names. Nothing was deleted.
• Hostinger treated bots differently. It blocks spoofed Googlebot traffic with a 403, which is good. It also returned 429 errors to GPTBot and meta-externalagent through a network-level rate limit it applies to all customers, which we caught in the first test after launch.

The 20-step SEO migration checklist

Before the move

1. Build a URL inventory. Combine a full crawl, Search Console pages with impressions and analytics landing pages. Include images and PDFs.
2. Map every old URL to one new URL. One hop, closest match. No chains, no bulk redirects to the homepage.
3. Record a baseline. Traffic, rankings, indexed pages and AI citations for your money pages.
4. Lock staging. Password and noindex, with a launch-day task to remove both.
5. Plan bot access. Decide in robots.txt and at the firewall how Googlebot, Bingbot and AI crawlers (GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) are treated.
6. Lower DNS TTL. 24 to 48 hours ahead, so a rollback is fast.

Launch day

7. Turn on 301s. Test a sample by hand. Each should land on a 200 in one hop.
8. Check robots.txt and noindex. No “Disallow: /” and no leftover noindex in production.
9. Check canonical, hreflang and schema. All point to the new URLs.
10. Submit a fresh XML sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
11. Test tracking and forms. GA4, tag manager, CRM forms. Submit one test lead.

First 72 hours

12. Crawl the old URL list in list mode. Fix 404s, 302s and chains.
13. Use the Change of Address tool only if the domain changed.
14. Watch server responses. 5xx and 429 errors, especially for bots. Rate limits can silently cut AI crawlers.
15. Compare Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) with your baseline.
16. Update internal links so menus and body links point straight to new URLs.

First four weeks

17. Check indexing weekly in the Search Console Pages report.
18. Compare against the baseline. List pages that lost traffic and find the cause one by one.
19. Track AI visibility. Make sure citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews move to the new URLs. See how we measure AI search visibility.
20. Keep redirects. Google says at least one year. We keep them indefinitely.

The AI crawler step most checklists skip

Classic migration checklists were written for Googlebot. In 2026, a second audience reads your site: AI crawlers that feed ChatGPT search, Perplexity and others. A new host, CDN or firewall rule can block or throttle them while Googlebot passes every test.

After our move, we ran a crawler simulation on the homepage. Most AI user agents got a 200. Two got a 429 because of a network-level rate limit on the new host. Nothing in Search Console would have shown this.

What to do: On launch day, test your homepage and one money page with the main AI user agents. Repeat after any CDN or security change. If you see 403 or 429, raise it with your host before AI answers start citing someone else.

Frequently asked questions

Does a website migration hurt SEO?

It can. A hosting move with no URL changes usually goes unnoticed if done well. When URLs or the domain change, expect a few weeks of fluctuation while Google processes the new addresses.

How long should 301 redirects stay in place?

Google recommends as long as possible, generally at least one year. We recommend never removing them, because old backlinks keep sending value for years.

How long does an SEO migration take to recover?

Google says small and medium sites can see most pages move in a few weeks, and larger sites take longer. Track it against your baseline, not against last week.

Do I need the Change of Address tool?

Only when you move to a new domain or subdomain. It is not used for HTTPS moves, www changes or URL changes within the same domain.

The one thing to do this week

If your migration date is set, export the last three months of your Search Console pages report today. It is the only honest baseline you will have afterward. Then request a free pre-migration review or talk to us about SEO consulting.

Sources
Google Search Central, Site moves with URL changes: developers.google.com
Google Search Central, Site moves without URL changes: developers.google.com
Search Console Help, Change of Address tool: support.google.com
Hostinger, 429 errors on automated integrations: www.hostinger.com