Site Migration Checklist (PDF)

Free editable Site Migration Checklist (PDF). Copy, personalize, or download the Word .docx template from UNmiss.

Use this checklist as the printable sign-off sheet for a site migration, the page each owner ticks and signs before and after go-live. Each variant is one phase, from planning and backups through launch day to post-launch monitoring, ending in a formal sign-off. Print it, walk it phase by phase, and don't move forward until the owner has signed the phase off. It keeps a migration accountable instead of relying on memory and good intentions.

6 ready-to-use variants

Phase 1: Plan & Back Up

Lock the plan and take full backups before anyone changes a single URL.

Goal: make sure the migration is reversible and fully planned before work starts.

Tick before starting

  • ☐ Full backup of the current site (files and database) taken and restore tested
  • ☐ Complete crawl of the old site exported and saved
  • ☐ URL mapping (old to new) drafted for every page
  • ☐ Analytics and Search Console baseline recorded: [traffic / rankings snapshot]
  • ☐ Rollback plan written and agreed with the dev owner
  • ☐ Launch window scheduled for low-traffic hours: [Date / time]

Phase 1 sign-off
Owner: [Name]   Date: [Date]   Signed: [Signature]

Phase 2: Staging QA

Verify the new site on staging so problems are caught before they go public.

Goal: confirm the new site is correct and crawlable while it's still private.

Tick on staging

  • ☐ Redirects tested on staging and returning the expected codes
  • ☐ Titles, meta descriptions, and headings present on key pages
  • ☐ Canonical tags point to the new URLs
  • ☐ Internal links updated to new URLs, no links to the old domain
  • ☐ robots.txt will allow crawling at launch (staging noindex removed on go-live)
  • ☐ XML sitemap generated with new URLs and validated
  • ☐ Mobile rendering and page speed checked on key templates

Phase 2 sign-off
Owner: [Name]   Date: [Date]   Signed: [Signature]

Phase 3: Launch Day

The go-live sequence, ticked in order as each step completes.

Goal: execute the switch cleanly and confirm the essentials the moment the site is live.

Tick during launch

  • ☐ Staging noindex / password protection removed
  • ☐ Redirects deployed to production
  • ☐ robots.txt live and allowing crawl of the new site
  • ☐ New sitemap submitted in Search Console
  • ☐ Analytics and tag tracking confirmed firing on the new site
  • ☐ A sample of high-priority old URLs manually confirmed to redirect
  • ☐ SSL certificate valid across the new domain

Phase 3 sign-off
Launched by: [Name]   Time live: [Time]   Signed: [Signature]

Phase 4: First 48 Hours

Catch the errors that only appear once real traffic hits the live site.

Goal: find and fix launch-day breakage before it costs rankings.

Tick within 2 days

  • ☐ Full crawl of the live site run; 404s and broken redirects logged
  • ☐ Redirect chains and loops checked and cleared
  • ☐ Search Console checked for crawl errors and coverage warnings
  • ☐ Server error rate and page load times monitored: [status]
  • ☐ High-priority pages confirmed indexable and returning 200
  • ☐ Any content lost in the move restored or flagged: [notes]

Phase 4 sign-off
Owner: [Name]   Date: [Date]   Signed: [Signature]

Phase 5: Weeks 1–4 Monitoring

Watch rankings, indexing, and traffic settle so real drops get addressed early.

Goal: confirm the migration held and act on anything that slipped.

Tick over the first month

  • ☐ Indexing of new URLs progressing in Search Console
  • ☐ Rankings for priority keywords compared against the pre-launch baseline
  • ☐ Organic traffic tracked against the same period last cycle: [trend]
  • ☐ Any pages that lost rankings investigated and fixed
  • ☐ Backlinks pointing to old URLs still resolving via redirects
  • ☐ Old sitemap removed once new URLs are indexed

Phase 5 sign-off
Owner: [Name]   Date: [Date]   Signed: [Signature]

Phase 6: Final Sign-Off

Close the project once the migration is verified stable and accountable.

Goal: formally close the migration with every phase owner accountable.

Confirm before closing

  • ☐ All earlier phases signed off
  • ☐ No outstanding 404s or broken redirects on priority pages
  • ☐ Traffic and rankings within an acceptable range of baseline, or recovering on plan
  • ☐ Open issues logged with owners and due dates: [list]
  • ☐ Post-migration report shared with stakeholders

Project sign-off

SEO owner: [Name]   Date: [Date]   Signed: [Signature]

Dev owner: [Name]   Date: [Date]   Signed: [Signature]

Approver: [Name]   Date: [Date]   Signed: [Signature]

How to use this template

  1. Print the checklist and assign a named owner to each phase before any work begins.
  2. Complete Phase 1: take and test a full backup, record baselines, and agree a rollback plan.
  3. Work Phase 2 entirely on staging so redirects, metadata, and crawlability are verified privately.
  4. Run the Phase 3 launch sequence in order and confirm redirects and tracking the moment you go live.
  5. Within 48 hours, crawl the live site for 404s and redirect problems and fix them fast.
  6. Monitor indexing, rankings, and traffic across weeks 1 to 4 and investigate anything that slips.
  7. Require the phase owner to sign each phase before the migration moves to the next.
  8. Complete the final sign-off only once priority pages are clean and stakeholders have the report.

Pro tips

  • Treat each sign-off line as a real gate, not a formality: an unsigned phase means the work isn't verified, and unverified work is where migrations lose traffic.
  • Take and test the restore of your backup before touching anything; a rollback plan you've never tested is a hope, not a plan.
  • Schedule launch for genuinely low-traffic hours so the inevitable first-hour fixes affect the fewest users.
  • Keep monitoring for a full month; rankings and indexing settle gradually, and the worst drops often surface a week or two after launch, not on day one.

Frequently asked questions

Why use a printable PDF instead of a spreadsheet?

A sign-off sheet is about accountability, not data. Printing it and having each owner tick and sign forces a deliberate stop at each gate. It pairs well with a URL-mapping spreadsheet, which handles the row-by-row detail, while this sheet confirms each phase was actually completed and owned.

How far before launch should Phase 1 start?

Begin planning and backups well ahead of the launch window, ideally weeks out for a large site. Rushing the plan and mapping is where most avoidable migration damage comes from. The earlier the crawl, mapping, and rollback plan exist, the less pressure lands on launch day.

What's the single most important phase?

Honestly, Phase 2 staging QA and the Phase 4 48-hour crawl catch the most. Testing redirects before launch and recrawling straight after covers the biggest sources of traffic loss. That said, skipping the backup in Phase 1 is the one mistake you truly can't undo.

Should I expect a traffic drop after migrating?

A short dip while search engines recrawl and reindex is common, even on a clean migration. What matters is the trend recovering within weeks. A drop that keeps deepening usually points to broken redirects, lost content, or indexing issues the monitoring phase is designed to catch.

Who should sign each phase?

The person actually responsible for that work: usually a developer for launch and redirects, and an SEO owner for QA and monitoring. A final approver signs the whole project. Real names on each line make it clear who verified what if something needs revisiting later.

Can I reuse this for a smaller change like a redesign?

Yes, though you can skip phases that don't apply. A redesign that keeps URLs unchanged needs less redirect work but still benefits from staging QA, a backup, and post-launch monitoring. Trim the sheet to the phases that match the scope of your specific change.