Your Ultimate Website Migration Checklist: 10 Critical Steps for 2025

Website migration can feel like moving house for your business: it's an exciting opportunity for growth but is fraught with serious risks. Without a precise, step-by-step plan, you can inadvertently lose years of valuable SEO rankings, break critical user journeys, and create technical chaos that damages your brand's credibility. This is where a robust website migration checklist becomes your most critical tool. It transforms a complex, high-stakes project into a series of manageable, sequential steps, ensuring nothing is overlooked.

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Scotland, from local retailers in Dalkeith to service-based firms in Midlothian, every website visitor and lead is vital. A flawless migration isn't just a technical goal; it's a commercial necessity. A single misstep can lead to a drop in search visibility, a decline in traffic, and a direct impact on your bottom line. A comprehensive checklist acts as your blueprint for success, safeguarding your digital assets and ensuring a seamless transition for both your team and your customers.

This guide provides that essential blueprint. We have organised the entire process into 10 actionable stages, covering everything from initial discovery and content audits to final post-launch monitoring. By following this comprehensive website migration checklist, you can execute your move with confidence, knowing every technical detail, SEO consideration, and user experience element has been accounted for. We will cover the specific tasks needed to protect your hard-earned online presence and set your new site up for long-term success.

1. Audit and Inventory Your Current Website: The Discovery Phase

Before packing a single box for a physical move, you would take stock of your belongings. A website migration is no different. This initial discovery phase involves a meticulous audit of your current website to create a comprehensive inventory of every digital asset. Skipping this foundational step is like moving house blindfolded; you are almost certain to leave critical items behind.

A thorough audit forms the backbone of any successful website migration checklist. It provides a definitive blueprint of what needs to be moved, what can be archived, and what needs to be improved. This process minimises the risk of broken links, lost content, or malfunctioning features post-launch, ensuring a smooth transition for both your team and your customers.

What to Catalogue

Your inventory should be exhaustive. Use a spreadsheet to document everything, creating a single source of truth for the entire project.

• URLs and Content: Crawl your site using tools like Screaming Frog or Semrush to list every single URL. Map each URL to its corresponding content, noting page titles, meta descriptions, and word counts. This is vital for planning your redirect strategy later.
• Digital Assets: Catalogue all images, videos, PDFs, and other downloadable files. Note their file sizes and locations, as this will inform your new hosting requirements.
• Functionality and Integrations: Document every piece of functionality, from contact forms and booking systems to e-commerce checkouts and third-party integrations (like a CRM or email marketing platform). List all plugins, modules, and custom code snippets.
• Technical SEO Elements: Record existing robots.txt rules, XML sitemaps, canonical tags, hreflang tags for international sites, and structured data (schema markup). These are easily forgotten but have a significant impact on your search engine visibility.

Altitude Design Note: The discovery and audit phase is a core component of our managed migration service. We handle the technical crawling and documentation, presenting you with a clear, actionable inventory and strategic recommendations, so you can focus on your business while we manage the complexities.

2. Plan Your Migration Strategy and Timeline

With a complete inventory in hand, the next critical step is to move from auditing to action. This involves creating a detailed migration strategy and a realistic timeline. A well-defined plan acts as your project's North Star, guiding every decision, allocating resources effectively, and setting clear expectations for everyone involved. Without this strategic roadmap, a migration can quickly devolve into a chaotic series of reactive tasks, leading to missed deadlines and costly mistakes.

This strategic phase of the website migration checklist is where you decide how the move will happen. It defines the methodology, assigns responsibilities, and establishes the project's tempo. A robust plan anticipates potential roadblocks and builds in contingencies, transforming a daunting technical project into a manageable, step-by-step process.

Key Strategic Decisions

Before building a timeline, you must define the core approach and project governance. This ensures everyone is aligned on the high-level plan.

• Migration Approach: Will this be a "big bang" migration, where everything goes live at once, or a phased migration, where you move the site in sections? Large, complex sites often benefit from a phased approach to minimise risk, as demonstrated by Spotify's incremental service migrations which ensured constant uptime.
• Team Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly define who is responsible for each part of the migration. Assign owners for content, technical SEO, development, testing, and communications.
• Project Management: Use a project management tool like Asana, Monday.com, or Jira to track every task, dependency, and deadline. Effective website project management is non-negotiable for a project of this scale.
• Timeline and Buffers: Map out all key phases: development, content migration, testing, launch, and post-launch monitoring. Crucially, add a 30-50% buffer to your time estimates to account for unexpected technical hurdles or delays.
• Go/No-Go Criteria: Establish clear, measurable criteria that must be met before you proceed with the final launch. This could include a 100% pass rate on critical functionality tests or zero high-priority bugs remaining.

Altitude Design Note: Strategic planning is where we excel. We collaborate with you to define the best migration approach for your specific business goals and risk tolerance. We manage the entire project plan, set realistic timelines, and coordinate all moving parts, providing you with a clear and predictable path to a successful launch.

3. Set Up Staging Environment and Test Infrastructure

Attempting to perform a website migration directly on your live, production environment is like performing open-heart surgery in a moving vehicle. A staging environment is a private, non-public replica of your live site, acting as a secure sandbox where the entire migration can be executed, tested, and perfected without impacting your active customers or business operations.

This step is an non-negotiable part of a professional website migration checklist. It provides a controlled setting to identify and resolve bugs, compatibility issues, and performance bottlenecks before they can cause revenue loss or reputational damage. Major platforms like WP Engine and Kinsta provide one-click staging environments by default, highlighting their critical importance in modern web development.

How to Create a Robust Staging Site

Your staging environment must mirror your production server as closely as possible to ensure that what works in testing will also work live.

• Mirror Your Infrastructure: The staging server must use the same operating system, web server software (e.g., Apache, Nginx), PHP version, and database version as your live site. This prevents unexpected compatibility errors during the final switchover. For more details on server configurations, explore our comparison of web hosting services.
• Duplicate Your Database and Files: Create a complete copy of your live website’s files and database. For compliance with privacy laws like GDPR, it is crucial to sanitise or anonymise any personal user data (names, emails, addresses) within the staging database.
• Configure for Privacy: Ensure your staging site is not accessible to the public or indexed by search engines. Use password protection (HTTP authentication) and configure your robots.txt file to disallow all crawlers.
• Match Third-Party Services: If possible, connect your staging site to sandbox or testing versions of any third-party APIs you use, such as payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal) or CRMs. This allows for end-to-end testing of critical functionality.

Altitude Design Note: We build and configure a complete, isolated staging environment for every migration project. This allows us to perform all development, content migration, and rigorous testing in a safe space. You get to review and approve the new site on a private link, guaranteeing a flawless launch with zero downtime for your business.

4. Back Up All Data and Create Recovery Points

Initiating a website migration without a comprehensive backup is the digital equivalent of demolishing a building with the original blueprints still inside. This crucial step involves creating multiple, verified copies of every component of your website. These backups are your safety net, providing a reliable recovery point to restore your live site instantly if any part of the migration process fails, preventing catastrophic data loss and extended downtime.

A robust backup strategy is a non-negotiable part of any professional website migration checklist. It ensures business continuity and protects your digital assets, from customer data and order histories to years of valuable content. Simply put, it transforms a potential disaster into a manageable inconvenience, allowing you to roll back to a known good state without panic or permanent damage.

What to Back Up

Your backups must be complete, capturing not just the visible content but the entire operational ecosystem of your website. Ensure your backup plan covers:

• Website Files: This includes all core application files (e.g., WordPress, Magento), themes, plugins, modules, and uploaded media files such as images, videos, and PDFs. Every single file in your web root directory must be copied.
• Databases: Your database contains all your dynamic content, such as page content, user information, product details, and order history. Create a full "dump" of every database associated with your site.
• Configuration Files: Crucial server and application configuration files must be included. This covers files like .htaccess, wp-config.php, web.config, and any custom server environment settings that are essential for your site to function correctly.
• Emails and External Data: If your hosting includes email services, back up all mailboxes. Also, consider data stored in third-party systems that might be affected by the migration.

Altitude Design Note: Data integrity is paramount. Our managed migration service includes creating and verifying multiple, independent backups of your entire website ecosystem. We test the restoration process on a staging server before the migration begins, guaranteeing you have a viable and complete recovery point, providing total peace of mind.

5. Implement 301 Redirects and URL Structure Planning

Think of 301 redirects as the digital equivalent of the Royal Mail's redirection service. When you move, you ensure your post gets forwarded to your new address; similarly, when a URL changes, a 301 redirect permanently forwards users and search engine crawlers to the new page. This is arguably the most critical SEO task in any website migration checklist, as it passes link equity (or "SEO juice") from the old URL to the new one.

Failing to implement redirects correctly can obliterate your search rankings, break user bookmarks, and invalidate countless external links you have earned over the years. Planning your new URL structure in tandem ensures it is logical and scalable. To ensure your new site retains its visibility, it's crucial to consider comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) strategies throughout the migration.

What to Redirect

Your URL mapping spreadsheet from the audit phase is your guide here. Every old URL must be mapped to a corresponding new one.

• One-to-One Mapping: Every significant page from your old site (home page, service pages, key blog posts) should have a direct equivalent on the new site. Map the old URL directly to the new one.
• Consolidated Content: If you are merging several old pages into one new, comprehensive page, redirect all old URLs to the single new URL.
• Retired Content: For pages you are removing without a replacement, redirect the old URL to the most relevant parent category page or to the homepage as a last resort. This prevents users from hitting a dreaded 404 "Not Found" error.
• URL Structure: Plan your new URL structure to be clean and descriptive. For example, changing from yourdomain.co.uk/p?id=123 to yourdomain.co.uk/services/web-design is a significant improvement for both users and search engines. You can learn more about how a well-organised site structure can improve your Google search rankings.

Altitude Design Note: We manage the entire redirection process meticulously. We create and test a comprehensive redirect map, implementing it at the server level for optimal performance. This ensures every drop of your hard-earned SEO authority is transferred to your new website, safeguarding your search rankings.

6. Update DNS Records and Configure Email Routing

The moment of truth in any website migration is the "flick of the switch" that points your domain name from the old server to the new one. This critical action is handled by updating your Domain Name System (DNS) records. Getting this step wrong can result in your website becoming completely inaccessible, disrupting email services, and undoing all your hard work. It is the technical equivalent of changing the address on your front door; it must be done precisely for visitors to find you.

Proper DNS management is a non-negotiable part of any professional website migration checklist. It ensures a seamless cutover, minimises downtime, and maintains business continuity, especially for services like email that rely on correct domain configuration. Planning this change carefully, particularly considering propagation time, is essential for a smooth go-live event.

What to Configure

Your domain registrar or DNS hosting provider (like Cloudflare) is where you will make these changes. Be sure you have the correct login credentials and new server IP addresses ready.

• Core DNS Records: The primary records to update are the A (for IPv4) and AAAA (for IPv6) records, which point your domain to the new server's IP address. You may also need to update CNAME records (aliases) for subdomains like www.
• Email Routing (MX Records): MX (Mail Exchanger) records direct your domain's email to the correct mail server (e.g., Google Workspace or Microsoft 365). These must be updated alongside any changes to prevent email disruption. For many businesses, this is also a good time to consult a guide to getting your own email domain to ensure best practices are followed.
• Email Authentication: To protect your email deliverability and prevent spoofing, you must configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. These DNS text records verify that emails sent from your domain are legitimate, a step often missed during migrations.
• Time-to-Live (TTL): TTL is a setting that tells DNS servers how long to cache your record information. Lowering the TTL value (e.g., to 300 seconds) 24-48 hours before the migration ensures that the new DNS information spreads across the internet much faster when you make the change. You can learn more about how web hosting and domains are interconnected.

Altitude Design Note: DNS management is a high-stakes task where small errors can have major consequences. As part of our migration service, we manage the entire DNS cutover process for you. We coordinate the timing, pre-configure all necessary records, and monitor propagation to ensure a flawless and stress-free launch.

7. Test All Functionality and Perform Quality Assurance

Launching a newly migrated site without rigorous testing is like opening a restaurant without checking if the ovens work. The quality assurance (QA) phase is where you meticulously test every component of the new site in a staging environment. This is your final opportunity to catch and fix bugs, broken features, and performance bottlenecks before they impact your users and damage your brand’s credibility.

A comprehensive QA process is a non-negotiable part of any website migration checklist. It ensures that all functionality operates as expected, the user experience is seamless across all devices, and the site can handle real-world traffic. This methodical validation safeguards your revenue, protects your SEO rankings, and delivers the polished experience your customers expect from day one.

What to Test

Your QA checklist should cover every conceivable user interaction and technical aspect. Document your findings systematically to track fixes and prevent regressions.

• Critical User Journeys: Manually test every step of your most important user paths. This includes user registration, login processes, adding items to a cart, completing a purchase, filling out a contact form, and using the site’s search function.
• Functionality and Integrations: Verify that all interactive elements are working correctly. Check that third-party integrations, such as payment gateways, CRMs, and email marketing platforms, are passing data as intended. Test all custom scripts and plugins.
• Performance and Load: Use tools like Apache JMeter or GTmetrix to test how the site performs under stress. Measure page load times, server response times, and how the site copes with a simulated surge in traffic.
• Cross-Browser and Device Compatibility: Your website must function flawlessly for everyone, regardless of how they access it. Use services like BrowserStack to test your site on various combinations of browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari), operating systems (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android), and devices (desktops, tablets, and mobiles).

Altitude Design Note: Our managed migration service includes an exhaustive QA and testing protocol. We build and execute a custom test plan covering everything from critical e-commerce checkout flows to cross-device compatibility, ensuring your new site is robust, reliable, and ready for launch.

8. Verify Analytics, Tracking, and Monitoring Setup

If your website is a shop, your analytics and tracking are the security cameras and footfall counters. Migrating without ensuring they are correctly reinstalled on the new site is like reopening for business with the shutters half-down. You will be blind to visitor behaviour, conversion rates, and potential technical issues, making it impossible to measure the success or failure of the migration.

This step in the website migration checklist is critical for maintaining business intelligence. It ensures that every tool you rely on to measure performance, from Google Analytics to marketing pixels and error-monitoring platforms, is functioning perfectly from the moment the new site goes live. Failure to do so creates data gaps that can hide serious post-launch problems and undermine your marketing efforts.

What to Configure

Your goal is to achieve seamless data continuity. Use your pre-migration audit to ensure every tag, pixel, and script is accounted for and correctly implemented on the new infrastructure.

• Analytics and Tag Management: Re-implement your Google Analytics (GA4), Matomo, or other analytics platform tracking codes, preferably via a tool like Google Tag Manager. Verify that data is being received in real-time and that all goals, events, and conversion funnels are correctly configured.
• Marketing and Conversion Pixels: Check that all advertising pixels (e.g., Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag) and third-party scripts are firing correctly on relevant pages, especially on thank-you pages after a conversion. Use browser developer tools or tag assistant extensions to confirm they are active.
• Performance and Error Monitoring: Set up monitoring tools like Datadog or Sentry on the new server to track performance, uptime, and application errors. Configure alerts for critical events, such as a sudden spike in 404 errors, a drop in traffic greater than 50%, or an increase in server response time.
• Baseline and Benchmarking: Before migrating, establish clear baseline metrics for key performance indicators like page load speed, conversion rate, and bounce rate. This pre-migration data will be your benchmark for evaluating the success of the project and identifying any post-launch regressions.

Altitude Design Note: Data continuity is non-negotiable. As part of our managed migration service, we meticulously transfer and validate every tracking code and monitoring setup. We configure dashboards and alerts to ensure that from day one, you have complete visibility of your new website’s performance, protecting your data and your bottom line.

9. Execute the Live Migration and Cutover

This is the moment of truth. After weeks or months of meticulous planning, auditing, and testing, it is time to execute the migration and switch traffic from your old site to the new one. This cutover phase is the most critical step in the entire website migration checklist, demanding precision, calm execution, and clear communication to minimise downtime and ensure a successful transition.

The live migration is the culmination of all prior efforts, where your runbook and rollback plans become invaluable. A well-managed cutover feels seamless to your users, while a poorly executed one can lead to extended outages, lost data, and frustrated customers. The goal is to make the switch during a planned maintenance window when traffic is lowest, following your tested procedure step-by-step.

What to Action

Your pre-prepared runbook should guide every action during the maintenance window. Stick to the plan and ensure all team members know their roles.

• Communication: Establish a "war room" (physical or a dedicated Slack/Teams channel) for real-time updates. Appoint a single incident commander to make final decisions, especially regarding whether to proceed or initiate a rollback.
• Final Data Sync: Perform one last synchronisation of any dynamic data (like customer orders or user sign-ups) from the old site to the new one just before the cutover begins.
• Execute the Runbook: Follow your step-by-step procedure precisely. This typically involves putting the old site into maintenance mode, updating DNS records to point to the new server's IP address, and running final smoke tests once the new site is live.
• Monitor Propagation: Use tools like whatsmydns.net to monitor the DNS propagation across the globe. Be aware that it can take several hours to fully complete, meaning some users will still see the old site while others see the new one.
• Rollback Readiness: Keep your tested rollback plan on standby. Set a strict time limit for troubleshooting any unexpected critical issues. If a problem cannot be solved within that window, the incident commander should make the call to roll back to the old site to avoid prolonged disruption.

Altitude Design Note: Executing a flawless cutover is our specialty. We manage the entire live migration process, typically scheduling it out-of-hours to minimise business impact. Our team handles the technical execution, DNS changes, and immediate post-launch monitoring, providing you with a seamless, stress-free launch day.

10. Post-Migration Monitoring, Validation, and Optimisation

Launching your new website is not the finish line; it’s the start of a critical stabilisation period. The post-migration phase is where you actively monitor the site's health, validate its performance against your benchmarks, and make data-driven optimisations. This is an indispensable part of any website migration checklist, as it ensures the long-term success of the project and catches any subtle issues that pre-launch testing may have missed.

Think of this phase as the post-operative care for your new digital presence. For the first one to four weeks, your primary goal is to confirm that everything is functioning as expected under real-world conditions. This involves scrutinising performance metrics, monitoring user behaviour, and quickly addressing any bugs or errors that surface. This diligent oversight solidifies the gains from the migration and prevents a gradual erosion of user trust or SEO rankings.

What to Monitor and Validate

Your focus should be on comparing real-world performance against the benchmarks you established in the planning phase. Use a combination of analytics, server logs, and user feedback tools.

• Performance Metrics: Set up daily reports comparing key metrics like page load speed, bounce rate, and conversion rates against the old site's performance. Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and server-side monitoring to track these closely.
• Error Logs: Monitor server error logs (especially for 404s and 500s) hourly for the first few days, then daily for the first week. Addressing these promptly prevents negative user experiences and search engine crawl errors.
• User Feedback: Implement a simple feedback mechanism, such as a pop-up survey or a dedicated contact form, allowing users to report any issues they encounter. This direct feedback is invaluable for identifying unexpected problems.
• Data Integrity: For e-commerce or data-driven sites, meticulously check that orders, user accounts, and other critical data are being processed and stored correctly. Validate a sample of transactions from end to end.

Altitude Design Note: Ongoing vigilance is key to a website’s long-term health. Our comprehensive website support and maintenance packages include continuous monitoring, performance optimisation, and security checks, ensuring your new site remains fast, secure, and effective long after the migration is complete.

10-Step Website Migration Checklist Comparison

Your Migration is Complete: What Happens Next?

Successfully navigating a website migration is a significant achievement that sets your business up for future growth, enhanced security, and a superior user experience. By diligently following a structured website migration checklist, you transform a potentially chaotic and high-risk technical project into a strategic business move. The journey from the initial audit to the final post-launch optimisation is complex, but the rewards are substantial.

The process you have just completed is far more than a simple "lift and shift" of files. It is a fundamental realignment of your digital presence. You have inventoried your assets, defined your objectives, and executed a plan designed to protect your hard-earned SEO authority while delivering a better, faster, and more reliable platform for your customers. This meticulous approach is what separates a successful migration from a digital disaster.

The Pillars of a Flawless Migration: A Recap

Reflecting on the comprehensive checklist, the most critical takeaways can be distilled into three core pillars: preparation, execution, and vigilance.

• Meticulous Preparation: The success of your migration was largely determined before the launch day ever arrived. Key preparatory steps included a thorough content and technical audit, the establishment of a robust staging environment, and a comprehensive backup strategy. Critically, mapping out your 301 redirects and planning your URL structure was not just an SEO task; it was an act of preserving the digital equity you have built over years.
• Precise Execution: The actual "go-live" moment is the culmination of all your planning. The seamless cutover, from updating DNS records to pushing the new site live, requires precision and coordination. Your rollback plan, though hopefully unused, served as an essential safety net, providing the confidence needed to proceed. This phase underscores the importance of having a clear, step-by-step action plan that everyone on your team understands and can follow without hesitation.
• Vigilant Post-Launch Monitoring: Your work is not over once the new site is live. In fact, this is where the real value of your new platform begins to emerge. The immediate post-launch phase is all about validation. This involves using tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to confirm that your tracking codes are firing, your redirects are working as intended, and search engines are correctly indexing your new pages. Monitoring for 404 errors, checking server logs, and keeping a close eye on your keyword rankings are non-negotiable tasks that ensure the long-term health and performance of your website.

From Checklist to Competitive Advantage

Mastering the steps in this website migration checklist does more than just prevent a drop in traffic; it provides a powerful competitive advantage. A well-executed migration results in a faster, more secure, and mobile-friendly website, all of which are crucial ranking factors for search engines and key drivers of user satisfaction. For businesses in Dalkeith, Midlothian, and across Scotland, a modern, high-performing website is the cornerstone of local SEO and lead generation.

By treating your website as a dynamic and evolving business asset, you position your company to adapt to new technologies and changing customer expectations. This migration is not an end point but a new beginning, a foundation upon which you can build future marketing campaigns, e-commerce functionalities, and enhanced customer experiences. The effort invested now will pay dividends in the form of improved conversions, stronger brand credibility, and sustainable business growth. Keep this checklist handy for future projects, and continue to refine your processes, because in the digital world, the only constant is change.

If the thought of managing every technical detail feels overwhelming, you are not alone. For many small and medium-sized businesses, a DIY migration is a resource-intensive risk. Altitude Design specialises in handling the entire process, from initial audit and development to a seamless launch and ongoing support, ensuring your project is a resounding success. Contact Altitude Design today to secure your digital future without the headache.