// FREE PLAYBOOK
WordPress migration playbook: website migration checklist
The Toffyjar WordPress migration playbook is a free, step-by-step guide to moving a website to WordPress, or between hosts and domains, without losing search traffic. It covers 8 steps from benchmark to 30-day monitoring, a redirect map template in CSV and a 15-point launch checklist you can work through on this page.
By Nikhil Narasipura Doddamane, Founder & Head of SEO/GEO · Updated
INSIDE THE PLAYBOOK
- 8-step migration process
- Redirect map template (CSV)
- 15-point launch checklist
- 30-day monitoring plan
QUICK ANSWER
How do you migrate a website without losing SEO?
To migrate a website without losing SEO, benchmark rankings and traffic first, crawl every old URL, and map each one to its new equivalent with a 301 redirect before launch. Rebuild on a staging site hidden from search engines, carry over titles, meta, headings, schema and internal links, then test every redirect. Launch in a quiet window, submit the new sitemap, and watch Search Console for 404s for 30 days. Most traffic losses after a migration come from missing redirects and lost on-page elements, so the redirect map is the single most important document.
THE PROCESS
What are the steps of a WordPress migration?
Benchmark before you touch anything. Export rankings, top landing pages from Google Search Console (last 16 months), backlinks to each URL and Core Web Vitals. This is your baseline for proving nothing was lost.
Crawl and inventory every URL. Crawl the old site and list every indexable URL, its title, canonical, status and inbound links. Pages with traffic or backlinks are migration-critical.
Build the redirect map. Map every old URL to its closest new equivalent with a 301. Avoid chains and redirecting everything to the homepage. Retired content with no equivalent can return 410.
Rebuild on staging, behind a login. Build on a password-protected staging site with noindex, so search engines never see duplicates. Keep URLs the same wherever possible.
Carry over on-page SEO. Titles, meta descriptions, H1s, alt text, internal links, schema, hreflang and canonicals move with the content. Compare old and new with a crawl diff.
Test redirects and performance. Run the full redirect map against staging, check for 404s and loops, and confirm Core Web Vitals are as good or better than the baseline.
Launch in a quiet window. Switch DNS or deploy at low-traffic time, remove noindex, submit the XML sitemap in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and keep the old site backed up.
Monitor for 30 days. Check Search Console coverage and 404 reports daily for the first week, then weekly. Fix stray 404s with redirects and compare traffic against the baseline.
CHECKLIST
Website migration checklist
Your ticks stay in this browser only.
REDIRECTS
How do you build a redirect map?
A redirect map is a two-column list of old URL and new URL, one row per indexable page. Start from the crawl and Search Console export, sort by traffic and backlinks, and map each URL to the closest matching new page, not the homepage. Use 301s for moved content and 410 for content you are deliberately removing. Avoid chains: if a page has already been redirected once, point the oldest URL straight at the final destination. Download the redirect map template to start. For example, a 300-page site usually ends up with 250 to 300 rows, and Google Search Central recommends keeping 301 redirects in place for at least one year.
| Old URL | New URL | Type |
|---|---|---|
| /services/wordpress.html | /wordpress-development-services/ | 301 |
| /blog/2019/05/seo-tips/ | /blog/on-page-seo/ | 301 |
| /old-promo-2021/ | (removed) | 410 |
PLATFORMS
Which migrations does this playbook cover?
The same process works for moving to WordPress from Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Drupal or a custom CMS, for WordPress host changes, domain changes, HTTP to HTTPS moves and redesigns that change URLs. Domain changes also need the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console. For hands-on help, see WordPress migration services or the WordPress redesign page.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How long does a WordPress migration take?
A WordPress migration for a small site of under 50 pages typically takes one to three weeks, including the crawl, redirect map, staging build, testing and launch. A mid-size site of 50 to 500 pages usually takes three to six weeks, mostly because of content mapping and redirect testing. Large or enterprise sites with thousands of URLs, integrations and content changes take longer and are planned in phases. After launch, Google says most pages of a medium-sized site move in its index within a few weeks, so plan 30 days of monitoring on top of the build.
Will I lose rankings after a migration?
Short-term ranking fluctuations of one to four weeks are normal while Google and Bing recrawl the new URLs and transfer signals through the 301 redirects. Lasting losses are a different problem, and they almost always trace back to three causes: missing or chained redirects, content that was cut or rewritten during the move, and internal links that still point at old URLs. For example, a site that drops its blog archive without redirects loses every backlink pointing to those posts. This playbook is designed to prevent all three, starting with the redirect map in step 3.
Should I use 301 or 302 redirects?
Use a 301 redirect for permanent moves, which covers almost every migration: new URLs, a new domain, HTTP to HTTPS or a platform change. A 301 tells Google Search, Bing and AI crawlers that the old URL has moved for good, so they transfer ranking signals and replace the old address in their index. A 302 means the move is temporary, so engines may keep the old URL indexed; use it only for short-lived changes such as a seasonal promotion. Use 410 for pages you are deliberately removing with no replacement, and avoid redirect chains.
Do I need to keep the old site after launch?
Yes. Keep a full backup of the old site, including files, database and a crawl export, for at least 90 days after launch. In practice, teams discover missed items for weeks: a PDF linked from an old email campaign, an image used in a press article, a landing page that only paid ads pointed to, or meta descriptions that were never carried over. With the backup you can restore the content or add a redirect in minutes. Also keep the old domain registered if you changed domains, because backlinks and bookmarks will keep pointing at it for years.
Is the playbook free?
Yes. The WordPress migration playbook, the 15-point checklist and the redirect map template are free to use, with no email or sign-up required. The checklist on this page saves your ticks in your own browser, and the Save as PDF button prints a clean copy without the site navigation. The redirect map template is a CSV with old URL, new URL, type and notes columns that opens in Google Sheets or Excel. For example, a team of two can work through the checklist together during launch week and share the CSV with their developer for implementation.
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