The Authoritative Website Migration & Replatforming Plan: A Phased Checklist for a Headache-Free CMS Switch

Introduction: What is a "Headache-Free" Migration?

A website migration is one of the most complex and high-risk operations a digital business can undertake. The term "migration" is a broad descriptor for any significant change to a site's platform, structure, design, or domain.[1, 2] A "Content Management System (CMS) migration," or replatforming, represents the most complex variant, involving the maximum number of moving parts and, consequently, the highest potential for failure.[2]

The "headache" that project leaders rightly fear is the all-too-common outcome of a poorly planned migration: a catastrophic and permanent loss of organic search traffic, the unrecoverable deletion of critical data, extended website downtime, and a chaotic launch process that demolishes budgets and timelines.[2, 3, 4]

A "headache-free" migration is not a project where nothing goes wrong—in an operation of this scale, that is unrealistic. It is one where a robust, multi-phased strategic plan anticipates 99% of all potential failures and provides the processes, checklists, and strategies required to mitigate them. This document is that plan.

Phase 1: Pre-Migration Strategy and Project Scoping

This foundational phase is about defining success, building the team, selecting the right technology, and, most importantly, creating a project management framework to prevent failure before the first line of code is written.

1.1 Defining the "Why": Establishing Measurable Goals & KPIs

The first step is to define why the migration is happening. A migration without clear goals is an expensive and high-risk solution in search of a problem.[5, 6] This "why" is almost always rooted in the pain points of the current system.

• Conduct a "Pain Point Audit": Before setting goals, a thorough audit of all stakeholders (IT, Marketing, Content, Sales) is essential. The team must document the key pain points driving this decision.[7]
  • Examples: "Publishing a new article is a 5-hour, multi-step ordeal" (outdated workflow), "Our site crashes every Black Friday" (scalability issues), "We cannot integrate the new AI-driven personalization tools" (lack of flexibility), "Our annual maintenance and licensing costs are spiraling" (high TCO).[7, 8]
• Translate Pain Points into Measurable Goals: The project's goals should be the direct, measurable inverse of these pain points.
  • Pain Point: "Slow publishing" -> Goal: "Reduce time-to-publish by 50%."
  • Pain Point: "Poor mobile experience" -> Goal: "Improve Core Web Vitals (CWV) scores on mobile by 20%."
  • Pain Point: "Low traffic" -> Goal: "Increase organic traffic by 15% post-migration."
• Establish Your Core KPIs: These goals define the success metrics. The primary KPIs to benchmark before any work begins are organic traffic, keyword rankings, conversion rates, and technical performance (CWV).[9, 10, 11, 12]

This process creates a "golden thread" that connects every decision back to the initial "why." For instance, a documented pain point ("slow publishing workflow") leads to a clear goal ("reduce publish time"), which directly informs a CMS selection requirement ("must-have intuitive editorial UI"), which finally becomes a post-launch success metric ("publish time reduced by 50%"). This logical and defensible thread is the project's best defense against scope creep.

1.2 Assembling the Migration Team & Project Management Structure

A migration is a cross-functional operation that cannot be managed from disjointed email chains, chat messages, and spreadsheets.[13]

• Assemble the Core Team: This is a multi-disciplinary effort. The core team must include [6, 14, 15]:
  • Executive Sponsor: The decision-maker with budget authority.
  • Project Manager (PM): The single owner responsible for the timeline, budget, and mitigating scope creep.[16]
  • SEO Strategist: (Often the most critical role) Responsible for preserving all traffic and search equity.
  • Lead Developer/Architect: Responsible for the technical build and data migration.
  • Content Lead: Responsible for the content audit and editorial team training.
  • Stakeholders: Representatives from Marketing, IT, and other departments who will use the new CMS.
• Choose a Project Management (PM) Tool: This will be the "single source of truth" for the entire project.[16]
  • Examples: ClickUp [17], Asana [18], Jira [19], Teamwork [20], Zoho Projects.[21]
• Structure Your Migration Project in the PM Tool:
  • Using a pre-built template (like ClickUp's "Website Migration Project Plan") or creating a custom one is essential.[17]
  • Custom Statuses: The defaults (To Do, Done) are insufficient. A granular workflow is necessary: To Do, In Progress, Blocked, In Review, Complete.[17]
  • Custom Fields: These are essential for filtering a project with thousands of tasks. Key fields include: Migration Phase (1-7), Delivering Team (SEO, Dev, Content), and Effort Level.[17]
  • Views: A Timeline or Gantt view is required for managing dependencies [22], while a Kanban board can manage daily work.
  • Migration Kanban Board: A best-practice board would have columns like: Project Backlog, Phase 1-3 (Planning/Audit), Phase 4 (In Development), Phase 5 (Ready for QA), Phase 5 (In QA Review), Phase 6 (Ready for Launch), Phase 7 (Launched & Monitoring).[17, 19, 23]

1.3 Choosing the Right CMS: An In-Depth Analysis

This is the central technology decision of the entire project. The choice must be driven by the goals defined in section 1.1, not by market popularity.

• Core Selection Criteria Checklist: A scorecard should be created for every CMS under evaluation.[24, 25, 26]
  • Budget (TCO): Total Cost of Ownership. This must include licensing, development, hosting, training, and ongoing maintenance.[27, 28]
  • Ease of Use: How intuitive is the platform for the editorial and marketing teams?.[27, 29]
  • Scalability & Performance: Can it handle traffic spikes and future business growth?.[8, 27, 30]
  • Integrations: How easily does it connect to the existing tech stack (CRM, Analytics, Marketing Automation)?.[8, 26, 27, 29]
  • Customization & Flexibility: Can developers build what is needed, or is the business locked into restrictive templates?.[27, 31]
  • Security & Support: What are the security protocols? What level of support is available when critical functions fail?.[8, 25, 27, 28]
• The 2025 Fork in the Road: Traditional CMS vs. Headless CMS
  • This is the single most important strategic choice the team will make.
  • Traditional (Monolithic) CMS: (e.g., WordPress, Drupal, Joomla). The backend (content database) and frontend (the website) are tightly coupled into a single, integrated system.[31, 32]
  • Headless (Decoupled) CMS: (e.g., Storyblok, Contentful, Prismic, Strapi). The backend (content) is a separate "body." The "head" (the frontend website, a mobile app, a smart-watch) is built separately and pulls content via an API.[31, 33, 34]

This is not just a technical decision; it is a fundamental choice about the business's operating philosophy and core competencies.

A Traditional CMS is often the right choice if the website is the business, the company values speed-to-market, and it wishes to empower non-technical teams with autonomy above all. The organization accepts the "frontend boundaries" [34] in exchange for lower upfront costs and easier operation.[31, 32, 34]

A Headless CMS is the right choice if the website is just one of many digital touchpoints (e.g., mobile apps, IoT devices). It is for organizations that consider their development team a core strategic strength, not a cost center. They prioritize long-term, "future-proof" flexibility and performance over low upfront cost and non-technical ease of use.[31, 33, 34]

Table 1: CMS Selection Criteria: Traditional vs. Headless (2025)

Purpose: To provide stakeholders with a clear, high-level comparison to make the most critical technology decision of the project.

Data Source(s):.[31, 32, 33, 34, 35]

1.4 Project Management & Risk Mitigation: Taming Scope Creep

Scope creep is the #1 killer of projects. It is the slow, gradual expansion of features and tasks—often added with good intentions—that derails the timeline and budget.[16, 36, 37] A rigid system must be in place to fight it.

• The Solution: A Formal Change Control Process: This is a non-negotiable process for handling any request not in the original, signed-off project scope.[36, 38, 39, 40]

Step-by-Step Change Control Process [39]:

1. Define it in the Contract (SOW): The contract must state that any requests outside the agreed scope will require a formal, written "Change Order" and will impact the timeline and/or cost.[39, 41]
2. Use a Change Request Form: All requests must go through a formal form (not email or chat). This form must capture [39]:
   • Requestor Name & Contact
   • Detailed Description of the Change
   • Business Justification (Why is this needed now?)
   • Priority Level (Low, Medium, High)
3. Formal Assessment: The PM and Lead Developer evaluate the request's impact on feasibility, cost, timeline, and resources.[39, 42]
4. Issue a Change Order: A formal document is presented to the stakeholder detailing: Description of Change, Timeline Impact (e.g., "+5 business days"), Cost Impact (e.g., "+$5,000").[39]
5. Approve, Reject, or Defer: The stakeholder must sign this document before any work begins. If they reject the cost/timeline, the change is either rejected or deferred.[39, 42]
6. Log Everything: All requests (approved or not) are kept in a central Change Log, visible to all stakeholders.[39, 42]

• The "Phase 2" Wishlist: A Secret Weapon Against Scope Creep
  • Stakeholders will always have new, good ideas during the project.[16, 43] Saying "No" to a stakeholder creates conflict and makes the project team seem uncooperative.[41, 44] Saying "Yes" to every new idea is scope creep and guarantees project failure.[37]
  • The solution is to create a formal "Phase 2 Wishlist".[44, 45] When a stakeholder makes an out-of-scope request, the response is not "No." The response is: "That is a fantastic idea for improving user engagement. It is outside our critical scope for this launch, so I am formally adding it to our 'Phase 2 Wishlist.' We will prioritize this list as our first product roadmap post-launch."
  • This approach validates the stakeholder's idea, captures it, and protects the current project without causing conflict.
  • Examples of "Phase 2" Items: eCommerce wishlist functionality [46, 47], A new meeting calendar embed [48], Converting nav to a mega menu [48], Advanced resource page filters.[48] These are "nice-to-haves," not mission-critical for the initial launch.

Phase 2: The Foundational Audit: Content, Data, and Architecture

This phase is about creating a perfect inventory of everything on the old site. It is impossible to migrate, redirect, or improve what is not known to exist. This is the foundational data-gathering phase.

2.1 Benchmarking Performance: Capturing Your "Before" Snapshot

Before any changes are made, a detailed "before" photo of the site's performance must be captured. This is the only way to measure success and diagnose problems post-launch.[2, 9, 12, 49]

• KPIs to Benchmark:
  • SEO: Clicks, impressions, CTR, and average rankings for the top 1,000 target keywords.[9, 15]
  • Traffic & Engagement: Top 50 pages by traffic [10, 11], top 50 pages by backlinks [50, 51], bounce rates, and time-on-page.
  • Conversion: Leads, sales, and conversion rates for key landing pages.[11]
  • Technical Performance: Key pages must be run through Google's PageSpeed Insights to record the field data (CrUX) for Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS).[12, 15, 52, 53]
• This data is compiled into a "Benchmark Report" [9], which will be used to grade the success of the migration in Phase 7.[1]

2.2 The Comprehensive Content Inventory: Crawling Your Site

A "manifest" of every single asset on the site must be created.[1, 54, 55, 56]

• Tools for Crawling: Using a desktop crawler is non-negotiable.
  • Screaming Frog SEO Spider: The industry standard. It is fast, flexible, and provides raw, comprehensive data. It is essential for technical audits like finding broken links, auditing redirects, and analyzing metadata.[57, 58, 59, 60]
  • Sitebulb: An excellent alternative known for its user-friendly interface, deep analysis, and visual reports. It provides "prioritized hints" that are valuable for less technical PMs.[57, 58, 59, 61]
  • Pro-Tip: Use both. A crawl with Screaming Frog can get the raw data export, which can be imported into Sitebulb for richer visualization and reporting.[59]
• The Inventory: This is the master spreadsheet that will govern the entire content portion of the migration.

Table 2: Content Audit Inventory & Data Map

Purpose: This spreadsheet is the single source of truth for the migration. It combines the inventory (what exists) with the audit (what will be done with it) and the data map (where it will go).

Data Source(s):.[5, 26, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66]

2.3 The Content Audit: "Keep," "Update," or "Retire"

A migration is a "once-in-a-decade" opportunity to clean the house. Migrating junk, outdated content, and redundant pages is a common and costly mistake.[56, 62] The inventory spreadsheet must be used to audit every single URL.[5, 26, 54, 56, 62, 67]

• The Three Actions [5, 26, 66]:
  1. Retire/Discard: This is for content that is outdated, irrelevant, redundant, or low-performing (ROT).[26] This is the chance to fix legacy duplicate content issues.[62] These URLs are not deleted; they are 301 redirected to a relevant parent category or a consolidated page.[64]
  2. Update/Refresh: The content is valuable but needs work.[26, 66] It may be inaccurate or not aligned with the new brand. It is marked to be migrated, then immediately sent to the editorial team for a refresh.
  3. Keep/Migrate: This is the high-quality, high-performing, relevant, "must-keep" content.[5, 26, 66] It will be migrated as-is, with a 1:1 301 redirect to its new URL.

2.4 Data Migration Planning & Security

This runs parallel to the content audit and focuses on structured data like users, products, and comments.[63, 68, 69]

• Data Assessment & Cleanup: The source data must be cleaned before planning the migration.[63, 68, 70] Every piece of data adds time, cost, and risk. Pruning hard is essential.[71]
• Data Mapping: This is the technical manifest. A plan must define the relationship between every field in the old CMS and its corresponding field in the new one.[5, 62, 63, 69, 72]
  • Example: old_cms.post_author_name (Text Field) -> new_cms.author_profile (Relational Field).
• E-commerce Data: This is a special, high-risk category. The migration must map Products (variants, tax classes), Customers (purchase history, accounts), and Orders (statuses).[73, 74, 75, 76] This data must be encrypted during transit.[76]
• Handling Sensitive Data: Migrating User Accounts & Passwords
  • It is a critical security and technical misstep to attempt to migrate hashed passwords. The risk of a data breach during this process is unacceptably high.[26, 77] Furthermore, different systems use different hashing and salting algorithms, meaning the old passwords would not work in the new system.
  • The strategy must be to migrate accounts, but force a password reset or use a seamless validation method. There are only two secure, viable options [78]:
    1. Method 1: Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR). (Simple, secure, poor user experience). Migrate all user accounts (username, email, purchase history). On their first login to the new site, their old password fails. They are forced to use the "forgot password" flow.
    2. Method 2: Seamless Migration (Just-in-Time). (Complex, secure, excellent user experience).
       1. Migrate all user accounts with a migrated=false flag.
       2. A user logs in on the new site.
       3. The new CMS sees migrated=false and calls a custom API.
       4. This API securely validates the password they just entered against the old (still running) legacy database.
       5. If correct, the new CMS creates a new hash of that password, saves it, and flips the flag to migrated=true. The user is in and never knew a migration occurred.

Phase 3: The SEO Preservation Blueprint (The "No Headache" Guarantee)

This is the most critical phase for preventing the #1 "headache": catastrophic traffic loss. The vast majority of migration failures are SEO failures. This plan prevents them.

3.1 Preserving On-Page SEO Elements

The Phase 2 inventory (Table 2) lists all key on-page elements. The new CMS and migration scripts must be able to accommodate and transfer them.[64]

• Page Titles (<title> tag): The primary SEO signal. Must be migrated 1:1.[65, 79]
• Meta Descriptions: Critical for click-through rate (CTR) in search results. Migrate 1:1.[65, 79]
• H1 Tags: The main on-page heading.[79, 80]
• Image Alt Text: Must be migrated with its corresponding image to preserve accessibility and image SEO.
• Structured Data (Schema): All existing schema (for products, articles, etc.) must be re-implemented in the new CMS's templates.[51, 64]

The common practice of programmatically making the <title> and <h1> identical is a missed opportunity.[81] The <title> tag's primary job is to compel a click from a search results page, while the <h1>'s job is to provide on-page context and utilize synonyms.[65, 81] The migration is the perfect time to capture both, and then create a post-launch "Phase 2" optimization task to rewrite all titles and H1s that are identical, optimizing them for their distinct purposes.

3.2 The 301 Redirect Map: The Most Critical Document

This is the single most important document in the entire migration.

• What it is: A 301 redirect is a permanent server-level instruction that tells users and search engines that a page has moved.[2, 64, 82] It passes most (though not all) of the link equity (ranking power) from the old URL to the new one.[64, 83, 84, 85]
• The "Headache" This Prevents: Without a 301 redirect map, every old URL (including those with valuable backlinks and high traffic) will lead to a 404 "Page Not Found" error. SEO visibility will be completely erased.[2, 51, 83, 86, 87] This is the most common and most damaging migration mistake.[87, 88]
• The Golden Rule: 1-to-1 Mapping: Every valuable old URL must be mapped to the single most relevant, equivalent new URL.[64, 89]
• CRITICAL MISTAKE TO AVOID [39]: Do NOT redirect all old pages to the new homepage.[64] This is a lazy, harmful practice that provides a terrible user experience. Search engines treat these as "soft 404s," meaning all link equity from those old pages will be lost.[64] If a page is retired (from the content audit), redirect it to its new, consolidated replacement page or its parent category page.[64, 90]

3.3 Building and Validating the 301 Redirect Map

• Building the Map:
  1. Gather Old URLs (Source): Start with the Content Inventory (Table 2).[89]
  2. Gather All Old URLs: This is critical. The crawl is not enough. The master list must also include exports from:
     • Google Analytics (all pages with >1 visit in the last year).[6, 50]
     • Google Search Console (all pages with impressions).[6, 83]
     • Backlink tool (Ahrefs, SEMrush) (all pages with >1 backlink).[6, 50]
     • Combine and de-duplicate these lists. This is the master list of "must-redirect" URLs.
  3. Gather New URLs (Destination): Crawl the new, populated staging site.[89]
  4. Map Them: For large sites, this is impossible to do manually.[90, 91]
     • Tools for Large-Scale Mapping: AI-powered mapping tools like Rapid301, MapMyRedirects, or redirection.io should be used.[92, 93, 94] These tools use similarity algorithms (not generative AI) to match old URLs to new ones based on paths and content, saving 90% of the manual effort.[91]
• The Redirect Map Document: This is the instruction manual for the server.

Table 3: 301 Redirect Map Template

Purpose: This document is the literal script the server will run at launch. Its accuracy is paramount to preserving SEO.

Data Source(s):.[50, 64, 89, 95]

• Validating the Map (Pre-Launch): This is a critical step in Phase 5. This map must be tested on the staging site before launch.
  • Process: Use Screaming Frog in "List Mode." Upload the list of "Old URLs." Set the crawler to follow redirects. Crawl the staging site.
  • Success: Every single URL in the list should return a 301 status code, and the "Redirect Location" column must exactly match the "New URL" column.[26, 83, 89, 94]
  • Failure: Look for 404 errors, 302 (temporary) redirects, or "Redirect Chains" (A->B->C) and "Redirect Loops" (A->B->A). These kill SEO and must be fixed.[83, 87, 89, 96]

Phase 4: Technical Build, Redesign, and Staging Environment

This is the core development phase where the new "house" is built in a safe, offline environment.

4.1 Setting Up the New CMS Environment

• Install & Configure: The new CMS is installed and configured based on the Phase 1 requirements.[5, 30]
• Create Environments: It is non-negotiable to have multiple environments.[5, 97]
  • Development: Where developers write code.
  • Staging: A 1:1 clone of the future live site. This is where all content is migrated and all QA (Phase 5) happens.[3, 5, 97, 98]
• CRITICAL: The Staging environment must be blocked from search engines using multiple methods:
  1. robots.txt file with User-agent: * Disallow: /.[51, 87]
  2. A site-wide noindex meta tag.[87, 88]
  3. IP-based password protection.
  • Failure to do this will cause Google to index the staging site, creating a massive duplicate content "headache" that will destroy SEO upon launch.[88]

4.2 Website Redesign vs. Rebuild: A Critical Decision

A CMS migration is almost always a "rebuild," not just a "redesign".[99]

• Redesign: Changing the "paint" on the same "house" (e.g., new theme, new CSS).[99, 100]
• Rebuild: Building a new "house" (new CMS) from scratch.[99] This is the migration.
• The Process:
  1. Re-develop all page templates and themes to match brand identity.[5]
  2. Re-implement all critical functionality (e.g., user login, forms).[100]
  3. Re-integrate the entire tech stack (CRM, analytics, third-party tools) with the new platform.[5, 8, 30]

A CMS migration is the perfect, and perhaps only, time to fix the deep, "poorly built" parts of a site.[8] The temptation is to save time by replicating old, broken functionality 1:1 on the new platform. This is a false economy. It results in spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a new "poorly built website." The migration is the opportunity to modernize.[8] This time must be used to replace custom, buggy code with modular architecture [8], streamline integrations, and pay down the technical debt that led to the migration in the first place.

4.3 Executing the Content & Asset Migration

This is the physical "move" of the data from the old database to the new one, based on the Phase 2 data map.[70, 72]

• Migration Strategies:
  • Automated: Using migration tools, plugins (e.g., CMS2CMS, WP All Import), or custom scripts.[72] This is for large, structured datasets.
  • Manual: Physically copying and pasting. Only viable for very small sites or a few complex, high-stakes pages.[72]
  • Phased (Recommended): Migrating in chunks (e.g., blog first, then products). This makes validation manageable and reduces disruption.[97]
• Data Validation: After the migration scripts run, the data must be validated on the staging site.
  • Check for data loss.[3]
  • Run content integrity checks.[26, 70, 72] Is text formatting correct? Are images broken? Are internal links working?
  • Compare database records. If 5,000 users were in the old database, are 5,000 users in the new one?.[26]

Phase 5: Comprehensive Pre-Launch Quality Assurance (QA) Checklist

This is the final firewall. In this phase, the team must hunt for every possible error on the staging site before it can impact a real user or Google ranking. This phase cannot be rushed or skipped.

Table 4: The Ultimate Pre-Launch QA & SEO Verification Checklist

Purpose: This is the master "pass/fail" test for the staging site. The launch cannot happen until every item on this list is checked "Pass."

Data Source(s):.[3, 5, 12, 26, 51, 52, 53, 67, 70, 72, 87, 88, 96, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105]

Phase 6: The Go-Live Checklist: Executing the Launch

This is the "go-live" event. It is a high-pressure, technical operation that must be executed with precision.

6.1 Minimizing Downtime: The Launch-Day Plan

• Schedule Smart: Schedule the migration during the lowest traffic period (e.g., Tuesday at 2 AM), not a Friday afternoon.[1, 6, 98]
• Notify Users: Announce the planned maintenance window.[98]
• Activate Maintenance Mode: Have a branded "We'll be right back" page (which serves a 503 HTTP status code) ready to show users during the final cutover.[98]
• DO NOT Cancel Old Hosting: Keep the old site and hosting account active for at least 30-60 days. This is the "rollback" plan in case of catastrophic failure.[3, 97, 106]
• Implement a Content Freeze:
  • What it is: A 24-48 hour period before launch where no one can make any changes to the old site.[1, 51, 97, 107, 108]
  • Why it's essential: This ensures the final data export is truly final. If an editor adds a new blog post during the migration, that post will be lost forever.[107, 108]
  • Process: Lock editors out of the old CMS, perform the final data export, and migrate this last batch of content.[107]

6.2 The DNS Cutover: Managing TTL Propagation

This is the technical switch that points the domain from the old server's IP address to the new server's IP address.

DNS (Domain Name System) records are cached by servers worldwide.[109] The "Time to Live" (TTL) value on a DNS record tells those servers how long to cache that information.[109, 110] If the TTL is 24 hours (a common default), it can take a full day for the "world" to see the new site, causing a chaotic split-site experience where some users see the old site and some see the new one.[106, 109]

During a migration, a high TTL is a disaster. The goal is to have the world's DNS servers check for updates as fast as possible.[111] This requires proactively lowering the TTL in the days leading up to the migration.

The TTL Reduction Schedule [111, 112, 113, 114, 115]:

• 7 Days Before Launch: Log into the DNS provider and change the TTL for all critical records (A, CNAME, MX) to 86400s (24 hours).[112, 115]
• 3 Days Before Launch: Change the TTL to 3600s (1 hour).[112, 113, 115]
• 24 Hours Before Launch: Change the TTL to 300s (5 minutes) (or the lowest value the provider allows).[110, 111, 115]
• At Launch: Make the DNS change (point the A record to the new server's IP). Because the TTL is 5 minutes, all DNS servers worldwide will update within 5-10 minutes.
• 24 Hours After Launch: Once stable, change the TTL back to a high value (e.g., 3600s) to reduce DNS lookup overhead.[111, 113, 114]

6.3 Launch-Day Immediate Actions (The "Go-Live" Moment)

This is the literal checklist for the launch team, to be executed in order.

1. Activate Maintenance Mode (503 page).
2. Perform final data sync/migration.
3. Make the DNS Change (See 6.2).
4. Activate 301 Redirects: The redirect map must be live on the server.
5. Update robots.txt: Remove the Disallow: / from the robots.txt file. The new file must allow all necessary crawlers.[1, 51, 87]
6. Remove noindex Tags: The site-wide noindex tag from staging MUST BE REMOVED. (This is a Class-1, "Get Fired" mistake. Leaving this on will tell Google to de-index the entire site).[87, 88]
7. De-activate Maintenance Mode. The site is now LIVE.
8. Submit New XML Sitemap: Go to Google Search Console and submit the new XML sitemap. This is a direct signal to Google to "come crawl our new site".[1, 3, 49, 116]
9. Verify Analytics: Open Google Analytics. Is "Real-Time" traffic showing up?.[1, 67, 116]
10. Run a Live Crawl: Immediately run a new Screaming Frog crawl on the live site.[1, 9, 116]
    • Look for any 404s or 5xx (server) errors.[1, 116]
    • Spot-check that 301 redirects are working as intended.[116]
    • Verify robots.txt and canonical tags are correct.[9]

Phase 7: Post-Launch Monitoring and Long-Term Optimization

The "headache" often comes after the launch, when small, unmonitored errors compound. The job is not done. This phase is about "hyper-care" and proving success.

7.1 The First 48 Hours: Hyper-Care and Monitoring

The core team should be on high alert, monitoring all systems.[6, 97]

• Monitor Google Search Console (GSC): This is mission control.[117]
  • Watch the "Crawl Stats" report. Is Googlebot crawling aggressively?
  • Watch the "Coverage" (Indexing) report for spikes in 404s or 5xx server errors.[1, 9, 89]
• Monitor Server Logs: Look for errors and bot activity.[3]
• Live Testing: Manually test critical user journeys again on the live site (checkout, lead forms).[12, 49, 67]
• Review User Feedback: Have a clear channel for users to report bugs.[2, 26, 70, 72]

7.2 The First 30 Days: Benchmarking Success

Now, the team must go back to the "Benchmark Report" from Phase 2.

• Monitor Keyword Rankings: Track core keywords daily. A temporary "migration flux" (a small drop and recovery) is normal.[2, 13, 15, 97] A sustained, steep drop is a sign of a critical failure (likely in Phase 3 or 6).[3]
• Monitor Organic Traffic: Compare traffic in Google Analytics to the pre-migration benchmark.
• Monitor Core Web Vitals (Live):
  • A common post-launch "headache" is seeing Core Web Vitals scores tank, even after testing in staging.[118] This is because "Lab Data" (from a PageSpeed Insights test) is not the same as "Field Data" (real user data).
  • PageSpeed Insights provides "Lab data" (a one-time simulation) and "Field data" (from the Chrome User Experience Report, or CrUX, gathered from real users over 28 days).[52, 53, 119]
  • Google's GSC Core Web Vitals report is 100% based on this slow-to-update "Field data".[52, 120, 121]
  • The expert solution is to use a Real User Monitoring (RUM) tool like New Relic.[122] This allows the team to see live CWV data, "drill down into specific pages," and filter by "device type".[122] This finds and fixes performance bottlenecks in real-time, before they negatively impact the 28-day GSC report and rankings.

7.3 Ongoing Maintenance and Training

• Train Your Team: A new CMS is useless if the team cannot use it. Hold comprehensive training sessions for the content, marketing, and editorial teams.[2, 3, 5, 26, 30, 67, 70, 97]
• Decommissioning: After the team is 100% confident the new site is stable (e.g., 30-60 days post-launch), the old site and hosting can finally be decommissioned.[3, 68] The backups and the 301 redirect map file must be kept forever.[89, 106]
• Iterate: The migration is not the end. It is the beginning. The "Phase 2 Wishlist" (from 1.4) should be opened, and the team should begin planning the first sprint of improvements.[70]
  
  

References:

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