Enterprise Site Migration SEO Playbook

Moving an enterprise website is one of the most high-risk projects a marketing and engineering team will face. With dozens of templates, legacy redirects, and stakeholders involved, it only takes one misstep to lose search visibility. This playbook outlines the SEO workstreams required before, during, and after launch to protect rankings and unlock growth opportunities.

1. Build the Migration Blueprint

Align Stakeholders

Secure executive sponsorship and name a migration lead.
Map the cross-functional team: SEO, dev, product, analytics, paid media, and RevOps.
Establish communication cadences (weekly steering, daily stand-ups in launch week).

Document Scope & Risks

Define goals: preservation vs growth, target markets, new features.
Inventory all domains, subdomains, and microsites involved.
Capture known risks such as legacy redirects, parameterised URLs, or compliance requirements.

2. Complete a Full URL Inventory

Crawl current site with desktop and mobile user agents.
Export all indexable and non-indexable URLs, metadata, canonicals, and status codes.
Group templates (blog, product, resources) to understand unique SEO requirements.
Flag content for pruning or consolidation to avoid migrating dead weight.

3. Architect the Information Structure

Translate keyword research into the new IA, mapping parent/child relationships.
Align navigation labels and breadcrumbs with keyword clusters.
Define canonical rules, pagination handling, and faceted navigation behaviour.

4. Develop the Redirect Strategy

Create a one-to-one mapping spreadsheet with source and destination URLs.
Prioritise high-traffic and revenue-driving pages for manual QA.
Plan wildcard redirects only when necessary; avoid redirect chains or loops.
Include HTTP to HTTPS, www to non-www (or vice versa), and uppercase variants.

5. Prepare Technical Foundations

Configure staging environments with password protection and robots noindex tags.
Replicate analytics and tag management setups for validation.
Validate schema markup, hreflang rules, and XML sitemaps on staging builds.
Benchmark Core Web Vitals for key templates and define improvement targets.

6. Content Refresh & Optimisation

Update top-performing pages with fresh copy, unique value propositions, and structured data.
Create migration-specific messaging for hero sections and CTAs to reassure returning visitors.
Implement internal linking maps to showcase new pillar pages and services.

7. QA & Launch Readiness

Run pre-launch crawls on staging to verify status codes, metadata, and canonical parity.
Test redirects in batches using Screaming Frog's list mode or Sitebulb.
Prepare search console change-of-address requests if domains are shifting.
Align launch windows with low-traffic periods and ensure rollback procedures are documented.

8. Launch Day Checklist

Remove staging passwords and noindex rules.
Deploy redirect rules and validate with real-time crawls.
Submit updated XML sitemaps and request indexing for priority URLs.
Monitor logs for spikes in 404s or unexpected bot activity.

9. Post-Launch Monitoring (Days 1–30)

Compare analytics to baseline: sessions, conversions, revenue by channel.
Track rankings for target keywords and identify dips to triage quickly.
Audit redirect coverage and fix any remaining 404s or mis-mapped URLs.
Update internal stakeholders daily for the first week, then weekly until stabilised.

10. Growth Enhancements (Days 31–90)

Launch A/B tests on key templates informed by new user behaviour.
Expand content clusters tied to the redesigned navigation.
Pursue digital PR campaigns to showcase the new experience and earn fresh backlinks.
Document lessons learned and update the organisation's migration playbook for future use.

Templates & Tooling

Need	Recommended Tool	Notes
URL inventory	Screaming Frog + Looker Studio	Combine crawls with analytics exports for prioritisation
Redirect QA	Little Warden or ContentKing	Set alerts for unexpected 4XX/5XX spikes
Stakeholder updates	Notion or Confluence	Maintain a single source of truth for status and decisions
Monitoring	GA4, GSC, log file analyser	Cross-reference data to validate recovery trajectories

Key Success Metrics

Less than 5% drop in organic sessions within the first 30 days.
Zero loss in top 20 rankings for money pages after 60 days.
Improvement in Core Web Vitals for primary templates by 10%.
Increase in conversion rate as refreshed content and UX go live.

With disciplined planning, collaborative execution, and relentless post-launch monitoring, enterprise site migrations can become catalysts for growth—not cautionary tales.

Enterprise Site Migration SEO Playbook