A checklist for migrating your old content to your new domain

Pre-Move

• Make a backup and copy of your current website.
• Move a copy of the website to the new web hosting account.
• Crawl your website, saving URLs and other data in a spreadsheet. Make a URL list for 301 Permanent Redirects.
• Review current site for references to the old domain, update copy, and make-ready for the new domain name.
• Perform due diligence on the domain name you’re moving to.
• Check links to your current website, making note of most powerful links from other websites.
• Verify site in Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, other search engines. Include both the current and new domain you’re moving to.
• Submit URLs of the new website to Baidu, other search engines that accept submitted URLs.
• Write a press release about your brand moving to the new domain name.
• Set up HTTPs for the new domain name.
• Consider using Canonical Tags to point from old to new domain. Make content live on the new domain for 3 months, then redirect later.

Pre-Planning

• Plan a date and time to move to the new domain.
• Detail the process for moving. Who is responsible for what (in your organization)?

On Moving Day

• Add 301 Permanent Redirects to the new domain name
• Test redirects using server header check. Ask a friend in another location (using another ISP) to check the redirects to make sure they are working properly.
• Crawl new website, checking for internal errors, any references to the old domain name. Fix all errors found.
• Notify Google of change of URL address.
• Update Google Analytics with the new domain.
• Check Google Analytics for referring URLs (sites sending traffic), notify those sites about the change of domain.
• Update social media profiles with the new domain name.
• Update email signatures, email addresses with the new domain name.
• Update business cards with the new email address, new domain name.
• Update company internal themes/documents with the new domain name.
• Update company newsletter with the new domain name (send out a newsletter?).
• Distribute a press release about moving to the new domain name.
• Update PPC campaigns with the new domain, run new PPC campaigns to compensate for any traffic loss.
• Notify your customers, clients, and business partners about moving to the new domain name.
• Contact link owners of most powerful links to the old site. Tell them about the new domain name.

After Moving Day

• Watch Google Analytics for changes in traffic.
• Watch the current site for any search engine ranking changes.
• Work on getting new links to the new domain name.
• Start a new marketing campaign(s) to help awareness of new domain name in the marketplace.

Note: Thanks to the DNA and Globerunner for providing this checklist.

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