On paper, moving a website is simple: copy the files, copy the database, point the domain at the new server. In practice, the things that go wrong are rarely the files. They're the bits nobody wrote down.
The quiet things that break
- Email that was set up on the old host and stops arriving when DNS changes.
- Contact forms that relied on the old server's mail settings.
- SSL certificates that need to be issued again on the new host.
- Old URLs that worked on the old setup and now return a "not found" page.
Why the redirect map matters most
Search engines know your site by its URLs. If a migration or redesign changes them, every old address needs a permanent (301) redirect to its new home. Miss them and Google sees a pile of broken pages, and the rankings those pages had go with them.
A redirect map is just a list: old URL on the left, new URL on the right. Build it from everything you can find (your sitemap, Search Console, analytics, and a crawl of the old site), then test every line before the switch.
A sensible order
- Inventory the old site's URLs and settings, including DNS and email.
- Build the new site on a staging copy.
- Write and test the redirect map.
- Switch at a quiet time and watch for errors.
- Check Search Console over the following weeks as Google recrawls.
A little wobble after a move is normal. A complete redirect map is what keeps it a wobble.
How this note was made: drafted with AI assistance and edited by Mogens, who reviews every note before it goes live. How I use AI.