CMS Migration Planner

The checklist without dates

The planner spaces these steps back from your launch date, giving larger sites more time for inventory, content entry and testing. If you prefer to plan by hand, here is the full sequence.

Prepare

• List every live address from your sitemap, Search Console and analytics, with traffic for each.
• Export everything the current platform allows, and save every image and document separately.
• Note which features come from apps or plugins and choose a replacement for each.

Map and build

• Add each page's new address to the list. Keep addresses unchanged where you can.
• Build the new site and enter or import content.
• Rewrite titles and descriptions only where you mean to; carry the rest over.

Redirect and test

• Set up permanent server-side redirects from every old address to its new one, avoiding chains.
• Test every old address, every form and the checkout on a staging copy.
• Check that nothing is blocked by a leftover "noindex" or robots rule.

Launch and monitor

• Switch over, submit the new sitemap in Search Console and, if the domain changed, use Search Console's Change of Address tool.
• Watch for crawl errors and fix missing redirects in the first weeks.
• Leave the redirects running for the long term; Google's guide treats one year as the minimum.

Where the steps come from

The order follows Google Search Central's guide to site moves with URL changes, which centers on a map of old addresses to new ones, permanent redirects set on the server, and keeping those redirects for a year or longer. Platform export notes come from each platform's help pages; for example, Shopify's product export does not include image files, so the checklist reminds store owners to copy images before closing the old store. The migration guide explains each step in more detail.

Sources for this page

1. Google Search Central: Site Moves and Migrations. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
2. Google Search Central: Redirects and Google Search. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
3. Shopify Help Center: Exporting products. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
4. Squarespace Help Center: Export your site content. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
5. Webflow Help Center: Collection items overview. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
6. Wix Help Center: CMS: Exporting Content from Your Collection. Official source, read November 4, 2026.