A successful launch protects what already works while improving the customer journey. The highest-risk failures are usually invisible in a design review: missing redirects, broken forms, duplicate canonicals, lost tracking, and weak mobile performance.

Key ideas

01

Inventory existing URLs before changing the information architecture.

02

Treat redirects and canonical tags as launch requirements.

03

Test real conversion journeys on real devices.

04

Keep analytics consent-aware and verify events end to end.

Practical steps

  1. 01

    Crawl the current site and classify every indexable URL.

  2. 02

    Map each valuable URL to a stronger destination.

  3. 03

    Validate titles, descriptions, headings, schema, sitemap, and robots.

  4. 04

    Test navigation, forms, calendars, email, phone, and login links.

  5. 05

    Monitor crawl errors, rankings, events, and bookings after cutover.

Common mistakes

  • Redirecting every old page to the homepage.
  • Publishing placeholder content to hit a date.
  • Assuming a tag is working because its script appears in source.

Track progress

01Indexed canonical pages02Redirect errors03Core Web Vitals04Conversion event integrity05Organic landing-page performance

Quick answers

How long should old redirects remain?

Keep important redirects indefinitely when external links, bookmarks, or historical search signals may still reach the old URL.

Should the old sitemap be submitted after migration?

Temporarily retaining an old-URL sitemap can help discovery of redirects, while the primary sitemap should contain only new canonical URLs.