Migrate Site
Run a structured SEO-safe site migration—domain, CMS, URLs, or HTTPS—with redirects, audits, and rollback criteria.
Overview
Migrate Site is an agent skill for the Launch phase that guides website migrations—domain, CMS, URL, or protocol moves—with redirect mapping and ranking-protection plans.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/calm-north/seojuice-skills --skill migrate-siteWhat is this skill?
- Covers six migration types with risk levels from protocol change to high-risk domain moves
- Phase 1 pre-migration audit: indexed URLs, traffic, keywords, backlinks, robots.txt
- Redirect mapping and monitoring plan to minimize traffic dip and speed recovery
- Explicit rollback criteria when rankings or crawl errors spike post-cutover
- 6 migration types with documented risk levels
- Pre-migration audit spans pages and technical baselines including robots.txt
Adoption & trust: 2k installs on skills.sh; 10 GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You are about to change domains or URL structure and fear losing indexed pages, backlinks, and months of organic traffic overnight.
Who is it for?
Indie founders relaunching on a new stack or domain while keeping Search Console history and top landing pages intact.
Skip if: Brand-new sites with no indexation or traffic baseline where a full SEO migration playbook is unnecessary overhead.
When should I use this skill?
The user asks about site migration, domain change, CMS migration, URL restructure, redesign SEO impact, redirect mapping, or moving a site safely.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You leave with a phased migration plan, redirect map, monitoring checklist, and rollback triggers so recovery after cutover is measurable and bounded.
- Pre-migration audit checklist
- Redirect mapping plan
- Post-migration monitoring and rollback criteria
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Launch is the canonical shelf because migrations are executed when going live on a new domain, stack, or URL shape and organic visibility is at stake. SEO subphase matches redirect mapping, index preservation, Search Console monitoring, and ranking recovery planning.
How it compares
Use this SEO migration workflow instead of generic DevOps cutover runbooks that omit redirect parity and ranking recovery metrics.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is migrate-site for?
Solo builders and small marketing-led teams responsible for both the technical move and organic traffic outcomes.
When should I use migrate-site?
Use it during Launch when planning domain changes, CMS switches, URL restructures, HTTPS upgrades, or redesigns that touch indexed URLs.
Is migrate-site safe to install?
The skill is editorial guidance only; review Security Audits on this page and validate redirect and DNS changes in staging before production.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Migrate Site
# Migrate Site Guide a domain migration, CMS switch, or URL restructure without losing rankings — redirect mapping, monitoring plan, and rollback criteria. ## Migration Types | Type | Risk Level | Example | |------|-----------|---------| | Domain change | High | olddomain.com → newdomain.com | | Protocol change | Low | HTTP → HTTPS | | CMS switch | Medium-High | WordPress → Next.js, Shopify → custom | | URL restructure | Medium | /blog/2024/post → /blog/post | | Subdomain migration | Medium | blog.example.com → example.com/blog | | Design/template change | Low-Medium | Same URLs, new templates | All migrations carry SEO risk. The goal is to minimize the traffic dip and speed up recovery. ## Phase 1: Pre-Migration Audit ### Inventory Everything Before touching anything, document the current state: **Pages:** - [ ] Full list of all indexed URLs (from sitemap + Search Console) - [ ] Each page's monthly traffic (Search Console, last 6 months) - [ ] Each page's top keywords and positions - [ ] Each page's backlink count (pages with external links need special attention) **Technical:** - [ ] Current robots.txt - [ ] Current XML sitemap(s) - [ ] Current redirect rules - [ ] Current structured data - [ ] Current canonical tags - [ ] Current internal linking structure **Performance:** - [ ] Total organic traffic baseline (weekly and monthly) - [ ] Top 50 pages by traffic - [ ] Core Web Vitals scores - [ ] Crawl stats from Search Console **Save everything.** You need this data to compare against post-migration. ### Identify High-Value Pages Not all pages are equal. Flag these for extra attention: - Pages with the most organic traffic (top 20%) - Pages with external backlinks - Pages that rank for high-value keywords - Landing pages tied to conversions - Pages with featured snippets These pages must have working redirects and should be verified individually after migration. ## Phase 2: Redirect Mapping The redirect map is the most critical artifact. Every old URL must map to the right new URL. ### Mapping Rules | Old URL | New URL | Type | Notes | |---------|---------|------|-------| | /old-page | /new-page | 301 | Content matches | | /removed-page | /closest-relevant-page | 301 | Consolidated into related page | | /deleted-page | / | 301 | No relevant page — send to homepage (last resort) | **Rules:** - Use **301 redirects** for permanent moves (not 302) - Map each old URL to the **most relevant** new URL (not all to homepage) - Preserve URL structure where possible (fewer redirects = less risk) - Avoid redirect chains (old → intermediate → new). Every redirect should be direct. - Handle URL variations: with/without trailing slash, with/without www, HTTP/HTTPS ### Common Pitfalls - Forgetting to redirect paginated URLs (/page/2, /page/3) - Missing query parameter URLs that have backlinks - Case sensitivity issues (some servers treat /Page and /page differently) - Redirecting everything to the homepage (kills page-level authority) ## Phase 3: Technical Setup ### Before the Switch - [ ] New site is fully crawlable (no staging robots.txt left behind) - [ ] All redirect rules are implemented and tested - [ ] New XML sitemap is ready (with new URLs) - [ ] Canonical tags on new pages point to new URLs (not old) - [ ] Internal links updated to new URLs (don't rely on redirect chains for internal links) - [ ] Structured data updated with new URLs - [ ] Hreflang tags updated (if multilingual) - [ ] Google Search Console property created for new domain (if domain change) - [ ] Analytics tracking updated on new site - [ ] CDN/caching configured for new site ### Th