SEO
Post-Migration SEO Audit: What to Check After a Replatform
The audit you run two weeks after a major site migration to catch issues your launch checklist missed.
Most migration playbooks focus on pre-launch and launch day. The audit that gets skipped is the two-week post-migration check, which is when the issues that survived launch start showing in Google Search Console and the longer-term symptoms emerge. This article is the specific audit to run two weeks after a replatform, in roughly the order it makes sense to run it.
Reconcile expected vs actual indexed pages
By two weeks post-migration, Google should have crawled and indexed most of your priority pages on the new platform. Pull the Coverage report and compare the count of valid indexed URLs to your sitemap. If the gap is larger than expected, the issue is usually either a redirect chain that lost equity, a canonical tag misconfiguration that consolidated pages incorrectly, or a noindex tag that survived from staging.
Check ranking-position deltas for top queries
For your top 20 queries by traffic, compare the current ranking position to the pre-migration baseline. A drop of one or two positions is normal noise. A drop of five or more is a real problem. Look specifically at which page is ranking now versus before, sometimes the migration changed which page Google considers the canonical for a query, and the new page is weaker than the old.
Verify redirect health
Crawl every URL in your redirect map and confirm each lands on its intended destination in a single 301 hop. Redirect chains of three or more hops leak link equity. Soft 404s where redirects land on irrelevant pages are worse, they actively damage rankings.
Check for orphaned high-value content
A common migration outcome is that some pages remain technically live but lose all internal links because the navigation or content templates changed. These orphans get crawled less often and ranked lower over time. Identify pages with high pre-migration traffic that have zero or very few internal links post-migration, and edit them back into the link graph.
Review schema markup carry-over
Schema is often regenerated from scratch during a migration and can lose precision in the process. Pull the Rich Results test on five examples of each template, product, article, FAQ, and confirm the schema validates and matches the pre-migration schema's coverage.
Audit Core Web Vitals against baseline
If you saved a Lighthouse baseline pre-migration, compare it to the current production scores. A drop of 10 points or more on any Core Web Vital warrants investigation, the new platform might be shipping more JavaScript, larger images, or slower server responses.
Examine internal link distribution
The internal link graph after a migration is rarely identical to before, even if the URLs are. Run a link-graph analysis comparing pre and post. The pages that lost the most internal authority are the ones to re-link first.
External links you may have broken
If your migration changed URL structure, any external links pointing to old URLs depend on your redirect chain. Confirm a sample of externally-linked pages by checking the top backlinks in Search Console and visiting each via the original URL. Any that 404 or soft 404 need redirect fixes immediately.
Track the recovery curve
A successful migration recovers within four to six weeks. Plot weekly traffic against the pre-migration baseline and watch the slope. A steady upward trajectory means the audit is working. A flat line or downward slope means there is an issue the audit has not caught yet.
When to call the migration done
A migration is "done" when traffic, indexed page count, and average ranking position are within 5% of pre-migration values for four consecutive weeks. Below that bar, you are still in recovery and need to keep auditing. Above it, you can return to normal SEO cadence.
A continuous site audit running through the migration window catches issues hours after they surface rather than during the next manual audit. For high-stakes migrations, the marginal cost of having continuous monitoring during the recovery window is genuinely worth it. UtilitySEO supports this workflow out of the box.
Questions fréquentes
The initial step in a post-migration SEO audit is to reconcile your expected indexed pages against what Google has actually indexed.
- Compare the Google Search Console Coverage report to your sitemap.
- Look for unexpected gaps indicating redirect or canonical issues.
- Ensure noindex tags from staging haven't persisted on live pages.
To assess ranking impact after a replatform, a post-migration SEO audit involves comparing your top 20 queries' current positions to their pre-migration baseline.
- Identify drops of five or more positions as significant problems.
- Verify which specific page is ranking now compared to before.
- Note if Google is now favoring a weaker page for a query.
Verifying redirect health is crucial because poor redirects can severely impact your site's SEO, making it a critical part of a post-migration SEO audit.
- Ensure all redirects are single-hop 301s to preserve link equity.
- Avoid redirect chains of three or more hops, which leak value.
- Prevent soft 404s where redirects land on irrelevant pages.
Orphaned content refers to pages that lack internal links post-migration, and identifying it is a key task in a thorough post-migration SEO audit.
- These pages remain live but lose visibility due to broken internal navigation.
- Find pages with high pre-migration traffic but few current internal links.
- Re-integrate valuable orphaned pages back into your site's link graph.
To ensure schema markup integrity, a post-migration SEO audit requires testing rich results on sample pages to confirm proper carry-over.
- Use the Rich Results test on examples of each content template.
- Validate that the schema still functions correctly.
- Compare current schema coverage and precision to pre-migration baselines.
An Seo Audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your website's performance in search engines, identifying strengths and weaknesses for improvement. It's crucial for online success as it acts like a health check, revealing issues before they escalate.
- It evaluates technical elements and on-page factors.
- It assesses content quality and backlink profiles.
- Helps identify opportunities to improve search visibility.
- Essential for transforming your site's search performance.
To perform a technical Seo Audit, start by ensuring search engines can fully access and understand your website's pages for proper indexing.
- Check your robots.txt file for blocked pages.
- Use Google Search Console to find crawl errors.
- Identify and fix duplicate content issues.
- Ensure canonical tags point to preferred page versions.
A thorough Seo Audit covers several critical components, providing a holistic view of your website's search engine health and performance.
- It includes technical foundation like site speed.
- On-page elements such as title tags are assessed.
- Content quality for relevance and depth is evaluated.
- Off-page factors like your backlink profile are analyzed.
Yes, conducting a regular Seo Audit is highly effective for improving your website's search rankings by identifying and fixing performance bottlenecks.
- It reveals strengths and weaknesses of your site.
- Helps identify opportunities for immediate improvement.
- Addresses technical issues that hinder ranking.
- Optimizes content and on-page factors for better visibility.
Site speed is a critical factor in an Seo Audit because it directly impacts user experience and is a known search engine ranking signal.
- Poor speed leads to higher bounce rates.
- Faster sites generally rank better in search results.
- It's a key part of the technical foundation.
- Improves overall user satisfaction and engagement.
Sachez quoi corriger ensuite.
Analysez votre site pour savoir clairement par où commencer.
Environ 30 secondes. Sans carte bancaire.