// free checklist

The Replatform Risk Checklist

Most replatforms don't fail in the build. They fail at the seams: a redirect map nobody finished, tracking that silently stopped, a content model copied straight from the CMS you were trying to leave.

This is the checklist I work through before any migration, so the cutover compounds your rankings instead of quietly erasing them. Free to use. No email required to read it.

01

Baseline before you touch anything

  • Export 12 months of analytics and Search Console data, so you can prove afterward that you did not lose traffic.
  • Crawl the entire current site: every URL, status code, and redirect chain.
  • Inventory every integration: forms, analytics and tag manager, email and CRM, payments, search, and third-party embeds.
  • Record Core Web Vitals (including INP) per template as a before benchmark.
02

Decide what actually moves

  • Score every page on traffic, rankings, and conversions. Do not migrate everything by default.
  • Tier each URL: migrate, review, redirect-only, or retire.
  • Find your top revenue and lead pages and protect those first.
03

Protect your SEO equity

  • Build a complete 1:1 301 redirect map: every old URL to its new home, including legacy and canonical variants.
  • Collapse redirect chains to a single hop.
  • Decide how you handle trailing slashes, casing, and query strings, and stay consistent.
  • Point the XML sitemap and internal links at final URLs, not at redirects.
04

Rebuild the data model, not just the look

  • Model content types around how your team actually works, not around the old CMS's limitations.
  • Preserve structured data: Article, Product, FAQ, Breadcrumb, and any rich-result markup you rely on.
  • Plan locale and language structure up front, URL strategy and hreflang, if you run more than one.
05

Don't lose your measurement

  • Re-implement analytics, tag manager, and conversion tracking, then verify the events actually fire before launch.
  • Migrate form fields and CRM mappings, and test a real end-to-end submission.
  • Carry over consent and privacy tooling so you stay compliant on day one.
06

Cut over without a cliff

  • Stage on a real preview environment and test redirects against the full list of old URLs.
  • Lower DNS TTL ahead of time and keep a rollback plan you can run in minutes.
  • At launch: submit the sitemap, spot-check top URLs and redirects, then watch Search Console coverage and analytics for two to four weeks.
  • Keep the old site reachable or fully archived until you have confirmed parity.

// stay in the loop

Planning a replatform? I send occasional field notes on migrations, SEO, and CMS architecture. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

// when you want the scored version

This is the free, generic version. The Migration Strategy package turns it into a weighted scoring model, a full redirect map, a target-platform schema design, and a build-ready spec for your specific site, with the cutover plan and rollback to match.

Book a call See Migration Strategy