Checklist

Full site crawl completed and exported

URL map built (old → new + priority)

All metadata exported from WordPress SEO plugin

Structured data documented

Baseline metrics recorded (traffic, rankings, CWV)

WordPress backup created (database + files)

Content pruned (retire pages with zero traffic + zero backlinks for 12+ months)

All 301 redirects implemented (wildcards where possible)

Page titles and meta descriptions recreated

Open Graph metadata set for social sharing

Canonical URLs configured

Structured data (JSON-LD) added for rich results

XML sitemap verified

robots.txt reviewed (no leftover Disallow: / from staging)

All internal links updated

Images optimized (WebP/AVIF, compressed, correct dimensions)

Above-the-fold images set to eager loading (not lazy)

Redirects tested before DNS switch

All redirects are 301 (not 302)

Staging site verified as noindexed

Forms, analytics, integrations verified

Answer-oriented content structure implemented on key pages

DNS TTL lowered to 300 seconds (48 hours before cutover)

Rollback plan documented (DNS revert, WordPress still running)

Sitemap submitted to Search Console

Top pages submitted for re-indexing

Crawl errors monitored daily for 30 days

Rankings tracked weekly for 8–12 weeks

Core Web Vitals validated against baseline

External links updated on properties you control

Mobile rendering verified across all key pages (mobile-first indexing)

Redirect chains and loops simplified

Structured data validated with Rich Results Test

Image alt text verified (especially for CSV-imported content)

DNS switched during off-peak hours