Introduction
The client needed to migrate their WordPress site to a new domain. Simply copying the files won’t solve the problem: the site might appear to be up and running, but contact forms, search engine indexing, forms, and links will no longer work properly.
What went wrong
After the migration, we needed to check more than just the homepage. The risk was that some links would remain on the old domain, forms would start sending data to the wrong place, the sitemap would return old URLs, and ads would lead people to a page where their requests wouldn’t go through.
Diagnostics
- `siteurl` and `home` have been checked;
- Internal links and old URLs in the database have been checked;
- the application forms have been reviewed;
- `robots.txt` and `sitemap_index.xml` have been checked;
- Redirects, HTTP/HTTPS, and page responses have been checked;
- PHP and web server errors have been reviewed.
What has been done
- Updated the website URLs in WordPress;
- Old links have been removed from the content and settings;
- The sitemap and robots.txt files have been updated;
- redirects have been set up;
- Confirmed submission of applications;
- A post-migration audit of the pages has been completed.
Result
The new domain is now a fully functional version of the site, not just a slapdash copy. Requests are being processed, links no longer point to the old domain, and the basic SEO files are directing traffic to the current addresses.
What to monitor next
After such migrations, it’s a good idea to monitor log errors, page statuses, and actual form submissions for a few days, especially if the site is already running ads.