Migrate the website, not the problem

If URLs stay the same, the work centres on files, databases, certificates, forms and scheduled jobs. If they change, every old address also needs an explicit destination.

Launching a new CMS, domain and design together blends three possible causes of failure. Google recommends separating major changes when the project allows it.

We collect indexed URLs, content, files, languages, forms, accounts, permissions, automations and external connections.

Tests use fictitious or anonymised data. Staging access, temporary copies, retention and deletion are recorded before the first production export.

The right foundation depends on content models, roles, languages, integrations and the people who will maintain it.

A representative pilot proves more than ten meetings: one complex page, form, media item, language and redirect expose the real route.

Before opening, we test redirects, canonicals, robots.txt, sitemaps, forms and events.

The DNS zone is exported and reviewed: web, MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, subdomains, TTL and DNSSEC. A load test covers both the new site’s normal crawl and visits redirected from the old site; latency, 429, 5xx and WAF blocks have written rollback thresholds.

The dependency register covers CORS, CSP, OAuth, webhooks, cookies and local storage: a new domain is a new browser origin. Consent starts denied again; only an explicit, signed, single-use functional handoff may carry a draft.

One system remains the named writer. Incremental imports, a short final freeze, the last delta and reconciliation of jobs and webhooks precede cutover; data rollback needs reverse synchronisation, not merely DNS.

Outbound connections are replayed from the target with its real IP addresses. Firewalls, allowlists and mTLS client certificates are validated with every external service. DNS is queried from the internet, VPN, office and service networks so that a private zone cannot keep pointing at the old server.

When a CDN or reverse proxy is added, only those relays can reach the origin. The trust chain for Forwarded, X-Forwarded-For, Host and Proto is tested against spoofing. Apps and partners that pin a certificate or public key receive the new pinset before rotation.

The target receives traffic only after data, media, forms and connections pass functional readiness. The old backend stops receiving new requests and drains uploads and persistent connections. Both clocks are synchronised and monitored before JWT, signature, TLS and scheduled-job tests.

The register separates origin-scoped web storage from cookies, which are scoped by name, Domain, Path and SameSite. Host-only or __Host- cookies prevent the two versions overwriting each other. Third-party scripts and tag containers record an owner, version, data and destinations and remain frozen during acceptance.

During overlap, old and new workers read both message and cache-value versions; schemas and namespaces are versioned. An encrypted restore is actually decrypted in target and rollback environments with the expected KMS keys, grants and context. Non-HTML documents receive their canonical Link header, and each language keeps a crawlable URL with a correct cache key or Vary.

Camera, microphone, geolocation, payment and fullscreen are tested on the new origin. Permissions-Policy allowlists and iframe allow attributes explicitly name the new domains. For FedCM, the identity provider registers the exact new relying-party origin and verifies its Origin header; the provider web-identity file remains available.

Enterprise login moves as a contract: Entity ID, ACS URL, logout URL, metadata and SAML certificates remain valid on both versions during transition. The SCIM base URL, tokens, Users and Groups routes are tested through creation, update, deactivation and deletion so ghost accounts cannot remain.

If the site takes Apple Pay, every merchant domain publishes its association file and is verified before cutover, with TLS expiry monitored. CSP reporting moves too: report-to and report-uri target a live collector and are exercised because report-to takes precedence when both exist.