Website migrations: build a redirect map before launch

Build the redirect map before approving the new sitemap. Every known old URL needs a decision: keep it, move it to a relevant replacement, merge it, or remove it. Waiting until launch turns those decisions into hurried guesses, especially when English and Spanish pages have different histories.

A redirect map is a content decision record as much as a server configuration input. Someone who understands the old pages needs to approve where their visitors will land.

Inventory more than the current navigation

Collect URLs from the old sitemap, a site crawl, analytics landing pages, and available server logs. Include linked PDFs and campaign pages that no longer appear in menus. Record where each URL came from so the team can investigate conflicting evidence.

For each row, store the old URL, intended action, destination, language, owner, and test result. Freeze a version for release, while leaving a way to record newly discovered URLs afterward.

Preserve meaningful query parameters where they affect the content. Tracking parameters and content selectors are different things; stripping both without review can send a visitor to the wrong material.

Choose destinations by intent

Google’s site-move guidance recommends mapping old URLs to their replacements and warns against irrelevant redirects. A homepage is not a universal replacement for retired content.

Use these decisions for a hypothetical bilingual industrial supplier. These are illustrative paths, not routes on this website:

Old content	Decision	Reason
English maintenance page	Move to the English maintenance replacement	Same offer and language
Spanish installation guide	Move to the Spanish installation guide	Preserve the reader’s task
Two overlapping service pages	Merge into one substantive service page	Destination covers both subjects
Expired offer with no replacement	Return a genuine removal status such as 404 or 410	No equivalent exists

If the proposed destination only loosely matches, ask the content owner whether it actually answers the old page’s question. Do not choose it merely because it is the nearest item in the new menu.

Test the response and the destination

For moved pages, use an appropriate permanent server redirect, typically 301 or 308, and aim directly at the final URL. Test the deployed rules, including host, HTTPS, case, and trailing-slash variants relevant to the old site.

A passing test needs more than a redirect status. Confirm that the final page returns success, displays the intended content, and does not send visitors through a loop or unnecessary chain. Check the destination language manually on important pages.

Update internal links to point directly to new URLs. Otherwise the new site keeps depending on compatibility rules intended for old bookmarks and external links.

Keep the map after release

Assign someone to review unexpected not-found requests and compare them with the map. A typo does not automatically deserve a redirect; a previously missed product guide may deserve one.

Google recommends keeping migration redirects for at least a year. Treat that as a minimum planning horizon, not an instruction to delete useful redirects when the anniversary arrives.

Before the next migration meeting, bring a sample of old URLs with proposed dispositions, including one removed page and one Spanish page. Resolve those cases before expanding the map. 5e Labs web development can incorporate that approved mapping into the migration scope and release tests.