A WordPress migration sounds boring until you are the person staring at a wrong DNS record at 11pm on a Friday. Most migrations do not fail because the database export was complex — they fail because someone forgot to renew the SSL, or the redirect map missed a category page, or the form was pointing at a staging endpoint nobody updated.
Here is the exact checklist I run before, during, and after every WordPress migration. It is the result of 10+ live launches across Unique Genius and Collaborate Pros client work, and I have not had a reported downtime incident yet.
The pre-flight checklist
Long before launch day, I lock these down:
- Full backup of the live site (files + database), stored somewhere that is not the destination host.
- Staging review on the new host with the destination domain mapped via hosts file — not the live URL.
- Domain & DNS plan: what is the current TTL, who controls DNS, and what is the rollback path?
- FTP / SFTP access to the destination host verified and tested.
- SSL strategy: will the new host auto-issue Let's Encrypt, or do I need to pre-install a cert?
The redirect map
If permalinks are changing — even slightly — you need a one-to-one redirect map. Every indexed URL needs a destination. I export the URL list from Screaming Frog and Google Search Console, then build the map in a Google Sheet. Old URL → new URL → status (301, 302, gone).
The redirect map is the document. The .htaccess or plugin entries are just the implementation.
The launch hour
- Drop the TTL on the live DNS records 24 hours before launch (so propagation is fast on the day).
- Final database export from live, final import to destination.
- URL search-and-replace for the staging hostname.
- Cut DNS over to the new host. Watch propagation with a tool that polls multiple regions.
- Verify SSL is serving on the new host.
- Test the homepage, one service page, one blog post, the contact form, and one admin login.
The post-launch pass
This is the step most agencies skip. Within an hour of launch I check:
- Forms actually deliver (submit one, watch the inbox).
- GA4 is firing and showing real-time events.
- Search Console knows about the new property; sitemap submitted.
- Old high-traffic URLs all 301 to the right destinations.
- Redirect chains are at most one hop deep.
- SSL is valid on both apex and www.
- WordPress admin loads, plugin licenses re-activated.
The pattern is simple: most launches fail in the gap between "the homepage loads" and "everything else works." The checklist exists to close that gap.