Moving your website to an AI platform: a planning checklist
Moving your website is mostly planning. Here's an owner's checklist for content, URLs, redirects, your domain and email, forms, tracking and launch, plus who should do each part.
By The Dance teamPublished 6 min read
The short answer: before you move, list every page and where it lives (its URL). Decide what moves, what merges and what goes. Map every old URL to its new home with a permanent redirect. Plan the domain change without breaking your email. Recreate your forms and tracking. Check the new site on a phone before launch. Then watch it for a few weeks afterwards. Most of this is planning, not technical work, and you should agree in writing who does each part.
Search for "website migration checklist" and you'll find 80-step checklists written for SEO agencies and large sites. Most of those steps don't apply to a ten-page small-business website. This checklist is the owner's version: what you need to decide, gather and check, whoever does the moving.
1. Inventory what you have
You can't move what you haven't listed.
- List every page on your current site, with its URL. Your sitemap (often yoursite.com/sitemap.xml) or your website builder's page list is a good start.
- Note which pages get the most visits or enquiries, if you have analytics.
- Collect your images, logos and any downloadable files (menus, price lists, forms).
- Note anything that isn't a page but matters: a booking widget, a shop, a newsletter signup, a chat box, embedded maps or reviews.
- Save a copy of the current site's text, for example by saving each page as a PDF. You'll want it if anything goes missing.
Then decide, page by page: keep (moves as is, or updated), merge (combined with another page) or retire (not needed anymore). A move is a good moment to drop outdated pages, but not pages people still visit or link to.
2. Map old URLs to new ones
If a page's address changes, anyone following an old link (from Google, a social post, a printed flyer, another website) will hit an error unless it's redirected. Google recommends using permanent (301) server-side redirects from each old URL to its new equivalent. It also recommends keeping them for as long as possible, generally at least a year.
| Old URL | Keep / merge / retire | New URL | Redirect set up? | Checked after launch? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /services.html | Keep | /services | ||
| /about-us | Keep | /about | ||
| /winter-special-2024 | Retire | /services (closest page) | ||
| /plumbing and /heating | Merge | /services | ||
Rules of thumb:
- Every old URL should go somewhere, ideally the closest equivalent page. Pointing everything to the homepage is a last resort.
- Keep URLs the same where you can. Then there's nothing to redirect.
- Ask whoever is moving your site how redirects will be set up, and who checks them.
Google's guide to redirects and Google Search explains the types if you want the detail.
3. Domain and email: the part that breaks most often
Your domain name (yourbusiness.com) points to your website and, very often, to your email. Moving the website means changing some of those settings (DNS records). Change the wrong ones, and email stops arriving.
- Confirm who your domain is registered with, and that you can log in. You should own it in your own name.
- Find out whether your email uses the same domain (you@yourbusiness.com) and who provides it.
- Before changing anything, take screenshots of all current DNS records.
- Agree exactly which records will change for the website, and that email records (often called MX records) won't be touched.
- Plan the switch for a quiet time, not your busiest day.
- After the switch, send yourself a test email to and from your business address.
4. Forms, bookings and connections
- List every form (contact, quote, booking, newsletter) and where its submissions go today.
- Recreate each one on the new site, and send a test submission to make sure it arrives.
- Reconnect booking, ordering or payment tools, or link to them clearly.
- Check that automatic emails (confirmations, notifications) still go to the right people.
- Update the website address in your Google Business Profile, social profiles and email signature if it changes.
5. Tracking
If you measure your website, keep measuring it through the move, or you won't know whether the new site does better.
- Write down your current analytics and any ad or social tracking you use.
- Make sure Google Analytics (or your tool) is installed on the new site before launch.
- Re-create any key events, such as form submissions or phone clicks.
- Keep Google Search Console verified for your domain, and submit the new sitemap after launch.
- Note the launch date in your measurement sheet, so you can compare before and after.
6. Review the new site before launch
- Every "keep" and "merge" page from your inventory exists, with its content.
- Facts are correct: hours, prices, services, contact details.
- Photos are yours and look right.
- Every form works and sends to the right place.
- Phone numbers are tappable, and links work.
- It reads well on a phone.
- Your privacy policy and any required notices are present.
7. Launch day, and the weeks after
- Switch the domain at a quiet time.
- Check the homepage and contact page load on your phone, on mobile data and wifi.
- Test every form and your email.
- Visit a handful of old URLs to confirm they redirect correctly.
- For the next two to four weeks, keep an eye on enquiries, your Search Console account for errors, and any customer reports of broken links.
According to Google's site move guide, search engines need to recrawl your old and new pages, and it's normal for rankings to fluctuate while that happens. Don't make big changes in the first few weeks, so you can tell what's going on.
Who does what
Agree this before you start, and write it down.
| Task | You (the owner) | Whoever builds the new site | Domain or email provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory and keep/merge/retire decisions | Decide | Help list pages | |
| Content and photos | Provide and approve | Move and format | |
| Redirect map | Approve | Create and set up | |
| DNS and domain switch | Approve the timing | Specify records | Make the change, or you do with guidance |
| Email continuity | Test | Avoid email records | Confirm |
| Forms and connections | Test | Rebuild | |
| Tracking | Confirm access | Install | |
| Final review and go-live | Approve | Fix issues |
If you're moving to Dance
According to startdancing.ai, Dance rebuilds an existing website on Dance from what's already there, and your current site stays up until you decide to switch. You can see a free preview first, with no card needed, and a real person helps you go live on your own domain. Dance can't edit or host a site while it's still on another platform, so plan for the switch as a real move.
Use the checklist above with Dance as you would with anyone. In particular, ask how redirects, forms and your domain's email records will be handled for your site, and confirm the answers before you switch.
About this article
Written by the team at Dance Technologies, Inc, which publishes this site and makes Dance. We mention Dance where it is a practical next step, and the advice works without it. Businesses in examples are hypothetical unless a source is named. How we write.
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