SEO Migration Workplan

marcolaterza.ch (WP to HTML Redesign) | Zero Authority Loss Strategy

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Week 1

PHASE 1 — Audit & Backup (Pre-Migration)

Deep data collection of the current state to ensure no existing SEO signals are lost.

Status Area Task Detailed Instructions
Technical Crawling Deep crawl of the current website Use Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. Crawl 100% of live URLs. Export master Excel with: URL, Status Code, Title, Meta Desc, H1, H2, and Canonical.
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Crucial: This Excel file will be our 'Source of Truth' in Phase 5. Ensure you crawl as Googlebot Smartphone and disable JavaScript rendering if the site loads quickly without it, to see the raw code.
Digital Assets Inventory of Images and PDFs List all images in /wp-content/uploads/ and any indexed PDF files. Many users arrive via Google Images.
Structured Data Schema.org Backup (Yoast) Extract the JSON-LD injected by Yoast SEO on the homepage and service pages. This defines the commercial entity to Google (LocalBusiness, Organization).
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Action: Open the source code of the homepage, search for "application/ld+json" class="yoast-schema-graph" and save that code block intact in a text file.
Content Blog & Text Export Migrate the content from the WP SQL database to clean files (Markdown or pure HTML). Preserve original publishing dates.
Week 1

PHASE 2 — Development & Structure (Clean Code)

Frontend construction optimizing for Core Web Vitals without losing the semantics Google already knows.

Status Area Task Detailed Instructions
URL Architecture Exact Route Matching (1:1) The new static URL MUST be identical to the old one. If WP generated /personal-training/, the new server must serve that without forcing a visible .html.
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If using Astro or another SSG, ensure the output format handles trailing slashes (/) exactly as WordPress did, to avoid massive 301 redirects for a simple slash.
Meta Tags Recreating the SEO <head> Each page must have its exact Title and Meta Desc from the Phase 1 Excel. Also: inject the saved JSON-LD.
Structure Preserving Internal Link Juice Recreate the main menu, footer, and any sidebar widgets. Keep text links exactly where they were. Avoid orphan pages.
Performance Core Web Vitals Optimization All images must be in WebP format. Implement native lazy-loading loading="lazy" for images below the fold. Avoid render-blocking CSS.
Week 2

PHASE 3 — Redirection Matrix (The Critical Step)

Management of any route changes to guarantee a complete transfer of authority.

Status Area Task Detailed Instructions
301 Strategy Redirection Matrix (Excel) Compare Phase 1 Excel with the new site map. Create a redirections file. Example: if a category is deleted, redirect to the parent service. NEVER allow a 404 error!
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Implementation: Depending on where the HTML is hosted, this is done via .htaccess (Apache), nginx.conf (Nginx), or a _redirects / vercel.json file for modern platforms.
Media Image Redirection (wp-content) Configure a RegEx rule on the server that takes old paths /wp-content/uploads/(.*) and 301 redirects them to the new folder /assets/img/$1.
Testing Local Staging Test Before going live, start the local server and test at least 10 key old routes to verify they return a 301 HTTP status instantly.
Week 2

PHASE 4 — Sitemaps & Crawl Control

Precise guides so Google bots understand the new structure immediately.

Status Area Task Detailed Instructions
Indexing Generating the new sitemap.xml Dynamically or statically build the sitemap.xml file with all final routes. Ensure URLs include https://www.
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Note: Do not include URLs in the sitemap that will be redirected (301) or have Canonical tags pointing elsewhere. Only clean Status 200 URLs.
Crawler Control Creation of robots.txt Add the robots.txt file to the root of the site with directives allowing User-agent: * to crawl everything, and include the absolute path to the sitemap.
Technical SEO Canonical Tags & Lang Attribute Review file by file that the <link rel="canonical" href="..."> tag points to its own URL. Verify the presence of <html lang="de-CH"> (Swiss German).
Continuous Monitoring

PHASE 5 — Launch & Monitoring (D-Day)

Final deployment and meticulous live verification to ensure the transfer of authority.

Status Area Task Detailed Instructions
Deployment DNS Switch to Production Turn off the WordPress server (keeping the database backed up) and point A and CNAME records to the new server hosting the static HTML code.
Final Audit Live Verification with Screaming Frog IMPORTANT: Load the master Excel from Phase 1 into the crawler (List Mode) and run it against the newly launched site. Ensure ALL URLs return a 200 or 301 code.
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Zero Error Tolerance: If you see a 404 or 500 HTTP error on this list, you must pause, go to the redirection rules (Phase 3), and fix it immediately before Googlebot reads it.
Search Console Sitemap Submission & Manual Indexing Log into Google Search Console. Delete the old Yoast sitemap, submit the new sitemap.xml. Use URL Inspection on the Home page and click 'Request Indexing'.
Metrics 15-Day Monitoring (GSC & Core Web Vitals) Check GSC (Pages tab) daily for spikes in 404s. Run a PageSpeed Insights report to validate technical success (LCP < 2.5s) which will boost ranking.