There are many things you need to do when you migrate a website. Here are some jobs which often get missed:
- Benchmark your old site before you go live
- Lower a domains DNS TTL record
- Confirm your CSP isn’t blocking tracking
Benchmark your old site before you go live
When your new site goes live people will always ask how it compares to the old site. Make sure you benchmark the old site before you switch it off.
Below is a list of things you should measure or record plus some examples of how to do it for free.
- Take screenshots of the old site or even better create a clickable archive using the wayback machine
- Run an accessibility benchmark tool such as Wave
- Run an SEO and performance benchmark tool such as Google’s page speed
- Run a security benchmark tool such as Mozilla’s Observatory or a Vulnerability Scanning Tools such as Beagle Security
Lower a domains DNS TTL record
Most migrations require the DNS record for a website to be updated before any new site can go live.
Every DNS record has a TTL (time-to-live). The TTL indicates how long your computer will remember any DNS settings. It’s measured in seconds, so a TTL of 300 is equal to 5 minutes.
It’s important to check the domain you want to change doesn’t have a super long TTL. For example, a DNS record with a TTL of 24 hours could mean users waiting an entire day to see any change. It is recommended to lower the TTL to 300. Depending on the current TTL this change might need to be made hours, days or even weeks before the go live time.
If you are changing a www URL don’t forget to check the TTL for the apex domain as well. For example you would check both www.example.com and example.com as they will have two separate TTLs.
You can read how to check the TTL in this article ‘DNS records explained‘.
Confirm your CSP isn’t blocking tracking
Every well managed website should have a CSP (content security policy). The CSP is an added layer of security that helps detect and mitigate certain types of attacks.
Older websites often don’t have a CSP. Tracking scripts which use to work on the old site might stop working on the new site – blocked by the CSP.
If your CSP is blocking key tracking and you don’t spot this before you go live, valuable data will be lost forever.
Checking CSP errors before go live can be problematic. Some tracking scripts may only work in certain situations, such as from a PPC ad. Make sure you involve your analytics or marketing team to confirm its all working as expected.
I’ve done many migration projects. The key to any change is planning but hopefully this list of potential gotchas will help.
