diagnose-site-migration-seo

name	diagnose-site-migration-seo
description	Diagnose why a site is missing or underperforming in branded search after a domain or hostname migration. Use when checking old-to-new redirects, HTTP/HTTPS canonicalization, robots directives, sitemaps, on-page brand signals, structured data, Search Console migration steps, and the distinction between indexing and ranking.

Diagnose Site Migration SEO

Use read-only measurements. Do not infer Google-specific index status from a generic web search; confirm it in Google Search Console when access is available.

Establish the symptom

Separate these cases:

• The new URL is not indexed.
• The new URL is indexed but does not rank for the branded query.
• A secondary page ranks instead of the homepage.
• The old URL still appears.

Record the exact query, search engine, locale, device, and observed result. Treat site: searches as diagnostics, not normal ranking tests.

Measure the migration

1. Resolve DNS for the old and new apex, www, and intended subdomain variants.
2. Inspect http and https responses with curl -sSIL --max-redirs 10.
3. Test representative deep paths, not only the homepage. Require direct, page-to-page permanent redirects where equivalent pages exist.
4. Check a deliberately nonexistent path. It must end in 404 or 410, not a homepage redirect or 200.
5. Keep loop variables task-specific in zsh; never use path, because zsh ties $path to $PATH.

Classify redirect chains separately from broken redirects. A working two-hop chain is weaker operationally than a direct redirect but is not equivalent to a missing migration.

Inspect indexability and canonical signals

For representative new URLs, verify:

• 200 status on the preferred HTTPS URL.
• HTTP redirects to HTTPS instead of serving a duplicate 200 page.
• No X-Robots-Tag: noindex or <meta name="robots" content="noindex">.
• A self-referential HTTPS canonical on the preferred page.
• robots.txt permits public content and names the current sitemap.
• The sitemap contains only preferred new URLs.
• hreflang pairs point to equivalent language pages and are reciprocal.
• Deleted or unmapped old URLs resolve to 404 or 410 on the new site.

Use npx curl.md URL to read page content. If exact metadata must be extracted, pipe the response into an HTML parser and output only the required fields; do not inspect raw HTML dumps.

Inspect branded relevance

Compare the branded query with the homepage:

• Descriptive <title> containing the public or legal brand name where appropriate.
• One clear visible main heading.
• The exact organization name in visible homepage text.
• Useful meta description.
• Organization JSON-LD on the homepage or organization page with name, alternateName, canonical url, logo, address, and verified sameAs profiles where applicable.
• Consistent organization name and website URL on authoritative third-party profiles.

Do not promise rankings from metadata or structured data. Describe them as relevance and entity-disambiguation signals.

Check Search Console

When available, verify both old and new properties and inspect:

• URL Inspection for the new homepage: indexed state, user-declared canonical, Google-selected canonical, last crawl, and rendered page.
• Sitemaps report for the new sitemap.
• Page indexing and manual actions.
• Performance queries for the exact brand name.
• Change of Address status for every relevant old hostname when the move crosses domains or hostnames.

If Search Console is unavailable, state that Change of Address submission and Google-selected canonical cannot be verified externally.

Report findings

Use a compact evidence table with columns: check, observed value, impact, confidence, action. Lead with the distinction between indexing failure and ranking/relevance weakness. Prioritize:

1. Index-blocking or redirect failures.
2. Missing Change of Address or sitemap submission.
3. Duplicate HTTP/HTTPS or conflicting canonical signals.
4. Weak homepage brand signals and missing organization structured data.
5. Minor redirect chains and hreflang defects.

Link current primary search-engine documentation for recommendations that can change over time.