URL mapping, redirects and the rehearsal that keeps organic traffic intact through a replatform.
Replatforming is where organic traffic goes to die, and almost always for the same reason: the new site is excellent, and none of the old URLs point to it.
Map every URL before you build
Export the full list of indexed URLs from Search Console, your analytics and a crawl of the current site. Every one needs a destination on the new platform, mapped one to one where possible. Redirecting everything to the homepage is treated as a soft 404 and loses the ranking entirely.
Redirects must be permanent and direct
Use 301s, not 302s, and avoid chains where one old URL passes through three hops before landing. Chains lose value and slow crawling. Preserve query parameters that matter, and do not forget images, PDFs and old campaign landing pages.
Rehearse on a staging site
Crawl the staging build with the redirect map applied and check for loops, 404s and pages that changed title or heading structure unintentionally. Confirm robots.txt and noindex tags are correct before launch, because a staging noindex left in place is the classic disaster.
Launch mid-week rather than Friday, then watch indexing and rankings daily for a month. A missed redirect found in week one costs nothing; found in week eight, it costs a quarter.
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