A migration redirect map needs more than two URL columns

For an example redesign, I would start a redirect map with the old URL, new destination, reason for the move, destination status, and the person responsible for checking it.

“Send everything to the homepage” is convenient for the spreadsheet, but often a poor description of what a visitor needs next. A retired guide and a renamed category are different cases.

The Google site-move guide provides the technical background. My additional project proposal is to test representative URL groups before testing the full export.

Which cases would you put in a small migration test set? I would include a normal page, an old redirected page, a parameter variant, and a page with no equivalent replacement.

For a store I would add an out-of-stock product, a permanently retired product, and a category that has been split into two.

Those cases need a merchandising decision before they need a redirect rule. If the old category contained two distinct ranges, one blanket destination can hide products that people were actually trying to find.

Add a small set of important externally linked pages. That makes it easier to test whether the mapping preserves the useful destination for visitors arriving from another site.

I would prioritise those samples by relevance and the destination's purpose, rather than treating the highest third-party authority score as the only criterion.

The revised test set would therefore include technical edge cases, business decisions, and important entry pages. Each needs a short expected-result note.

I would also keep a “not mapped yet” tab. An explicit unresolved decision is much easier to manage than a guessed destination that quietly passes through the release.