Point11

Post-migration monitoring

Monitor site health, SEO recovery, and integration stability after migration using Google Search Console, Core Web Vitals tracking, and synthetic monitoring.

The migration is not complete at launch. The 30 days following cutover are the most critical monitoring period. Search engine reindexing, user behavior shifts, and latent integration issues all surface during this window. A structured monitoring plan detects problems early and provides the data needed to demonstrate migration success to stakeholders.

Google Search Console Monitoring

Google Search Console is the primary tool for tracking SEO health after a site migration:

Indexing Status

  • Submit the new sitemap immediately: After launch, submit an XML sitemap containing all new URLs via Search Console's Sitemaps report. Google recommends maintaining both old and new sitemaps initially so crawlers can discover and follow all redirects.
  • Track index coverage daily: Monitor the Pages report for changes in indexed, excluded, and error page counts. A healthy migration shows the old URL count declining while new URL counts increase proportionally.
  • Watch for crawl anomalies: Check the Crawl Stats report for spikes in crawl errors, server errors (5xx), or unexpected drops in pages crawled per day.

Change of Address Tool

If the migration involves a domain change, use Search Console's Change of Address tool:

  • The tool runs pre-migration checks to verify redirect implementation.
  • Once submitted, both the old and new properties display a notification that a move is in progress. These notifications persist for 180 days.
  • Google recommends maintaining all redirects for at least 180 days, and longer if Search Console still shows traffic to old URLs.

Search Performance Tracking

  • Compare pre- and post-migration metrics: Use the Performance report to track clicks, impressions, average position, and click-through rate. Filter by page to identify URLs with significant ranking changes.
  • Establish a baseline window: Use the 90 days before migration as the comparison baseline. Expect a temporary dip in impressions and clicks during the first 2-4 weeks as Google recrawls and reindexes the site.
  • Monitor query-level data: Track your top 100 queries for position changes. Queries dropping more than 5 positions warrant investigation into the corresponding landing page's content, metadata, and redirect chain.

Core Web Vitals Monitoring

The migration to Next.js on Vercel should improve performance metrics. Verify this with real user data:

Field Data (Real Users)

  • Chrome UX Report (CrUX): CrUX data in Search Console's Core Web Vitals report updates monthly. After migration, it takes 28 days for the new site's field data to fully replace the legacy data.
  • Vercel Speed Insights: Vercel's built-in Speed Insights provides real user monitoring (RUM) with LCP, CLS, and INP metrics segmented by route, device, and geography. This data is available immediately after launch, unlike CrUX.
  • Target thresholds: At the 75th percentile, LCP should be under 2.5 seconds, CLS under 0.1, and INP under 200 milliseconds. These are Google's "good" thresholds that contribute to the page experience ranking signal.

Lab Data (Synthetic Tests)

  • Lighthouse CI: Run automated Lighthouse audits on every deployment via Vercel's integration or a CI/CD pipeline. Set performance budgets that fail the build if Core Web Vitals regress.
  • WebPageTest: Run comparative tests from multiple global locations to verify that the Vercel Edge Network is serving cached content correctly and that TTFB is consistent.

Integration Health Monitoring

Webhook Delivery

  • Monitor webhook delivery success rates for all Tier 1 integrations (payment processors, order management, CRM) daily for the first 30 days.
  • Stripe, Shopify, and HubSpot all provide webhook delivery dashboards with automatic retry visibility. Check these dashboards for failed deliveries that may indicate misconfigured endpoints.

API Error Rates

  • Track error rates and latency for all API routes in the Next.js application. Vercel's observability dashboard provides function-level metrics for serverless and edge functions.
  • Set alerting thresholds: API error rates above 1% or p95 latency above 1 second should trigger immediate investigation.

Synthetic Monitoring

  • Configure synthetic monitors (Datadog, New Relic, Checkly, or Vercel's monitoring) to test critical user flows every 5 minutes:
  • - Homepage load and navigation.
  • - Product search and detail page rendering.
  • - Cart operations and checkout initiation.
  • - User login and authenticated page access.
  • Synthetic monitors catch issues before real users report them and provide a consistent measurement baseline independent of traffic volume.

Stakeholder Reporting

Provide weekly migration health reports for the first 30 days, then monthly for the following 60 days:

  • SEO dashboard: Indexed page count, organic traffic trend, top query positions, and crawl error count from Search Console.
  • Performance dashboard: Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP) from Vercel Speed Insights and CrUX, compared against pre-migration baselines.
  • Integration dashboard: Webhook delivery rates, API error rates, and synthetic monitor uptime for all Tier 1 and Tier 2 integrations.
  • Business metrics: Conversion rate, revenue, bounce rate, and session duration compared to the pre-migration baseline period.

90-Day Stabilization Milestone

At the 90-day mark, the migration enters the stabilization phase:

  • All legacy URLs should show zero traffic in Search Console, confirming complete reindexing.
  • Core Web Vitals field data in CrUX should reflect the new site's performance.
  • Integration error rates should be at or below pre-migration levels.
  • Legacy infrastructure can be decommissioned once all redirects are confirmed stable and no traffic is flowing to old endpoints.

Sources

Integration migration playbook

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