Editorial resource
URL inventory guide for publisher migrations
What to inventory, how to cross-check sources, and what to check before a CMS change.
A sitemap is not a complete inventory. Before migrating a publisher, combine CMS, sitemap, crawl, Search Console, and CDN log URLs, recording when each snapshot was taken.
Five checks
1. Normalize URLs and keep the source and date of each observation. 2. Separate HTTP status, canonical, and indexability. 3. Find pages with traffic or crawl requests missing from the sitemap. 4. Define the expected destination for each critical URL. 5. Compare the same set before and after launch.
Useful outcome
The team needs a reviewable table of URLs, destination, evidence, and owner, plus indicators by template and title. Missing URLs should be interpreted with several sources, not a single signal.