Full discovery detail · Observations and proposed requirements are distinguished in the report. Use the Start here page for the recommended review order.

Migration and SEO considerations

Discovery date: 2026-09-07. Recommendations for planning; no redirects or site changes have been applied.

Preserve the public URL contract

The URL inventory includes current page paths, observed final URLs, canonical tags, titles, descriptions, robots directives, H1 text and sitemap modification dates where available. Keep current paths by default until the office manager and SEO owner agree a disposition. A framework change does not require changing URLs.

Examples that must not be flattened or renamed accidentally:

/vip-smiles-family-dentistry-in-syracuse/ is the Contact destination, including footer links labeled Appointments.
/request-appointment/ is a separate appointment request page.
/what-is-restorative-dentistry/, /root-canals-therapy/, /dental-crowns/, /gum-disease/, /sealants/, /suresmile-aligners/ and /traditional-braces/ sit at the root despite being in service navigation.
/dental-services/preventative/ is labeled Family Dentistry; /preventative-dentistry/ is also linked on the homepage. Preserve both until their intent/content/traffic are reviewed.
/dental-services/preventative/periodontics-in-syracuse/ and /gum-disease/ may overlap in topic; that is a review candidate, not authorization to merge.
Technology and special-offer paths are long nested URLs; retain their paths and internal links during initial migration.

Redirect decision process

For every discovered URL, record old path, actual status/final URL, canonical, traffic/backlink evidence if provided, keep/update/merge/retire decision, new target, owner and rationale. The JSON inventory currently proposes preservation pending review; it is not a deployment-ready redirect map.

Use a permanent redirect only after a replacement or genuine equivalent is approved. Avoid sending every removed article to the homepage, redirect chains, loops, or changing meaning. Return an appropriate missing/retired response for genuinely removed content without a substitute, after SEO review. Update internal links and canonical tags to final destinations. Preserve meaningful campaign parameters without storing them as duplicate canonical pages.

Legacy redirects, alternate hosts (www), HTTP-to-HTTPS behavior, slash/case variants, old domains, unpublished agency routes and campaign/QR URLs are not fully known from the inspected canonical HTTPS links. Before launch, obtain agency/Search Console exports and verify the approved host/HTTPS/path behavior with controlled GETs. Do not claim that an observed canonical tag proves a redirect exists.

Metadata and crawlability

Public pages contain search/social metadata and structured data. Sitemap output identifies Rank Math; public markup identifies WordPress. Preserve the content and intent of metadata, not plugin-specific code. Inspect page-inventory.json for captured values and evidence/pages.json for JSON-LD.

The appointment request page's fetched HTML lacked a meta description. Homepage social metadata contains doubled @ characters in the Twitter account fields. Validate authoritative social accounts and create appropriate per-page sharing metadata. Some fetched failures naturally have no metadata; exclude those from SEO defect totals.

Compare rendered titles, descriptions, one meaningful primary heading, canonical URLs, robots tags, OG images and alt text, schema entity IDs and relationships. Validate local practice details, provider names and hours against owner-approved data. A visible claim or schema value is not proof it is current. Sitemap lastmod should reflect real changes, and blog dates/authors should not be reset to migration day.

Rebuild XML and human-readable sitemaps from published canonical content; exclude drafts, preview routes, private CMS URLs and non-indexable utility pages. Preserve useful blog pagination (the current archive links through page 37) or explicitly map its replacement. Keep intentional indexability decisions documented. Ensure important content and links are available to crawlers without relying on client-only rendering. No search-ranking, rich-result eligibility, or Core Web Vitals measurement is asserted by this discovery.

Content and assets

Use the page and asset inventories as reconciliation lists. A public HTML capture cannot recover drafts, revision history, form notifications, shortcode configuration, original media, plugin licenses, agency redirect rules or analytics ownership. Ask for exports before assuming manual migration is the only route.

For each asset, confirm source, owner, reuse rights, original resolution, accessible alternative, destination URL and pages using it. Store correctly paired before/after media with practice approval; avoid treating filename fragments as patient-facing descriptions. Existing media URLs may carry backlinks and search value. Preserve or deliberately redirect replaced media where appropriate; do not hotlink indefinitely to a host scheduled for retirement. Retain PDF/download URLs only after confirming which resources actually exist and remain current.

Recheck provider references, offers, insurance/payment lists, savings-plan terms, sponsors and clinical claims. The homepage's average-savings claim and the plan page's discount are different metrics; clarify how the practice supports them rather than calling them a proven contradiction.

Cutover requirements to schedule later

Obtain domain/DNS and vendor ownership, export/backups and rollback access without putting credentials in the repo. Confirm email DNS is preserved.
Approve content freeze/delta collection, URL dispositions, redirect file, media mapping, analytics ownership and primary appointment route.
Build and validate in an access-restricted preview environment; prevent draft indexing and real patient submissions during testing.
Compare old/new URL coverage, visible content, metadata, links, images, responsive templates and accessibility; validate role restrictions and approved synthetic form flows separately.
Prepare DNS/hosting change, certificate, cache behavior, monitoring and rollback with named owners. Agree the release window with the office.
After launch, verify navigation, phone/directions links, appointment destination, form delivery using approved test data, redirects and sitemap; watch errors and inquiry handling with staff. Reconcile Search Console and analytics after access is provided.

The present task has not contacted vendors, changed DNS, submitted sitemaps, run booking transactions, or created the replacement website.