New Site + Transfered blog: Things to watch for?

[Earthsaver]

Hey everyone. So here is what's going on.

1. Built new website. Will be using generally the same URL's as original.

2. Incorporated and expanded on a previously separate informative blog.

a. Many articles contain very similar if not the same articles as our blog.

3. The blog will be taken down as soon as new site is put online.

So my question is just. Could someone list the like top 5 important things I need to keep in mind before putting this website live?

I don't mind searching forums and blogs for the how-to part; I just need to know what I should be thinking about and getting done pre-launch. I believe re-directing the blog articles should be done? Create and submit sitemap?

Thanks,

Web-creation newb

[JarnoNijzing]

1. make sure all of your inbound links redirect to the new pages
2. Tell google with canonical which pages are the originals
3. make sure to have a good .htaccess with 301's and a 404 redirect
4. build a solid 404 page

This way you should not have to worry about loosing visitors or about pages that can't be found..

Google appriciates such effort.

[KeriMorgret]

I don't know if this is too late for you, but a great resource is this Website Migration Guide promoted to the main blog late last month http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-site-migration-guide-tips-for-seos.

[Earthsaver]

The new site already went live but still some good tips in there, thanks