Inventory the placements, not only the website
A migration crawl cannot reveal every link in a live advert, scheduled campaign, profile or previously distributed document. Ask each channel owner for the placements they maintain. Record the placement identifier, destination, language, campaign status and responsible person. Keep an exact internal reference without copying private recipient details into the audit.
Separate editable placements from material already distributed. An active advert may be updated through its owner, while an old printed code or sent invitation cannot be recalled by changing a website menu. That distinction determines the repair location and prevents the team from marking every placement fixed after updating only the site.
Recover the promise attached to the link
Read the surrounding campaign copy before judging the destination. Identify the offer, audience, language and action it promises. A page can load successfully after a move yet fail that promise because it describes another service or presents a different language. Record this as a relevance problem rather than treating HTTP success as completion.
Check whether the offer is still valid. An expired event or discontinued package should not quietly become an unrelated current promotion. Ask the content owner to approve a truthful explanation and suitable next step. Keep historical campaign wording in the evidence so the reviewer understands why the new destination was chosen.
Assign changes to the right owner
Google’s migration guidance recommends updating campaign links to the new landing pages. For editable placements, give the owner the approved destination and verify the saved result through the relevant preview or public placement. Avoid testing by repeatedly clicking paid adverts when an appropriate preview is available.
For already-distributed links, document the remaining dependency on the old address and the approved visitor experience there. This is not a reason to route every old campaign to the homepage. Any routing decision should follow the content mapping and current offer, while detailed redirect implementation remains a separate technical task.
Illustrative example: a past webinar invitation
A fictional invitation promised registration for a webinar that has now ended. After migration, its address opens a generic services page. The link works technically, but visitors receive no explanation of the event’s status. The reviewer records the invitation, original promise and mismatch for the campaign owner.
The owner approves an event-ended explanation with a relevant current next step, without suggesting registration remains available. Editable profile placements are updated, while the historical invitation remains in the inventory as distributed material. The reviewer checks the actual visitor destination. This hypothetical example makes no claim about conversion improvements or a real campaign.
Verify the journey and preserve exceptions
For each changed placement, record the destination actually saved, verification time, language and visible offer. Follow the primary next step far enough to confirm it reaches the intended public flow, without creating unnecessary real enquiries. Keep pending third-party edits separate from changes already verified.
Retain an owner for old addresses that continue to receive visits and review them when the offer changes again. Measurement of source attribution is a separate analysis; a repaired destination alone does not prove that tracking is correct or that traffic increased. A public-page audit supports the landing-page check, while channel owners account for placements beyond the website.