Post-Merge Verification Checklist

Manual data merging is prone to human error and ID mismatches. Use this checklist to ensure the site is fully functional before going live.

1. Visual & Structural Integrity

[ ] Menus: Check Header and Footer menus.
- Issue: Menus often lose their "Theme Location" assignment during import.
- Fix: Go to Appearance > Menus > Manage Locations and re-assign them.
[ ] Widgets / Block Areas: Check sidebars and footers.
- Issue: Legacy widgets may not import via XML.
[ ] Homepage Layout: Verify the homepage looks identical to the source.
- Issue: If the homepage was built with a page builder (Elementor/Divi), the "Front Page" setting in Settings > Reading might have reset to "Latest Posts".
[ ] Images: Check 5 random pages and 5 random blog posts.
- Issue: Broken images usually mean the path is pointing to the old date structure (e.g., /2023/) but files are in /2024/.

[ ] Post Counts: Compare the number of Published Posts, Pages, and Products between the old and new site.
[ ] Media Library: Go to Media > Library.
- Check: Do the thumbnails appear? If they are gray/blank, the database entries exist but the physical files are missing or permissions are wrong.
[ ] Taxonomies: Check Categories and Tags.
- Issue: Hierarchy (Parent/Child relationships) sometimes breaks during XML import.

Since post IDs change during a merge, hardcoded references will break.

[ ] Shortcodes: Test all contact forms.
- Check: Does [contact-form-7 id="123"] still load a form? If ID 123 is now a blog post, the form will vanish.
[ ] Page Builders (Elementor/Beaver):
- Check: Global Templates (Headers/Footers) often rely on specific post IDs.
[ ] ACF Relationship Fields:
- Check: If you use "Post Object" or "Relationship" fields, check if the selected related posts are still correct.

[ ] Permalinks: Click through to a single blog post.
- Issue: 404 Error.
- Fix: Go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save Changes.
[ ] Search: Run a search for a known term.
[ ] User Accounts:
- Check: If you merged users, ensure the Administrator still has administrator capabilities and hasn't been demoted to subscriber due to role mapping errors.

[ ] Console Errors: Open DevTools (F12) -> Console.
- Check: Look for 404s (missing scripts/images) or JavaScript errors related to missing DOM elements.
[ ] Robots.txt: Ensure the site is not set to "Discourage search engines" if it is meant to be live.
- Location: Settings > Reading.

[ ] Delete Import Files: Remove the .xml, .tar.gz, or .sql files you uploaded to the server root.
[ ] Disable Migration Plugins: Deactivate "WordPress Importer", "Better Search Replace", or "Media Sync".

Created: March 17, 2026 • Last Modified: February 28, 2026