Reading server logs after an AI-to-WordPress migration
Server logs show what really happens after a migration: crawler visits, broken URLs and slow requests. A practical guide from an IT expert.
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The view analytics cannot give you
Analytics tools tell you what visitors with JavaScript and cookie consent did. Server logs tell you what every request did, including search engine crawlers, bots, broken links and failing scripts. After a migration from an AI builder to WordPress, those logs are the most honest source of information you have.
I make a habit of reading them during the first two weeks after every move. It is not glamorous work, but it regularly catches problems that would otherwise show up much later as lost rankings or angry emails.
Getting access
Most hosting companies keep access logs and error logs and let you download them from the control panel. Managed WordPress hosts sometimes show them in their own dashboard. If you use a CDN in front of the site, it has its own logs as well, and those may contain requests that never reached your server.
Ask your host how long logs are kept. Some delete them after a few days. During a migration you want at least thirty days, so download them regularly or ask for longer retention.
Finding broken URLs
The first thing I filter for is status code 404. Old AI site addresses that nobody redirected show up here immediately, together with how often they are requested and by whom. Sort by frequency and add 301 redirects for the top entries that still have a clear new home. Leave genuine junk, such as random bot probes, alone.
Also look for redirect chains: a 301 that leads to another 301. They waste crawl time. Point every old URL directly to its final address in one step.
Watching search engine crawlers
Filter on the user agents of the big crawlers and check that they are really fetching your new pages and your sitemap. Verify that they receive status 200, not 403 from an overly strict security plugin or 503 from a maintenance mode that was never switched off. I have seen both on launch days.
Compare which URLs crawlers request with the URLs in your sitemap. If they keep asking for old addresses, your redirects carry that traffic. If they never visit certain new sections, check internal links, canonicals and the html lang attribute on those pages in the raw server HTML.
Spotting slow and failing requests
Many logs include the time each request took. Sort by duration and you quickly see which pages are slow without cache: often a search page, a heavy archive or an admin-ajax call from a plugin. The error log then tells you whether PHP warnings or memory limits are involved.
Repeated 500 errors on the same URL usually point to one plugin or one template. Fix them before they spread. A short line in the error log is often all you need to find the guilty file.
A simple routine
You do not need expensive tools. A spreadsheet or a small command-line script that counts status codes per URL is enough for most sites. Do it daily in the first week, weekly in the first month and monthly after that.
Logs also help you stay calm. Rankings move for a few weeks after any large change while search engines re-evaluate the site. When the logs show healthy 200 responses and steady crawling, you know the technical side is in order and the rest is a matter of time and good content.