Website migration checklist: moving a site without losing rankings

What should you do before migrating a website?

Before a migration, list every URL on the current site, record a baseline of visits, enquiries and Search Console figures, note the pages that matter most, back up the site, and agree a date after which the old site stops changing. The inventory becomes the redirect map, and the baseline shows after launch whether anything has gone wrong.

• List every URL on the current site: export the sitemap, crawl the site, and add any URLs your analytics shows receiving visits that the crawl missed.
• Record a baseline: visits and enquiries per page from analytics, and clicks, impressions and indexed pages from Google Search Console.
• Note the pages that bring in the most search visits and enquiries. They are checked first on launch day.
• Take a full backup of the current site and its database, and keep the old hosting available until the move is checked.
• Agree a date after which no content changes are made on the old site, so nothing is lost between the export and the launch.

The baseline is what tells you after launch whether anything has gone wrong. Without it, a drop in visits cannot be traced to a page. Our website and SEO migration service starts every move with this inventory.

How do you build a redirect map?

A redirect map lists every old URL beside the new URL that replaces it, one to one. Each old URL is then redirected with a server-side permanent redirect. Google recommends permanent redirects such as 301 and 308, and treats the target of a permanent redirect as the URL that should be shown in search.

Sources: Google Search Central, Redirects and Google Search (updated 14 April 2026); Google Search Central, How to move a site (updated 20 August 2026)

Build the map in a spreadsheet with two columns, old URL and new URL, and one row for every URL in the inventory. Map each page to its closest equivalent: a service page to the new service page, a blog post to the same post at its new address. Avoid sending every old page to the homepage, because visitors and search engines then land somewhere that does not answer what they came for.

Avoid chains, where one redirect leads to another. If the site has been moved before, update the older redirects so they point straight to the new URLs.

What needs to carry over to the new site?

Carry over everything that tells search engines what each page is about: titles, meta descriptions, headings, body copy, structured data, image alt text and canonical tags. Update internal links to point straight at the new URLs, and keep analytics and conversion tracking in place so the new site can be compared with the old one.

• Page titles and meta descriptions, page by page.
• Headings and body copy, unless the content is being rewritten on purpose.
• Structured data: business details, breadcrumbs, FAQs and product data, rebuilt on the new pages.
• Images, with their alt text, and any image URLs that receive visits from image search.
• Internal links, updated to point at the new URLs directly instead of through redirects.
• Canonical tags, which should point to each page's own new URL.
• Analytics and conversion tracking, so the baseline can be compared after launch.

What should you check on launch day?

On launch day, test the redirects for your most visited pages, check that no noindex tag or robots.txt rule blocks the new site, submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console, and confirm that forms and analytics work. If the domain changes, submit a Change of Address in Search Console for the old site, as Google recommends.

Source: Google Search Central, How to move a site (updated 20 August 2026)

• Test the redirects for the pages with the most search visits, then a sample of the rest. Each should return a single permanent redirect to the right page.
• Check that no page carries a noindex tag left over from the staging site, and that robots.txt allows search engines to crawl the new site.
• Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
• If the domain is changing, use the Change of Address tool in Search Console for the old site.
• Send a test enquiry through every form and confirm that analytics and conversion tracking are recording.

What happens in the first eight weeks after a migration?

Expect some movement. Google says the visibility of a site in search may fluctuate temporarily during a move, and that for a medium-sized site it can take a few weeks or more for the new URLs to replace the old ones. Check Search Console each week, fix any URL that returns an error, and compare traffic with the baseline page by page.

Source: Google Search Central, How to move a site (updated 20 August 2026)

• Week one: check Search Console daily for crawl errors and pages reported as not found, and fix each broken URL with a redirect or a restored page.
• Weeks two to four: compare indexed pages, clicks and impressions with the baseline, page by page for the pages that mattered most.
• Weeks four to eight: look for pages whose search visits have not recovered, and check their redirects, titles and content against the old versions.
• Throughout: keep the old domain registered and the redirects in place.

Will a website migration lose rankings?

It can, and no one can guarantee it will not. Rankings are decided by search engines, and Google expects temporary changes during a move. What you control is the checklist: missing redirects, changed titles, removed content and leftover noindex tags are the problems to look for first when a page loses visits after a move.

If a page has lost its visits, the cause is usually something on this checklist: a missing or wrong redirect, a changed title, content that was cut, or a noindex tag left on. Comparing the page with its old version, using the baseline and a backup, is the quickest way to find it.

How long should redirects stay in place after a migration?

Keep redirects for as long as possible, and for at least a year. Google's site move guidance recommends at least a year so it can recrawl the old URLs and move their signals to the new ones. Keep the old domain registered over the same period, so anyone following an old link still reaches the right page.

Source: Google Search Central, How to move a site (updated 20 August 2026)

What changes if the domain changes as well?

When the domain changes as well as the URLs, every old URL still redirects to its new page, now on the new domain. Google recommends submitting a Change of Address in Search Console for the old site. Keep both domains verified in Search Console and the old domain registered, and update the links you control elsewhere so they point at the new domain.

Source: Google Search Central, How to move a site (updated 20 August 2026)

The links you control outside the site matter too. Update the website address on your Google Business Profile, social media profiles, directory listings, email signatures and any ads, and ask partners who link to your most visited pages to update those links. Each one you change no longer depends on a redirect.

Online stores follow the same steps, with product, collection and order data to check as well. Our online store migrations cover moving a store with its products, customers and order history.