Website migrations without losing rankings

Migrations are where many sites lose years of SEO work overnight. Plan carefully.

Before

1. Crawl the old site and export every URL (a site audit's crawled pages list helps).
2. Note your top pages by traffic and links.
3. Map every old URL to its new URL.
4. Record current rankings for your main keywords.

During

• 301-redirect every old URL to its new equivalent, not all to the home page.
• Keep titles, content and internal links as close as possible at first.
• Update canonical tags, hreflang and the sitemap.
• Do not block the new site in robots.txt.

Types of migration

• Domain change: new domain, same content.
• HTTPS move: HTTP to HTTPS.
• Platform change: new CMS or shop software, often with new URLs.
• Redesign: new templates and structure.
• Merging sites: combining two sites into one.

Each carries risk; combining several at once multiplies it. If you can, change one thing at a time.

A redirect map

Build a spreadsheet with two columns: old URL and new URL. Every old URL with visits or backlinks needs a row. Test a sample of redirects before launch and all of them after.

Expect some movement

Rankings often wobble for a few weeks after a migration, even when done well. Large, lasting drops usually point to missing redirects, blocked pages or lost content. Compare the old and new crawl to find them.

After

• Check redirects with the redirect checker.
• Run a site audit on the new site.
• Watch rank tracking and fix drops page by page.

Keep the redirects in place for at least a year, ideally permanently.