How to move your website without losing rankings

Why rankings drop after a move

Search engines know your site by its page addresses. When you move platforms, those addresses often change. If an old address simply stops working, Google sees a missing page, visitors with bookmarks see an error, and links from other websites point nowhere. The value built up by those pages can fade. The fix is to tell everyone where each page has gone.

Before the move

1. List every page you have

Make a spreadsheet of every page address on your current site. Sources include your existing sitemap, your site's menu and footer, and the pages report in Google Search Console. Do not forget blog posts, old landing pages and PDFs.

2. Note which pages matter most

In Search Console, look at which pages get impressions and clicks. Those are the ones you must protect carefully. Also note pages that other websites link to.

3. Save titles, descriptions and wording

Copy each important page's title tag, meta description and main text. If a page ranks well, keep its topic and core wording on the new site, even if you improve it.

4. Decide each page's new home

Add a column to your spreadsheet with the new address for each old page. Every old page should map to the most relevant new page. Only send a page to the home page if there is truly no closer match.

Setting up redirects

A 301 redirect is a permanent forwarding instruction: anyone, including Google, who asks for the old address is sent to the new one. Search engines treat it as a signal that the page has moved for good.

• Use 301 redirects, not temporary ones, for a permanent move.
• Redirect one to one wherever possible, old page to its matching new page.
• Avoid chains, where one redirect leads to another and another.
• Keep redirects in place for the long term. Removing them later breaks old links again.

If you are keeping the same domain and only changing platform, the redirects live on the new platform. If you are also changing domain, the old domain needs to stay registered and redirect to the new one.

On launch day

1. Point your domain to the new site.
2. Check the security certificate works, so every page loads on https.
3. Test a sample of old addresses from your spreadsheet. Each should land on the right new page.
4. Check the new site is not set to block search engines. This is a common leftover from a test setup.
5. Submit the new XML sitemap in Google Search Console.
6. Update your Google Business Profile link if the address changed.

In the weeks after

• Watch Search Console for pages reported as not found, and add redirects for any you missed.
• Compare impressions and clicks with the period before the move. Some movement is normal while Google processes the change.
• Fix internal links on the new site so they point straight to new addresses rather than through redirects.
• Ask sites that link to you to update the link if the page is important.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Launching the new site on a Friday afternoon, with nobody around to fix problems.
• Deleting old pages that still get visits, instead of redirecting them.
• Changing every page title at once, which makes it hard to see what caused any change.

Use the move to improve

A move is a chance to remove trackers you do not need, tighten page titles, improve accessibility and merge thin pages. Just do it deliberately, with redirects for anything you merge. Our guide on getting found on Google lists the basics to check, and do I need a cookie banner explains how to drop tracking at the same time.

Moving to our builder

With our builder you keep your own domain, and the security certificate is handled automatically. Titles, descriptions, the sitemap and structured data are set from day one, and publishing is blocked until the site passes findability and accessibility checks. A real person helps with setup at no extra charge, which is useful when you are planning redirects from an old site. It costs €29.95 a month, cancel any month. See pricing or get in touch to talk through your move.

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