Changing Domains or URLs Without Losing Search Traffic

Moving to a new domain, switching platforms, restructuring URLs or merging sites can all cause big drops in search traffic if old addresses stop working. Most of that risk is avoidable with a careful redirect plan. This guide walks through preparation, launch day and the weeks afterwards.

Know which type of change you are making

• Domain change: old-example.com → new-example.com.
• Protocol or host change: http → https, or non-www → www.
• URL structure change: /services.php?id=4 → /services/boiler-repair/.
• Platform change: for example moving from one website builder to another, which usually changes URLs too.

Google’s guide to site moves with URL changes is the authoritative reference. The core principle is the same for all: every old URL that has value should permanently redirect to its closest equivalent new URL.

Before the move

1. Collect every old URL. Combine your current sitemap, a crawl of the site, the Pages report in Search Console, the top pages in your analytics and pages with external links.
2. Build a redirect map. A spreadsheet with two columns: old URL and new URL. Map each old page to the most relevant new page, not to the homepage.
3. Decide what to drop. Pages with no equivalent and no value can return 404 or 410. Redirecting everything to the homepage is treated like a soft 404 and confuses visitors.
4. Benchmark. Export Search Console performance by page and note current indexed counts so you can compare later.
5. Prepare the new site on a staging address blocked from indexing, and check titles, content, internal links and structured data carry over.

Redirect types

Redirect directly to the final URL. Chains such as A → B → C slow crawling and visitors; update old redirects to point straight to C.

Launch day

1. Remove any noindex tags or robots.txt blocks left over from staging on the new site.
2. Activate redirects and test a sample from your map, including the top 50 pages by traffic. Each should return a single 301 to the correct page.
3. Update internal links to point straight to new URLs instead of relying on redirects. See our internal linking guide.
4. Make canonical tags on new pages self-referencing, using the new domain.
5. Publish a new XML sitemap with only new URLs and submit it in Search Console. Our indexing checklist covers sitemap checks.
6. For a domain change, verify both domains in Search Console and use the Change of Address tool from the old property.
7. Update your Google Business Profile website link, social profiles and any ads.

After launch

• Monitor the Pages report in both old and new properties for 404s, redirect errors and “Duplicate” statuses.
• Check server logs or a crawler for old URLs still being requested and add missing redirects.
• Ask important external sites linking to you to update links to the new URLs.
• Keep redirects in place for at least a year, ideally permanently. Keep the old domain registered.

What to expect

Some fluctuation is normal while Google recrawls and processes the move; Google notes that a medium-sized site can take weeks, and larger sites longer. A well-executed move usually recovers. A sustained drop usually points to missing redirects, redirects to irrelevant pages, lost content or indexing blocks on the new site.

Common mistakes

• Redirecting all old pages to the homepage.
• Forgetting image, PDF and blog category URLs.
• Leaving the new site set to noindex after launch.
• Changing domain, design, content and URLs all at once, which makes problems hard to diagnose.
• Letting the old domain expire.

If you are adding new languages or countries during a move, plan the URL structure up front with our multilingual SEO guide.