Move your site without losing Google rankings: a step-by-step

You decided to rebuild your site. Maybe you're swapping WordPress for custom code, changing the domain after a rebrand or reorganizing your service pages. The new site looks better and loads faster. Two weeks later, the phone rings less. People who found you on Google now land on an error page.

This happens because Google doesn't know on its own that the old page became the new one. It takes years to tie a URL to a search. If the URL disappears without notice, that history goes with it. Moving without losing rankings isn't about luck. It takes a playbook Google itself publishes, and someone who follows it carefully before hitting the button.

How much traffic a botched migration costs

The most cited figure comes from a study published by Search Engine Journal in January 2025, by Dan Taylor. He analyzed 892 domain migrations, from SaaS to online stores and law firms. On average, the new domain took 523 days to reach the old one's estimated organic traffic. And 17% of migrations hadn't returned to their previous level even after 1,000 days.

These numbers need a careful read. The study only covers domain changes, the riskiest kind of migration. It relies on third-party tool estimates, not the sites' internal data. And it doesn't separate well-run migrations from botched ones. Still, the message is clear: changing your address without a plan can cost more than a year of visits. For a company that gets quote requests through its site, that means lost revenue.

What kind of migration you're doing

Before anything else, pin down what's changing. Each case carries a different risk:

• Hosting only. The URLs stay the same and the server changes. It's the simplest case.
• Platform or redesign with new URLs. You're leaving a site builder or an old theme, and pages get new URLs. For example, /index.php?page=servicos becomes /servicos/.
• Domain change. The company changed its name or bought a better domain. Every URL changes.
• HTTP to HTTPS, or with and without “www”. The URLs change technically, but the content doesn't.

If you're in the second or third case, our article on the signs it's time to rebuild your site helps confirm whether the switch is worth the risk. Most of the time it is. It just can't be improvised.

Google's playbook, in plain buyer terms

Google's documentation on site moves with URL changes, updated in August 2026, sums up the process in five steps: prepare and test the new site, map old URLs to new ones, set up redirects on the server, start the move and monitor traffic on both sites.

In practice, for whoever is paying for the project, that turns into five concrete asks of your vendor.

1. A spreadsheet with every old URL

Before touching the site, someone has to list every page that exists today. Not just the ones in the menu. That includes old blog posts, campaign pages, PDFs and images that get visits. The sources are the current sitemap, Search Console and a crawling tool. Next to each old URL goes the matching new one. A page with no equivalent points to the closest match, never to the homepage by default.

2. Permanent redirects, set on the server

Google distinguishes two kinds of redirects. Permanent ones (codes 301 and 308) say the page has moved for good, and Google starts showing the new URL in results. Temporary ones (302, 303 and 307) say the opposite: the old page is still the main one. Google's page on redirects asks you to use a permanent redirect when “you're sure that the redirect won't be reverted”. JavaScript redirects should only come in when there's no other option.

Ask to see the redirect list working in a staging environment before the switch. A mistake here is the most common reason for a drop after a redesign.

3. New sitemap, updated internal links and canonicals

The new site has to launch with a sitemap containing only the new URLs, submitted in Search Console. Internal links should point straight to the new URLs, without going through a redirect. Canonical tags and, if the site has more than one language, hreflang markup also need a review.

4. Formal notice to Google when the domain changes

If you're changing domains, Search Console has the Change of Address tool. You use it on the old site's property and it tells Google about the move. For HTTP to HTTPS, “www” or path changes within the same domain, you don't need it.

5. Monitoring in the weeks that follow

Google is blunt: expect temporary ranking fluctuation during the move. According to the documentation, a small or medium site takes a few weeks to get most pages processed at the new address, and larger sites take longer. During that period, someone needs to check Search Console every week, look for 404 errors and fix any missed redirect. Redirects should stay live for at least 1 year. Ideally, the old domain should never be abandoned.

What if only the hosting changes?

Switching servers without changing URLs is the lowest-risk migration, but there are still rules. In Google's guidance on moving to a new host, updated in December 2025, the key points are: lower the DNS TTL to a few hours at least a week ahead, test the new server with indexing blocked, confirm Googlebot can reach it and only shut down the old server when its traffic hits zero.

Google warns that crawl rate usually drops right after the switch and picks back up over the following days. No reason to panic, as long as the new server responds fast and without errors.

The mistakes that sink traffic most

Almost every serious drop after a migration comes down to one of these:

• No redirects. The new site goes live and the old URLs turn into 404 errors.
• Everything redirected to the homepage. Google treats that as a missing page and drops the relevance each page had.
• Temporary redirect instead of permanent. Google keeps showing the old page, which no longer exists.
• Forgotten staging block. The staging noindex or robots.txt goes to production and the site vanishes from search.
• Content cut without criteria. The redesign trims the copy on the pages that brought in the most visits.
• Old domain canceled. Links from other sites pointing to you stop working.

What to demand before you sign

If you're hiring a redesign, a platform switch or a domain change, put these questions on the table:

1. Who maps the old URLs, and in what format do I get it?
2. Are the redirects done on the server, with a 301 or 308 code?
3. Can I see the new site and the redirects in a staging environment before the switch?
4. Who monitors Search Console in the weeks after launch, and for how long?
5. Are the domain, hosting and Search Console access in my company's name?

If the proposal doesn't mention migration, migration isn't in the price. That also applies if you're moving from a site builder to custom code, a case we cover in our comparison of custom-coded sites vs. Wix, Framer and WordPress.

How we do it at the Studio

At Studio Responsivo, the custom-coded sites we build ship with search basics from day one: structured data, sitemap, llms.txt and robots that let AI crawlers in. That's how we built studioresponsivo.com.br itself, which runs in Portuguese, English and Spanish. In a migration, mapping the old URLs goes into the scope before the layout, because that's what protects the visits you've already earned. The fixed price comes after discovery, the deadline is written into the contract, and the domain, code and access stay in your company's name.

If you're rebuilding or moving your site and don't want to start from zero on Google, see our work in SEO and GEO for business websites.