Move your site. Keep your rankings.
Platform switch, new domain, new host or a full rebuild: every URL Google already trusts gets a 1:1 permanent redirect, tested before launch, watched after it.
Redirect 301 /services.html /services/ Redirect 301 /about-us.php /about/ Redirect 301 /blog/2019/tips /blog/seo-tips/ Redirect 301 /contact.aspx /contact/ # 412 URLs mapped. 0 chains. 0 loops. # rankings carried over, not left behind
Website migration SEO is the work of moving a site to a new platform, domain, host or URL structure without losing search traffic. It means inventorying every indexed URL, mapping each one to its new home with a server-side 301 or 308 redirect, keeping titles, content and schema intact, then submitting new sitemaps and monitoring Search Console until rankings settle.
Here is the part nobody tells you before the launch party: a migration done wrong does not break anything you can see. The new site looks great. Every button works. And three weeks later, organic traffic is down by a third because hundreds of URLs that Google trusted now return a 404 or dump visitors on the home page.
Google is clear about how moves should work. Its site move documentation calls for permanent server-side redirects from every old URL to its matching new URL, keeping those redirects in place for at least a year, and verifying both the old and new sites in Search Console. It also warns that rankings can fluctuate while pages are recrawled. The engineering job is to make that fluctuation short and shallow.
What we move without breaking
- Platform migrations: WordPress to custom code, Wix or Squarespace to WordPress, Shopify theme rebuilds, legacy PHP to a static site.
- Domain changes: rebrands, consolidations, and HTTP to HTTPS, including every subdomain variant.
- Host moves: new servers, new CDNs, new DNS, with no downtime window. See our WordPress migration service for the most common case.
- Structure changes: new URL patterns, merged sections, retired content, redesigned navigation.
The migration playbook
- Baseline. Export 12 months of Search Console and analytics data, a full crawl, backlink targets and Core Web Vitals for every key template.
- Inventory. Every URL Google has indexed, every URL with backlinks, every URL in the old sitemap.
- Redirect map. One-to-one, relevant destinations, no chains, no loops, nothing dumped on the home page.
- Staging QA. A crawl of the new site before launch: titles, canonicals, schema, internal links, robots rules and noindex tags.
- Launch. Redirects live at the server, new sitemap submitted, old sitemap kept temporarily so Google finds the redirects faster.
- Watch. Daily checks on 404s, coverage and rankings for the first weeks, then weekly until traffic settles.
Redirect map builder
Paste your old URLs and your new URLs. The builder matches them by meaning, flags anything that needs a human, and writes the redirect rules for Apache, Nginx or Netlify.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Anything marked CHECK had no close match and needs a human decision, which is exactly where migrations go wrong.
Tell us what you are working on. Get a straight answer.
Four taps and your contact info. An engineer (not a salesperson) reviews it and tells you what we would do, what it costs and whether you even need us.
What are you working on?
What is it built on?
What keeps you up at night?
When does it need to happen?
Got it. Here is what happens next.
- An engineer reviews your answers today.
- You get a call or email with what we would fix first, and why.
- If you do not need us, we will tell you that too.
Questions, answered straight
Will I lose rankings when I migrate my website?
Some short-term fluctuation is normal while Google recrawls. Big, lasting losses usually come from missing or wrong redirects, changed content, blocked crawling or dropped internal links. A tested 1:1 redirect map and post-launch monitoring prevent most of it.
How long should 301 redirects stay in place after a migration?
Google recommends keeping redirects for at least one year. We usually keep them permanently, because old backlinks and bookmarks keep sending visitors for years.
What is the most common website migration mistake?
Redirecting old pages to the home page instead of to their matching new pages. Google treats that like a missing page, so the old page's ranking signals do not carry over.
How much do website migration services cost?
It depends on the number of URLs, the platforms involved and how much content changes. Small sites are a fast project; large sites with thousands of URLs need a full audit first. Call for a straight quote.
Do I need to tell Google I changed domains?
Yes. For a domain change, use the Change of Address tool in Search Console for every variant of the site, in addition to server-side redirects and a new sitemap.
Before you flip the switch, let us check the move.
If we find nothing, you lost fifteen minutes. If we find a problem, you just saved the site.