A new website should bring in more business than the old one. Sometimes, though, a redesign goes live and traffic falls off a cliff. The site looks better, but the enquiries dry up, and nobody can work out why.
It nearly always comes down to the same few mistakes: pages that ranked well were removed or moved without being redirected, content that Google valued was cut, or the new site was launched with settings that told search engines to stay away. All of them are avoidable. This guide covers how to change your website, whether that's a redesign, a new platform or a new domain, without throwing away the search visibility you've built.
Know what kind of change you're making
Not every website change carries the same risk. A visual refresh that keeps the same pages, the same URLs and the same content is relatively low risk. Changing your URL structure, moving to a new platform or merging pages carries more. Moving to a new domain name carries the most, because Google has to transfer everything it knows about the old address to the new one.
Google's own documentation on site moves and migrations is the best reference here, and it's worth reading before you plan anything. The principles below follow it.
Start with what you already have
Before anyone designs a page, take stock of the current site. Export a full list of URLs from your sitemap or a crawling tool. Then use Search Console and Google Analytics to find out which pages bring in search traffic, which ones rank for valuable searches and which ones other sites link to.
Those pages are your priority. They don't all need to survive in their current form, but every one of them needs a plan. If a page that brings in a steady stream of enquiries is quietly dropped in the redesign, you lose whatever traffic it was earning.
Map every old URL to a new one
The URL map is the most important document in any migration. It's a simple spreadsheet listing every old URL and the new URL it will point to. Where a page is staying, map it to its new address. Where pages are being merged, map them all to the page that replaces them. Where a page is being removed with no sensible replacement, decide that deliberately rather than by accident.
Avoid the shortcut of redirecting everything to the homepage. It's tempting on a big site, but it sends people looking for a specific service to a generic page, and search engines tend to treat those redirects as if the page had simply disappeared.
Use permanent redirects
Once the map is agreed, every old URL that has a new home should get a permanent redirect, usually a 301. Google's documentation states that 301 and other permanent redirects don't cause a loss in PageRank, so a properly redirected page passes its value on to the new one.
Redirects should go straight to the final destination in one hop. Chains of redirects, where one old URL points to another old URL that then points to the new one, slow things down and can lose value along the way. After launch, test a sample of old URLs, including your most important ones, to make sure they land in the right place.
Protect the content that ranks
Redesigns often come with a push to make pages shorter and cleaner. That's fine for design, but be careful with the words. If a service page ranks because it answers people's questions in detail, cutting it back to a headline and three sentences can cost you that ranking.
Keep page titles, headings and the substance of your best content unless you have a good reason to change them. You can improve them, but improve them deliberately. Our guide to on-page SEO covers what to keep an eye on.
Check the technical basics at launch
Many migration problems are caused by settings left over from the development site. Staging sites are usually blocked from search engines, and occasionally that block makes it onto the live site. On launch day, check that the live site isn't set to noindex, that the robots.txt file isn't blocking anything important and that each page has the right canonical tag.
Submit your new sitemap in Search Console. If you're changing domain, use the Change of Address tool, which Google says you only need when moving from one domain or subdomain to another. Make sure your analytics is tracking on the new site from the first minute, otherwise you won't be able to tell what's changed. Our GA4 guide covers the setup.
Watch closely after launch
Some movement in rankings after a migration is normal while Google recrawls the site. Google's documentation says it has to visit every URL on the old and new site at least once before the move is complete, and that how quickly that happens depends on the size of the site.
What you're looking for in the first few weeks is anything unusual. Check Search Console for crawl errors and pages that suddenly aren't indexed. Look at your most important pages one by one. Keep an eye on enquiries as well as traffic. If something has gone wrong, the sooner you spot it, the easier it is to fix.
Keep the old domain registered and the redirects in place. Removing them a few months later can undo much of the work.
Frequently asked questions
Will a new website affect my SEO?
It can, in either direction. Handled carefully, a faster, better-structured site often performs better. Handled carelessly, it can lose rankings that took years to build.
How long do rankings take to recover after a migration?
There's no fixed timescale. It depends on the size of the site and how much has changed. A well-planned migration of a small site usually settles far quicker than a large one with many URL changes.
Do I need to keep redirects forever?
Keep them in place for as long as you reasonably can. They cost very little to maintain, and old links from other websites will keep pointing to your old URLs for years.
Should my web designer handle the SEO side of a migration?
They should at least be aware of it. When we build a new site through our web design service, it's set up for search from day one. If your migration needs a dedicated SEO check, our SEO team can help, so get in touch before you launch rather than after.