Website migration SEO: how to redesign without losing your Google rankings

Website migration SEO is the work that keeps your Google rankings when your site gets rebuilt, moved to a new platform or restructured. The core of it is simple: every old URL that has rankings, traffic or links needs a permanent redirect to its closest new page, set up before launch. Skip that step and a redesign can quietly wipe out years of search visibility in a week.

The rest of this post is the checklist I work through on every rebuild, plus a mistake I found on my own site after its redesign that most small business sites have too.



Why redesigns lose rankings

Google ranks pages, not businesses. Each page has its own URL, its own history and its own links from other sites. When a redesign changes those URLs, Google sees the old pages disappear and a set of new, unknown pages appear.

Without redirects, three things go at once:

• The rankings the old page had earned
• The links other websites point at it, which now land on an error page
• Your visitors, who click an old Google result or bookmark and hit a "page not found"

Even done perfectly, a move takes a little while to settle. Google's own site move guide says it can take a few weeks or more for medium-sized sites before the new URLs replace the old ones in results, and that visibility may fluctuate temporarily during the move. A dip for a few weeks is normal. A cliff that never recovers usually means redirects were missed.

This is the main reason I think the design and the SEO should be planned as one job. A designer focused on the new look often doesn't touch the old URL list at all, and that's where rankings go missing. It's the gap that web design and SEO done together is meant to close.

The website migration checklist

Before you build

1. Export every URL on the current site. Use your sitemap, a crawler like Screaming Frog, and the Pages report in Google Search Console. Search Console matters because it shows pages Google knows about that your sitemap might have forgotten.
2. Find the pages that matter. In Search Console's Performance report, sort pages by clicks over the last 12 months. In Google Analytics, check which pages bring in enquiries. Those pages get the most care.
3. Benchmark what you have. Save a snapshot of clicks, impressions and your main rankings. Without a before number, you can't tell a normal settling dip from a real problem after launch.
4. Plan the new structure with the old one in front of you. I build a keyword map before the sitemap on every project. On a redesign, the old URL list sits beside it, so every page that ranks has a clear home in the new site.
5. 
   

Map the redirects

1. Build a redirect map: old URL in one column, new URL in the other. Google's guide calls this "a mapping of old to new URLs", and it's the single most important document in the whole migration.
2. Redirect each page to its closest match, not the homepage. An old "emergency electrician" page should point to the new emergency electrician page. Sending everything to the homepage throws away the relevance the old page had.
3. Use permanent redirects. Google recommends server-side permanent redirects such as 301 or 308.
4. Keep URLs the same where you can. The safest redirect is the one you don't need. If a page's URL still makes sense, keep it.
5. 
   

Launch day

1. Switch the redirects on as the new site goes live, not a week later.
2. Update internal links to the new URLs. Google's guide says to change internal links from the old URLs to the new ones. A redirect catches outside visitors, but your own menus, footer and buttons should never rely on it. More on why below.
3. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
4. Carry across the basics on every rebuilt page: title tag, meta description, headings, image alt text and any schema. A redesign is a good moment to improve these, but not to lose them.
5. 
   

After launch

1. Crawl the live site and fix any internal link that redirects or returns a 404.
2. Test your top 20 old URLs by hand. Paste each one into a browser and check it lands on the right new page.
3. Watch Search Console weekly for the first two months. Look at the Pages report for new "Not found (404)" errors and at clicks against your benchmark.
4. Leave the redirects in place. Google says to keep them for at least a year, and to consider keeping them indefinitely for the sake of users. On a small site there's no good reason to ever take them down.
5. 
   

The mistake I found on my own site after the redesign

When I rebuilt troov-marketing.com this year, several pages moved. Local SEO went from /local-seo to /services/local-seo. The trade pages moved from URLs like /website-design-for-electricians into an /industries/ folder.

The redirects worked. Every old URL I tested landed on the right new page.

But when I checked every link on the homepage, four of the 27 internal links still pointed at old URLs:

• Three went through a redirect first: the menu and footer links to local SEO and two of the trade pages still used the old addresses, so every click bounced through a redirect before landing.
• One led nowhere: a "Blogs" link in the Resources menu pointed at a leftover page from the build that no longer existed, so it returned a 404.

None of this broke the site for visitors. But it's the kind of thing that builds up quietly, and it's common on small business sites for one reason: site builders copy menus and footers from section to section, so when a page moves, the old link survives in a footer or mega menu nobody thinks to check.

Internal links that bounce through redirects make Google do extra work on every crawl and send a mixed signal about which URL is the real one. A 404 in the menu is worse, because it shows up on every page. It's why steps 10 and 13 are on the list, and why I now run a full link check on every site, mine included, after launch, not only before.

Website redesign SEO on Duda, Wix and Squarespace

Most guides to site migrations are written for large sites with developers editing server files. Most small businesses are on a site builder, where you don't touch the server at all. You add redirects inside the builder's settings instead.

On Duda, which I build on, redirects live under Settings, then URL Redirect. Three details from Duda's own help article catch people out:

• You choose the redirect type yourself. It isn't automatically permanent. Pick 301 for a permanent move.
• Existing pages beat redirects. If the old page still exists, the redirect won't fire. Delete or rename the old page first.
• Bulk uploads cap at 200 per file. You can import redirects from a CSV, up to 200 URLs per file. Wildcards (*) can cover a whole folder of old URLs with one rule.

Wix and Squarespace have their own redirect tools in their settings too. Whatever the platform, the checklist above doesn't change: map every URL, redirect to the closest match, and update your own links.

Moving to a new domain as well

Changing your domain name at the same time as your design is a bigger move. Every URL changes, not just some. The same checklist applies, but you also need to:

• Keep the old domain registered and renewing, so the redirects keep working
• Use the Change of Address tool in Search Console once redirects are live
• Update your Google Business Profile, social profiles and directory listings to the new domain

If you can, change one thing at a time: the design first, then the domain later. It makes any drop easier to diagnose.

The short version

A redesign doesn't have to cost you your rankings. Export every URL, map each one to its closest new page, use permanent redirects, update your own links, then check it all again after launch. Most of the damage in migrations comes from skipping the boring parts.

If you're redesigning your website and want the redirects and SEO handled as part of the build, that's how every Troov project runs. Book a consultation and I'll look at what your current site has earned in Google before anything gets rebuilt.

Frequently asked questions

Will a website redesign affect my SEO?

It can, mostly when URLs change without redirects or when ranking content gets cut. If every old URL redirects to its closest new page and the key content carries across, most sites hold their rankings, with a short period of movement while Google catches up.

How long does it take to recover rankings after a migration?

Google says it can take a few weeks or more for medium-sized sites before new URLs replace the old ones in search results, and longer for big sites. If traffic is still well down after two or three months, check for missed redirects and lost content.

What's the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?

A 301 tells Google a page has moved permanently, so the new URL should take over. A 302 says the move is temporary. For a redesign or migration, use 301 (or 308) redirects.

How long should I keep redirects after a migration?

Google recommends at least a year and suggests keeping them indefinitely for users. On a small business site, there's no real cost to leaving them in place for good.

Should I redirect old pages to my homepage?

Only when there's no closer match. Redirecting a specific service page to your homepage throws away the relevance it built up. Send each old page to the new page that covers the same topic.