Move your website without losing Google rankings

Short answer: You keep your rankings if every old address leads to a new one. List all old pages, decide where each one goes and add permanent redirects (301) before the new site goes live. Keep the domain, leave the email DNS records alone and submit the new sitemap to Google.

Why do sites lose traffic when they move?

Google ranks addresses, not companies. If yourcompany.com/services/webdesign/ disappears and is replaced by yourcompany.com/websites/ without anyone saying so, Google sees one page that died and a new one with no history. Links from other sites suddenly point to a 404 page. That is where the traffic goes.

Before the move

Export a list of every address on the old site. The sitemap is a good start, and Search Console shows which pages actually get traffic.
Decide where each old page goes. Similar content to a similar page.
Save page titles and descriptions from your best ranking pages, so you keep the words that work.
Write down every DNS record for email: MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
Measure the old site, so you can compare afterwards.

How we do it: When we moved augebitur.com off WordPress we went through every old address and added 56 redirects. Old service pages lead to their new matches. No old link ends in an error.

During the move

The redirects are what matters most. One line per old address, with a permanent 301:

/services/webdesign/   /websites/   301
/contact-us/           /contact/    301

A few rules that save you trouble:

One old page to one new page. Do not send everything to the home page. Google often treats that as a page that does not exist.
No chains. A should go straight to C, not through B.
With and without a trailing slash. /contact-us and /contact-us/ can be two different addresses.
Only change the DNS records that point to the website. Usually an A record for the domain and a CNAME for www. Everything to do with email stays.

After the move

Test a sample of old addresses and check they answer with a 301 and land in the right place.
Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
Send a test email to check that email still works.
Watch the not found report in Search Console over the coming weeks and add redirects for anything that shows up.
Never delete the redirects. Old links stay around for years.

A small dip in traffic during the first weeks is normal while Google rereads the site. If everything is done right it usually recovers.

Changing domain?

Keep the domain if you can. If you do change it, the whole old domain should redirect page by page to the new one, and you report the move in Search Console with the change of address tool. Google takes longer to move everything over after a domain change than after a rebuild on the same domain.

Thinking about switching to a faster site? Read code based website: why and for whom.

Questions people ask

Will I lose rankings when I change my website?

Not if the move is done right. Rankings carry over when every old address sends visitors to its new match with a permanent redirect. A temporary dip for a few weeks is common and normal.

What is a 301 redirect?

A 301 tells browsers and search engines that a page has moved permanently to a new address. Google then moves the page’s value over to the new address.

Does moving my website affect my email?

No, as long as you only change the records that point to the website. Email runs on the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records in DNS, and those should stay untouched.

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