Redesigning your website without losing search visibility starts before the build. Record every existing URL, match each old URL to the best fitting new page and send it there with a permanent redirect. Then update internal links, canonicals and the sitemap, and check in Google Search Console after launch whether the new pages are being picked up. This step-by-step plan follows Google’s documentation on site moves.
When are you at risk?
You are at risk as soon as web addresses change. A move like that is called a website migration. That happens with a new domain, a move to a different CMS (content management system) or e-commerce platform, and a new menu structure in which pages get a different path. Merging or removing pages also takes away something that Google and visitors used to reach.
In Site moves with URL changes, Google explains that rankings can fluctuate temporarily while it crawls and indexes the new addresses. For a medium-sized website, it can take a few weeks or longer before the new URLs gradually appear. That is normal. The purpose of this plan is to stop a temporary fluctuation from turning into a lasting loss.
The plan at a glance
- RecordList every current URL, with visitors, clicks and links.
- DecideFor each page: keep, merge or remove.
- Redirect mapMatch each old URL to the best fitting new page.
- Build and testInternal links, canonicals and the sitemap point to the new addresses.
- Go liveSwitch on the redirects, submit the sitemap and test a sample.
- Outside linksAsk other sites and profiles to use the new addresses.
- CheckCompare the following weeks with your baseline.
What do you do before the build?
Step 1: Record what you have now
Make a list of every URL on the current website. Google mentions sources such as your sitemaps, server logs, analytics data, the CMS and the links report in Google Search Console. Do not forget images, videos, PDFs and other files, because they can have visitors and links too.
For each URL, also note how important it is: visitors, clicks from Google and links from other websites. You will need that baseline later to see whether the move went well.
Step 2: Decide which content comes along
Go through the list and decide for each page whether you keep it, merge it or remove it. Google advises returning a 404 or 410 for content you are not bringing across.
Three choices for each old page
| Keep | Merge | Remove | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When | The page has visitors or links and the topic stays | Several pages cover almost the same thing | There is no matching new page |
| What the new site gets | A new version with the same or better content | One page that replaces the old ones together | Nothing |
| What the old URL gets | A 301 to the new version | A 301 to the merged page | A 404 or 410 |
How do you make a redirect map?
Step 3: Match each old URL to a new one
A redirect map is a table that gives the new destination for each old URL. It looks like this:
| Old URL | New URL | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| /services/gutter-cleaning.html | /gutters/cleaning | Keep |
| /blog/gutter-tips-2023 | /gutters/maintenance | Merge |
| /summer-offer-2022 | (none) | Remove, 410 |
Use permanent server-side redirects, such as a 301 redirect or 308. Google recommends avoiding redirect chains and pointing straight to the final destination. Do not send large numbers of old pages to the home page either; Google calls that an irrelevant redirect.
How do you build and test the new website?
Step 4: Build and test the new website
Make sure the new website is ready before you switch:
- Internal links point to the new URLs, not to old addresses that still need a redirect.
- Every page has a canonical URL that points to itself.
- If you use several languages, update the hreflang references as well.
- The test environment is shielded from search engines. At launch, check that this shielding and any noindex instructions are gone.
- A new XML sitemap with only the new URLs is ready.
Google also recommends verifying both the old and the new website in Search Console, including every variant, such as with and without www.
What do you do on launch day?
Step 5: Go live
- Switch on the redirects.
- Check that canonicals and any noindex rules are correct for the new URLs.
- Test a sample of redirects with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console or with a script.
- Submit the new sitemap.
- If you are changing domain or subdomain, use the Change of Address tool in Search Console. Google writes that it is not needed for a move from HTTP to HTTPS, for www versus non-www on the same domain, or for changed paths only.
According to Google, keep the redirects in place for at least a year, and preferably longer.
At the end of the day, go through these points:
Checklist for launch day
- Redirects are switched on and a sample works.
- No redirect chains to the most important pages.
- Canonicals point to the new URLs.
- Noindex and test environment shielding are removed.
- New sitemap submitted, old one removed.
- Change of Address submitted, only for a new domain.
- Internal links, menu and footer point to new URLs.
- Analytics and Search Console are measuring the new website.
The wider technical basics are in the technical SEO checklist.
What do you do in the weeks that follow?
Step 6: Update links outside your website
Ask websites that link to you to update their links, starting with the links that bring the most traffic. Update your own links too, in social media profiles, your Google Business Profile, newsletters and adverts.
Step 7: Check and compare
Google mentions these checks:
- The sitemap and indexing reports in Search Console.
- The search queries your pages appear for.
- Server logs, to see whether Googlebot visits the new pages and where error codes occur.
- Your analytics data, to see whether traffic shifts from the old URLs to the new ones.
Compare the figures with your baseline from step 1. If you find a page that does not appear in Google, use why is my page not showing in Google? to find the cause.
What should you watch for when moving to Shopify?
Shopify uses fixed paths such as /products/ and /collections/, so your old addresses almost always change. According to the Shopify Help Center, you can create redirects from URLs that no longer exist, but not from Shopify’s fixed paths. Redirects can be imported in bulk with a CSV file, with the old path and the new destination on each line:
Redirect from,Redirect to
/shop/womens-rain-jacket/,/products/womens-rain-jacket
/product-category/rainwear/,/collections/rainwear
/about-us.html,/pages/about-usIn its guide to migrating from WooCommerce, Shopify recommends starting with the most visited pages and testing the redirects after launch. More on choosing between platforms is in Shopify or WooCommerce.
How Outseen handles a migration
In an Outseen website project, we list which pages and content come along and agree how we handle the transition and redirects. That migration work is included in the quote. Afterwards, Atlas, Outseen’s own research engine, can check fetched pages for HTTP responses, canonicals and what the target page actually returns, and indexing instructions in code and headers. After a correction, a recheck follows. Atlas examines the public code of the fetched pages, not the whole website, and says nothing about rankings. More is on website development.
What does this mean for your business?
If you are planning a new website, ask before the quote who will make the list of old URLs and who will set up and test the redirects. That work is easy to overlook because it does not show in the design, yet it decides whether visitors and Google can find your pages again. Start the baseline as soon as the project begins, not just before launch.
Expect fluctuations in the weeks after the move; Google itself calls that normal. During that period, keep your baseline next to the new figures, and work out page by page what is going wrong if an important page has still not returned after a few weeks.