Site Migration: Moving to a New Domain Without Losing SEO

What is Site Migration?

Site migration is the process of moving your website to a new domain (or major URL structure) while keeping as much search visibility, traffic, and link equity as possible.

Common reasons to migrate include rebranding, consolidating multiple sites, or moving to a stronger domain. When done correctly with 301 redirects and the right follow-up, most of your rankings and backlink value can transfer to the new domain.

Why Migrate to a New Domain?

Typical reasons to move to a new domain:

• Rebrand: New company or product name requires a new domain.
• Consolidation: Merging several sites or moving subdomains onto one main domain.
• Stronger domain: Moving to an aged or higher-DR domain (e.g. after buying an expired domain) and redirecting the old site to it.
• Technical or legal: Escaping penalties, changing TLD, or resolving trademark issues.

301 Redirects: The Foundation

301 redirects tell search engines and users that a URL has permanently moved. They pass most of the link equity to the new URL. For every important page on the old domain, set a 301 to the correct page on the new domain (one-to-one where possible).

Best practices:

1. One-to-one mapping: Old URL → one new URL. Avoid redirecting many old URLs to the homepage.
2. Keep redirects permanent: Do not remove 301s after a few months; leave them in place long-term.
3. Redirect chain: Avoid A → B → C; redirect directly from old to final URL.
4. HTTPS and canonical: Use HTTPS on the new domain and set canonical URLs to the new location.

Step-by-Step Migration Process

A practical order of operations:

1. Prepare the new site: Build or move content to the new domain. Match or improve URL structure so you can map old → new cleanly.
2. Set up 301 redirects: From every old URL to the corresponding new URL. Use your server config (Apache/Nginx) or your CMS.
3. Update internal links: Point all internal links to the new domain so new crawls see the new URLs.
4. Sitemaps and robots: Publish a sitemap for the new domain and update robots.txt. Remove or update old sitemaps.
5. Google Search Console: Add the new property, submit the new sitemap, and use the Change of Address tool if you're moving from an existing GSC property.
6. Monitor: Watch indexing, rankings, and traffic. Re-submit important URLs if needed; fix redirect errors or broken links.

Timing and What to Expect

Migrations take time. Search engines need to discover the new URLs, follow redirects, and re-evaluate rankings. Expect:

• Indexing: New URLs can take days to weeks to be fully indexed.
• Rankings: May fluctuate for several weeks; often stabilize within 1–3 months if redirects and signals are correct.
• Avoid double changes: Don’t migrate and do a major redesign or URL restructure at the same time; do one big change, let it settle, then the next if needed.