Website migration SEO: keep your rankings

To keep your rankings through a website migration, keep addresses the same wherever you can, redirect every page that moves straight to its closest new page, and carry each page’s titles and structured data across. If the domain changes, tell Google with Search Console’s Change of Address tool. Skip changed its name and domain this way, and its rankings held.

A migration is any change that moves pages to new addresses or a new site: a new platform, a redesign that changes the structure, or a rebrand to a new domain. Done carefully, search engines follow the redirects and pass the old pages’ standing to the new ones. Done carelessly, years of rankings can disappear overnight.

What kind of migration is it?

Migration	What changes	Main risk
New platform, same addresses	The system behind the pages	Losing titles, descriptions and structured data on the way
Redesign with a new structure	Page addresses and internal links	Pages that move without a redirect, or redirect to the wrong place
Rebrand to a new domain	Every address, plus the domain itself	All of the above, across the whole site at once
Merging sites	Two sets of addresses into one	Duplicate pages competing, and redirects pointing at the wrong one

The more that changes at once, the more there is to plan. A rebrand is the riskiest, because every address changes even when nothing else does.

How Skip rebranded without losing rankings

Skip is an Australian home lender that used to be called Sucasa. When it rebranded in 2026, the new site had to look entirely like Skip while keeping what Sucasa had earned, including its search traffic. Here’s what protected it:

• The same structure. The new site kept the old one’s pages and journeys, so each old page had an obvious new home.
• The same addresses for content. All 47 articles and resources came across into the new design at the same paths, so only the domain changed.
• Page-for-page redirects. The old Sucasa domain redirects every page to the same place on skiploans.com.au, rather than sending everything to the home page.
• A new site built alongside the old one, so the brand could launch on its own schedule.

Skip has since confirmed that its rankings held through the move. The full story is in the Skip case study.

The new Skip site. Behind the new brand, every old Sucasa page redirects to its match.

The website migration SEO checklist

Before launch

1. List every page on the old site. Use the sitemap, Search Console, analytics and the CMS, so nothing with traffic or links is missed.
2. Keep addresses wherever you can. An address that doesn’t change needs no redirect and loses nothing.
3. Map every address that moves to its closest new page. Google warns against sending many old pages to one unrelated page, such as the home page (Google).
4. Use permanent redirects, in one hop. Google recommends 301 or 308 redirects straight to the final page, with no chains (Google).
5. Carry the search details across: titles, descriptions, headings, structured data, canonicals and image alt text.
6. Update internal links to the new addresses, so the site doesn’t rely on its own redirects.
7. Keep the staging copy out of search, so it can’t compete with the real site.

On launch day

8. Put redirects live before the switch, so no old address ever returns an error.
9. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
10. For a new domain, use Change of Address in Search Console, once the old home page and key pages redirect. You need to own both properties, and it applies for 180 days (Google).
11. Spot-check redirects from your map, especially the pages with the most traffic.

After launch

12. Watch Search Console for pages that aren’t found and for drops on key pages, and fix them while the move is fresh (the first week after launch).
13. Keep the redirects for at least a year. Google says to keep them as long as possible, generally at least a year (Google).

How many redirects will you need?

It depends on how much the old addresses change, not on the size of the new site. Across our builds:

Project	What moved	Redirects
Altus	WordPress to Webflow, addresses barely changed	A handful
Fresh Clinics	HubSpot CMS to Webflow, with 150+ articles	324
Smokeball	Australian and UK sites to new builds	645, with no redirect chains
Skip	A new name and domain	Every page, one for one

More of these numbers are in our Webflow project benchmarks. For a platform move in detail, see our WordPress to Webflow migration plan.

What to expect after the move

Some movement is normal. Google says to expect temporary fluctuation in rankings during a move, and for a medium-sized site it can take a few weeks or more for the new addresses to replace the old ones in results (Google). What isn’t normal is a lasting drop on pages that used to rank. That usually points to a missing or wrong redirect, or a page that lost its content or titles on the way.

A week after Altus launched, its marketing manager wrote that there were no SEO rankings “dropping off a cliff”: the result a careful map is meant to produce.

Common mistakes

• Redirecting everything to the home page. Search engines can treat that as a page that’s gone, and the ranking goes with it.
• Redirect chains, where an old address hops through several others. Each hop is slower and riskier; point straight to the final page.
• Changing everything at once. A new domain, new addresses and rewritten content together make it hard to tell what caused a drop. Keep what you can the same.
• Leaving staging indexable, so a copy of the new site competes with the real one.
• Removing redirects too early. Old links and bookmarks keep arriving for years.

Questions we get asked

How do you migrate a website without losing SEO?

Keep addresses the same where you can, map every page that moves to its closest new page, and use permanent redirects in one hop. Carry titles, descriptions and structured data across, submit the new sitemap, and watch Search Console closely for the first weeks after launch.

What is SEO migration?

An SEO migration is a website change that can affect search rankings, such as moving to a new platform, changing page addresses or switching domains. The SEO work is making sure search engines can follow every old page to its new one, so the rankings move with them.

Does changing your domain name affect SEO?

It can, but it doesn’t have to. With page-for-page redirects and Google’s Change of Address tool, search engines move the old domain’s standing to the new one. Skip changed its name and domain this way, and its rankings held. Expect some short-term movement while Google catches up.

How long should you keep redirects after a migration?

At least a year, and longer if old addresses still get visits. Google recommends keeping redirects for as long as possible, and the Change of Address tool applies for 180 days. Links and bookmarks to old pages keep arriving long after launch.

If you’re planning a migration or a rebrand, see our SEO and AI search services, or tell us about your site.

This guide is part of Webflow for marketing teams, which brings together everything we’ve written on choosing, building and running a Webflow site.

Sources

• Google Search Central, Site moves with URL changes
• Google Search Console Help, Change of Address tool
• Skip case study
• Webflow project benchmarks