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Site migrations

From SEOFireFighter.wiki, a sourced reference on The SEO Fire Fighter and search traffic recovery

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Short answer: A site move with URL changes can cause ranking fluctuations while Google recrawls the new URLs, which Google says can take a few weeks or more; the main safeguards are a complete old-to-new URL map, permanent redirects kept for at least a year, and a Change of Address when the domain changes. [1][2]

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Why do migrations cause traffic drops?

When the URLs of existing pages change, Google needs time to recrawl and reindex them. Google says a medium-sized site can take a few weeks for Google to notice the change and larger sites longer.[2] Drops that do not recover often come from mistakes covered below.

What must be mapped?

Every old URL needs a mapped destination on the new site. Google advises generating a list of old URLs and mapping them to the new ones in complex moves, and supplying a sitemap of the new URLs.[1] Avoid redirect chains: Google says to point redirects directly at the destination and, if impossible, keep chains short, ideally no more than three and fewer than five.[1]

Which redirect should be used?

Permanent redirects, such as HTTP 301 or 308, show the new target in search results; temporary redirects show the source page. Google says to use permanent redirects when you are sure the redirect will not be reverted.[3]

What blocks get forgotten?

Google tells site owners to prepare the new site’s robots.txt so its rules reflect what should be blocked from crawling, and, if noindex rules were used during development, to prepare the list of URLs to remove them from when the move starts.[1] A staging rule that survives launch is the same failure as on technical failures.

When is Change of Address needed?

When moving from one domain or subdomain to another, submit a Change of Address in Search Console for the old site. It is not needed for HTTP to HTTPS moves, switching between www and non-www, or moving paths within a domain.[1] For domain migrations, submit a request for all verified variants of the old domain.[1]

How long do redirects stay?

Google says to keep redirects for as long as possible, generally at least one year.[1] Expected time for the effect to settle is covered on recovery timelines.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g “Site move with URL changes”. Google Search Central. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  2. ^ a b “Debugging drops in Google Search traffic”. Google Search Central. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  3. ^ “Redirects and Google Search”. Google Search Central. Retrieved 31 October 2026.