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Detail A7 — Migration

Change your website without losing your rankings.

A redesign, a new platform or a new domain changes the addresses of your pages. If nobody plans for that, the rankings those pages earned can drop sharply. We map every page, redirect it properly and watch the results closely after launch.

Price
On request
Billing
One-off project
quoted separately from the SEO retainer
Plan your moveSEO, AEO & GEO
Fig. A7.1 — Moving a siteNot to scale
Old siteEvery address and its traffic
Redirect mapP1Old address → new address
New siteSame pages, new addresses
Migration pathWhere rankings are kept or lost
Notes — What goes wrong

Why websites lose traffic when they move.

  1. 01Old page addresses stop working, so visitors and Google land on error pages.
  2. 02Pages that ranked well get dropped or merged without anyone checking what they ranked for.
  3. 03Page titles, descriptions and structured data don't make it across.
  4. 04The new site goes live with a setting still on that tells Google not to index it.
Table A7.2 — Launch checks

Checked on launch day.

Old addresses redirected
Every one
Chains of redirects
None
New pages open to Google
Yes
Sitemap submitted
Same day
Analytics recording
Before and after
Table A7 — Migration plan

Four stages, starting before the new site is built.

Bring us in as early as you can. Protecting your rankings is cheapest before the new site's structure is fixed.

  1. R0Before design

    Benchmark

    We record every page on your current site: what it ranks for, the traffic it gets and the sites linking to it.

  2. R1During the build

    Map

    Every old address gets a new one. We check the new site keeps the pages and content that bring in traffic.

  3. R2Launch

    Test and switch

    We test redirects, indexing and analytics on the new site before it goes live, and again on the day.

  4. R3After launch

    Monitor

    We watch rankings, traffic and errors closely in the weeks after launch, and fix problems as they show up.

General notes — FAQ

Questions about migrations.

When should we involve you?

Ideally before the new site is designed. That's when the page structure is decided, and the structure decides what can be carried across. We can still help close to launch, but there's less we can change.

Is a migration part of the SEO retainer?

No. It's a one-off project with its own quote, because the work depends on the size of your site and how much is changing. If you're already on the retainer, we'll fit the two together.

Will we lose any traffic?

Some movement in the first few weeks is normal, even after a careful move. A well-planned migration usually settles; an unplanned one can lose traffic for months. We can't promise nothing will change, but we can prevent the losses that are avoidable.

Can you build the new site too?

Yes. Our web design team builds sites with the migration planned in from the start. We also work alongside other developers.

We're moving our online shop. Is it the same?

Much the same, with extra work for products, customers and orders. Our shop migration service covers both sides.

Fig. A7.3 — Next step

Planning a new website?

Tell us what's changing and when. We'll tell you what needs protecting and what the migration involves.

Talk to us about your move[email protected]