Keeping your Google traffic when you move to a new website

To protect the visits your current website gets from Google when you move to a new one, do four things: keep the same domain if you can, write down every page address the old site has, make each old address forward to the matching new page, and keep the words that earned those visits on the new pages. Then tell Google about the new site and watch for gaps in the weeks after. Nobody can promise Google will treat the new site exactly as it treated the old one, but these steps protect what the old site earned.

Why moving can cost you visits

Google does not rank "your business". It shows individual pages, at specific addresses, for specific searches. When you move to a new website, three things can quietly break that:

Addresses change. The page Google knew at /water-heater-repair.html is now at /services/water-heaters. If nothing connects the two, Google sees one page disappear and a stranger appear.
Words change. A new design often comes with shorter text. If the page that appeared for "tankless water heater install" no longer mentions tankless water heaters, Google has less reason to show it for that search.
Settings change. Page titles, descriptions and image descriptions, which sit in settings rather than on the page, are easy to leave behind.

The checklist below deals with each, in the order you will meet them.

Before the move: take stock

This is the part that matters most, and the part most often skipped. Do it while the old site is still live.

1. Find out which pages bring visits

If you have Google Search Console, open Performance, choose the Pages tab and set the date range to the last twelve months. That list shows which pages Google sent people to, most visited first. Export it or copy the top twenty.

If you have no Search Console, ask whoever looks after the site whether there is any visitor reporting. Failing that, a site: search on Google (site:yourdomain.com) at least shows which pages Google has.

2. List every page address

You need the full list, not only the popular ones:

Your site's sitemap, usually at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, lists most pages.
The menu and the footer.
The site: search results.
Old addresses you know about from print ads, business cards or QR codes.
Blog posts and gallery pages, which are easy to forget.

Put them in a spreadsheet, one per row.

3. Save the hidden details

For each important page, copy into the spreadsheet:

The page title and meta description.
The main heading.
Any text that explains a service in detail.

What to save before you replace your old website covers the full list, including photos, forms and email.

4. Decide where each old page goes

Next to each old address, write the new address it should lead to. Most pages map one to one: old services page to new services page. Pages you are dropping should point to the closest relevant page, not all to the home page.

While building: keep what works

Keep the same domain. A new website on the same domain keeps a long history with Google. Changing the domain at the same time adds a second, bigger move; changing your domain name without losing Google covers that separately, if you must.
Keep the content of the pages that earn visits. You can make them clearer and better laid out, but keep the substance and the words customers search.
Keep or improve the page titles of your top pages. Change them later if you want, once the move has settled.
Do not merge many service pages into one unless they were genuinely thin. A page that appeared for a specific service should usually stay a page.
Check the new site works well on phones, since Google mainly looks at the phone version of a site.

Launch day: switch carefully

Make sure the new site is open to Google. Builders often hide sites from search while they are being built. Check that the setting is off.
Turn on the forwarding for every old address on your list, as permanent (301) redirects.
Test a sample of old addresses by typing them into a browser. Each one should land on the right new page.
Check the Google Business Profile's website link still lands on the right page.
Check your email still works. Changing a website can disturb email if the domain settings are edited carelessly; keeping your email working during a website change explains the risk.

The website launch day checklist has the rest of the launch steps.

After the move: watch and fix

Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
Inspect the home page and your top service pages with the URL Inspection tool, and request indexing.
Watch the Pages report for a rise in "Not found (404)". Each one is an old address that is not forwarding. Add the missing redirect.
Compare visits month to month, not day to day. A small wobble in the first weeks is common while Google revisits everything.
Keep the redirects in place for good. Old addresses live on in bookmarks, other sites and printed material for years.

What to do in the first month after a new website launches has a week-by-week version of this.

What not to do

Launch the new site and switch off the old one without any forwarding.
Point every old address at the home page.
Throw away long service pages because "nobody reads text".
Change the domain, the page addresses and all the text in the same week.
Panic and redesign again after two weeks.

If you are working with someone

Whoever builds your new site should be able to answer three questions before you agree to the switch: will every old page address forward to a matching new page, can I see the list, and will the new site be open to Google at launch? If the answers are vague, the work above is probably not in the plan.

SiteSmith builds the new site so that old page addresses keep working after the switch, and you can check that against your own list before going live.

What to do this week

Set up Search Console if you do not have it, so you have a record of your current visits.
Export your top pages and list every page address.
Copy the titles and descriptions of your top ten pages.
Write down where each old page should go on the new site.

With that spreadsheet in hand, any move is safer. If you want to see the new site before deciding anything, you can see your site rebuilt first and compare the pages one by one.