Website Migration SEO Checklist: Keep Your Google Rankings

By Neha·Published October 19, 2026

A new website is exciting right up to the moment the enquiries stop. It happens often: a business moves from Wix to WordPress, or from an old .com to a shiny .in, the new site looks far better, and three weeks later the phone is quiet because every page Google knew about now leads nowhere.

The fix is not complicated, but it has to be done in the right order. This website migration SEO checklist walks through it step by step, in plain words.

Short answer: Before you move, list every old page address and map each one to its closest new page. On launch day, add permanent 301 redirects from every old address to its new one, check them all in bulk, submit your new sitemap and, if the domain changed, use Search Console's Change of address tool. Then watch Search Console for errors for at least two months and keep the redirects for good.

What counts as a website migration?

Any change that alters the addresses of your pages is a migration in Google's eyes. A new design on the same addresses is not.

Google publishes a full guide to site moves with URL changes, which this checklist follows. If only the hosting changes and every address stays the same, the risk is much lower. Google's separate guide for moves without URL changes mostly comes down to testing the new server before you switch over.

Step 1: list every old address before you change anything

You cannot redirect a page you have forgotten about. Before the old site goes away, collect every address it has, from several places:

1. The old sitemap. Most platforms create one at /sitemap.xml. The sitemap checker finds it, counts the pages and reads child sitemaps too. Save a copy of the file.
2. Search Console. The Performance report lists the pages that actually get clicks from Google. Export it. These are the pages you cannot afford to lose.
3. Analytics. Your most visited pages over the last year.
4. Your platform. Product lists, blog post lists and any PDFs or brochures people link to.

Put everything into one spreadsheet column, remove duplicates, and keep the file safe. This list is the backbone of the whole move. Our Search Console guide shows where each report lives if you have not used it before.

Step 2: map each old address to its new one

Next to every old address, write the new address that best matches it. One old page, one new page, chosen by what the visitor was looking for.

Say a saree boutique in Jaipur is moving from Wix to WordPress. Wix and WordPress usually build addresses differently, so almost every address changes. The mapping might look like this:

Rules for the mapping:

• Match like with like. A product goes to the same product, a category to the same category.
• Only use the home page when nothing on the new site comes close.
• If a page was removed on purpose and has no replacement, let it show a "not found" (404) page. Google says this is the right answer for content you have deliberately dropped.
• Keep the new addresses short and readable. Our guide to SEO-friendly URLs explains how.

Step 3: add 301 redirects on launch day

A 301 redirect is an instruction that says "this page has moved permanently, go here instead". Browsers follow it automatically, and Google moves the old page's standing to the new address.

Paste your two columns into the redirect generator. It turns them into ready-made rules for Apache (cPanel hosting), Nginx, Cloudflare or Next.js, and warns you about loops and chains before anything goes live. WordPress sites can also use a redirect plugin, and Wix and Shopify have their own redirect settings.

Where the redirects live matters:

• Same domain, new platform: the redirects go on the new site, because that is where visitors arrive.
• New domain: the redirects go on the old domain, sending each page to its match on the new one. That means you must keep renewing the old domain. If it expires, every redirect dies with it, and someone else can buy it.

Google advises keeping redirects for as long as possible, and generally for at least a year. In practice, keep them for good. Old links on other websites, in WhatsApp chats and in bookmarks keep being clicked for years.

Step 4: check every old address in bulk

Do not trust the redirects until you have tested them. Opening a few by hand is not enough on a site with a hundred pages.

The bulk URL checker takes your list of old addresses, follows each one's redirects and shows the status code, the number of hops and the final page. As of October 2026 it checks 25 addresses per run and 50 a day on the free plan, so a large site may need a few days or a paid plan. Download the results, fix the problems and run the list again.

Also run your home page through the redirect chain checker. It tests the www, non-www, http and https versions together and shows whether all four reach the same address.

Step 5: tell Google about a new domain

If your domain changed, use the Change of address tool in Google Search Console. It is only for domain or subdomain changes. Google says not to use it for a move from http to https.

As of October 2026, Google's Change of address help page sets these conditions:

1. Your old home page must already 301-redirect to the new home page.
2. You must be a verified owner of both the old and new sites in Search Console, using the same Google account.
3. Both must be properties for the whole domain, not for one folder.
4. Open the old site's property, go to Settings and choose Change of address, then pick the new site.
5. The tool runs checks first. Fix any critical failure it reports before it will continue.

Run it for every version of the old domain you have used, such as both www and non-www, because the tool does not move subdomains for you. Google forwards signals to the new site for 180 days. Keep the redirects well beyond that.

Step 6: submit the new sitemap

Give Google a list of your new addresses so it finds them faster. In Search Console, open Sitemaps under the new site and submit its sitemap address.

Google also suggests submitting the old sitemap for a while during the move, so you can watch old addresses drop out as the new ones get indexed. Expect redirect warnings on that old sitemap. They are normal. Remove it once Google is using the new one.

Before you submit, run the new sitemap through the sitemap checker. It should list only final, working addresses on the new domain, with no old addresses, redirects or http links. Our XML sitemap guide explains what belongs in one. One more launch-day check: make sure the new site is not still blocking Google from a staging setting or a leftover robots.txt line.

What should you watch in the weeks after the move?

Some ups and downs in traffic are normal. Google's guide says it can take a few weeks or more for a medium-sized site's new addresses to replace the old ones in results, and longer for big sites.

The Google index checker can confirm, through your own Search Console connection, whether Google has saved your most important new pages, with a plain reason for any it has left out. Also update every place your address appears: your Google Business Profile, social media bios, WhatsApp Business profile, email signatures and any ads. Our guide to fixing broken links and redirects covers the internal links that still point at old addresses.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take for rankings to recover after a migration?

For a small or medium site with every redirect in place, Google says most addresses usually move over within a few weeks, and rankings settle over time. Bigger sites take longer. If traffic is still well down after two to three months, look for missing redirects, pages that were dropped in the new design, or a block on crawling left over from the staging site.

Will I lose my rankings if I move from Wix to WordPress?

Not if you redirect every old address to its matching new page and keep the content that was ranking. Rankings drop when pages vanish, redirects point to the home page, or the new pages say much less than the old ones. Keep your titles, descriptions and main page text close to what worked during the move, and improve them afterwards.

Do I need the Change of address tool for http to https?

No. Google's help page says the tool is not for moving from http to https, or for adding or removing www on the same domain. For those moves, a permanent 301 redirect from every old version to the new one is enough. Update your sitemap and internal links to the new version, then check the redirects with a redirect checker.

How long should I keep the old domain after moving?

Keep renewing it for good if you can, or for several years at the very least. The old domain is where your redirects live, so if it expires, every old link and bookmark breaks at once. Someone else could also register it and use your old reputation. A domain renewal costs far less than the business you would lose.

Should I move domain and redesign at the same time?

It is safer to do them separately, a few weeks apart. If you change everything at once and traffic drops, you cannot tell whether the cause is the redirects, the new design or the new content. If you must do both together, be extra careful with the address mapping and check every old address in bulk on launch day.