Changing your domain or page URLs without losing Google traffic

When the addresses of your pages change, Google has to learn that each old URL now lives somewhere else. The tool for that is a permanent redirect from every old URL to its closest new equivalent. If the redirects are complete and point to the right pages, Google can carry each page's place in results over to its new address, though it takes weeks rather than days. If old URLs return "page not found" or all land on the home page, the traffic they earned has nowhere to go.

This applies whenever URLs change: a new domain name, a move from Wix or WordPress to Shopify that changes paths like /services/boiler-repair into /collections/boiler-repair, or a new permalink structure on the same site. If you are only changing hosts and every URL stays the same, the hosting move guide covers that instead; there is nothing to redirect.

Build the redirect map before you switch

Google's site move guide starts with mapping old URLs to new ones. Do it in a spreadsheet, while the old site still works.

Where to get the list of old URLs:

• your current sitemap (often /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml);
• Search Console, Performance report, Pages tab, exported for the last 16 months: these are the URLs that actually got clicks from Google;
• Search Console, Links report, Top linked pages: URLs other sites link to;
• your analytics, landing pages report.

Combine them and remove duplicates. A 40-page service site might end up with 60 URLs once old blog posts and PDF links turn up; a store can have thousands of product URLs.

The map itself needs five columns:

The numbers are made up; your export fills them in. Sort by clicks so the URLs that bring business are mapped first and checked first.

Rules for the "New URL" column, from Google's guide:

• One to one where you can. Each old page goes to the new page with the same content.
• Closest match where the page no longer exists. A discontinued product can go to its category. Google warns against sending many old URLs to one irrelevant destination such as the new home page; it can confuse users and might be treated as a soft 404.
• Straight to the final address. If /old used to redirect to /older, point both directly at the new URL. Google advises redirecting to the final destination without chains.

Set up permanent redirects

Google recommends server-side permanent redirects, status 301 or 308. Its redirects page explains that a permanent redirect tells Google the new URL should be the one shown in results, while a temporary redirect (302) doesn't.

How you add them depends on the platform. Shopify has a URL redirects section with CSV import; its help page notes a redirect won't work if the old URL still loads a valid page. On WordPress, a redirect plugin or rules in .htaccess do the job. For a domain change, the old domain needs a rule that sends every path to the same path on the new domain, plus individual rules for any paths that changed.

Then update what you control on the new site: internal links, canonical tags and the sitemap should all use the new URLs. Google's guide lists each of these.

Tell Search Console, if the domain changed

For a move from one domain to another (oldname.co.uk to newname.com), Search Console has a Change of Address tool. Before using it:

1. Verify both the old and the new site in Search Console with the same Google account, as an owner.
2. Make sure the old home page redirects to the new home page with a 301.
3. Verify the variants of the old domain too, such as www and non-www; Google says the tool does not move subdomains below the one you specify.

Run the tool from the old property. Google says the move notice stays in Search Console for 180 days, and that you should keep the redirects for at least 180 days, longer if Google still sends traffic to the old URLs.

The tool is only for domain changes. Google says not to use it for a switch from http to https, between www and non-www, or for URL changes within the same site. For those, redirects and an updated sitemap are the whole job.

What to check in the first weeks

The day you switch:

• Open twenty of your top old URLs from the map in a browser. Each should land on the right new page, in one hop, with no error.
• Run a few through a redirect checker or your browser's developer tools to confirm the status is 301 or 308, not 302.
• Submit the new sitemap in Search Console under the new property.
• Inspect the new home page and two or three key pages with URL Inspection.

Over the following weeks:

• Page indexing report, new property: new URLs should move from "Discovered" or "Crawled" into indexed.
• Page indexing report, old property: old URLs should appear as "Page with redirect". Old URLs listed as "Not found (404)" are gaps in your map; add a redirect for each one that had clicks or links.
• Performance report, both properties: clicks should fall on the old one and rise on the new one. Compare by page, using the map, not only site totals.

Google says to expect ranking to fluctuate while it recrawls, and that for a medium-sized site it can take a few weeks or more before the new URLs show widely. A dip in the first weeks is expected. A dip concentrated on certain pages points first at their redirects; a site-wide dip after the expected window is a reason to read the guide on traffic drops.

Keep the old domain

Keep the old domain registered and the redirects running. Google's site move guide says to keep redirects as long as possible, generally at least a year. Its Change of Address page suggests keeping the old domain for at least a year too. If the domain lapses, every old link and bookmark breaks, and someone else can register it.

Don't change everything at once

Google's Change of Address page says a move combined with a redesign of content or URL structure will probably cause some traffic loss. If you can, change one thing at a time: move the domain with the same paths first, let it settle, then restructure. Each step is then easier to check against the map.

Where a crawler helps

For a 30-page site, clicking through the map is enough. For hundreds of URLs, a crawler checks the whole list faster. Semrush's Site Audit flags "Redirect chains and loops", "Broken internal links", "Pages returning 4XX status code" and "Incorrect pages found in sitemap.xml" (sitemap URLs that redirect or don't return 200), according to its issues list. It crawls your site with its own bot, so it shows what your redirects do, not what Google has indexed; Search Console stays the source for that. Without an SEO Toolkit subscription it covers 100 pages a month, per Semrush's Site Audit documentation, which won't cover a full store migration.