Module 8 · 8.3

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Moving or redesigning your site without losing your visibility

Module 8: Measuring, pitfalls and maintenance · Reading time: 12 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you can launch a new site, new addresses or a new domain name using a list of old and new addresses, permanent redirects per page, the Change of Address tool in Search Console and a check after the switch.

Key concepts: site migration, address list (old to new), 301 and 308 (permanent), 302 and 307 (temporary), redirecting per page, redirect chain, soft 404, Change of Address tool, sitemap of the new address, updating internal links, temporary fluctuations, how long to keep redirects

When is it a move?

For a search engine, any change of addresses is a move, even if you stay with the same hosting company:

Situation	Do addresses change?	What you need
New hosting company, same domain and addresses	No	Switch DNS correctly (DNS course 6.3); for Google almost nothing changes
New design or new system (for example from an old website builder to WordPress or the AI Builder)	Often yes: `/index.php?id=12` becomes `/bruidsboeketten/`	Address list and redirects per page
From http to https, or from without to with www	Yes, the scheme or the host	Redirects (lesson 4.1)
New domain name (`example.net` becomes `example.com`)	Yes, everything	Address list, redirects, Change of Address tool

If you forget the old addresses when you redesign, you lose the value your old pages have built up over the years: links from other sites, your customers' bookmarks and your place in the results. Visitors who arrive through an old link see an error page.

Step 1: the address list

The heart of every move is a list showing the new address for each old address. Google calls this the most important part. You can find old addresses in:

your current sitemap (lesson 3.4);
Search Console, Performance report, Pages tab: the pages that get clicks (lesson 2.3);
your analytics tool or server statistics (lesson 8.1);
your CMS or website builder;
links from other sites to yours (in Search Console under Links).

Don't forget images and PDFs either, if people find them. Put the list in a spreadsheet:

old address                                   new address
https://www.example.net/                      https://www.example.com/
https://www.example.net/index.php?id=12       https://www.example.com/bruidsboeketten/
https://www.example.net/rouwwerk.html         https://www.example.com/rouwbloemen/
https://www.example.net/agenda-2019.html      (no successor: 410 or a suitable overview page)

Don't redirect a page without a successor to the homepage. Google advises against it: lots of old addresses pointing to one page that isn't about the same thing confuses visitors and can be treated as a soft 404 (a "page doesn't exist" in disguise). Redirecting several old pages to one new page that genuinely covers the same topic is fine.

Step 2: permanent redirects, per page

Every old address gets a permanent redirect on the server to its new address:

301 or 308: "this page has moved for good". Google uses this as a strong signal that the new address is the correct (canonical) address.
302, 303 or 307: "temporarily somewhere else". Google then doesn't treat the new address as the replacement; the old address may stay in the results.

Google treats an instant meta refresh (no delay) as permanent and a delayed one as temporary. Redirecting with JavaScript is a last resort: if Google can't render the page properly, it may never see the redirect.

Redirect to the final address in one step. http://example.net/rouwwerk.html to https://example.net/rouwwerk.html to https://www.example.com/rouwwerk.html to https://www.example.com/rouwbloemen/ is a chain of three steps; make it one.

How long do you keep them?

Google says: as long as possible, and generally at least a year. Keeping redirects forever is fine. So keep your old domain name registered too: if it expires, someone else can buy it and take over your old links (lesson 8.2, expired domain abuse). For the Change of Address tool, Google mentions at least 180 days, and longer as long as visitors from Google still arrive at the old addresses.

Step 3: for a new domain name, the Change of Address tool

If you move to a different domain name (or a different subdomain), use the Change of Address tool in Search Console. It tells Google to give the new domain priority for crawling and indexing, and passes the signals of the old domain on to the new one. The conditions:

You are an owner of both the old and the new domain in Search Console, with the same Google account (lesson 2.1).
The homepage, and preferably the most important pages, of the old domain redirect to the new domain with a 301.
The tool works at domain level. Submit it for every variant of the old domain you have (with and without www).

The signal lasts 180 days. You do not need the tool to move from http to https, from without to with www on the same domain, or for different paths within the same domain: redirects are enough there. Bing Webmaster Tools has a similar feature (Site Move).

Step 4: update everything else

Sitemap: submit the sitemap of the new address in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Keep the list of old addresses to hand for checking; warnings that old addresses redirect are normal at this stage.
Internal links: update links in menus, text and buttons to the new addresses. An internal link through a redirect works, but makes every click slower.
Canonical and hreflang (lessons 3.5 and 3.6): must point to the new addresses, not the old ones.
External listings: your business profile (lesson 6.2), Apple Business (formerly Apple Business Connect), social media, trade directories. Ask sites that link to you often to update their link.
Measurement: your analytics tool and Search Console on the new address.

Step 5: checking after the switch

Go through your address list straight after the switch. Every old address must go to the correct new address in one step with a 301 or 308, and that new address must return 200. Also check a made-up path on the old domain: if https://www.example.net/bestaat-niet/ goes to https://www.example.com/bestaat-niet/ (after which the new site returns a clean 404), the server is passing paths on correctly. Exercise A8.3 does exactly that check.

After that, keep an eye on Search Console for a few weeks: the Page indexing report (lesson 2.4) and the performance of the old and the new domain. Google warns that rankings fluctuate temporarily during a move; for a medium-sized site it can take weeks before everything is processed. Ideally, traffic to the old site goes down while traffic to the new one goes up.

In practice: redirecting in the control panel

At WebOké you redirect a domain or a single page with Site Redirects in DirectAdmin (choose 301), or, for a domain without hosting, under Redirects in My WebOké. A WordPress site often handles redirects per page with a plugin; the AI Builder creates new addresses for new pages, so keep a list there too when you replace your old site. Other providers work in a similar way: in the hosting control panel, in a .htaccess file or in the website builder's settings. Always test afterwards whether the path is passed on.

Summary

For search engines, any change of addresses is a move, including a new design.
Make an old-to-new list and redirect each page to its successor in one step with a 301 or 308. Don't send everything to the homepage.
Keep redirects as long as possible, at least a year, and keep your old domain registered.
For a new domain name: the Change of Address tool in Search Console, owner of both domains, signal lasts 180 days.
Update your sitemap, internal links, canonical, hreflang and listings, and check after the switch. Temporary fluctuations are normal.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise A8.3: Does your old address redirect properly? Enter your old address (a domain or a full old address) and your new domain. The program requests the old address and a made-up test path, step by step, and checks whether they go to the same path on the new domain with a permanent redirect. Haven't moved your site? Try a domain you know redirects, or the http:// address of your own site.

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