Move your website without losing your rankings
A new site done badly leaves you where you started. A move done badly takes away visitors you already had. So we move sites by a checklist, measure before and after, and you keep the visitors you have instead of losing them.
The short version
A move is the one website job where you can lose what you already have. So it is done from a list, not by feel.
- We export every old address from three sources: your sitemap, Google Search Console and a crawl of the site. Each one misses something the others catch
- Every old address gets a permanent 301 redirect to its matching new page. Nothing gets dumped on the home page
- Before anything changes, we take a “before” snapshot: clicks, rankings and top pages. Without it, nobody can show that nothing was lost
- After launch we watch Search Console for 4 to 8 weeks. Google says rankings can move around while it recrawls a moved site and settle over time. Anything that hasn't come back by week 8 is a problem, and we fix it
Six mistakes that lose traffic
When traffic drops after a move and doesn't come back, the cause is usually one of these. None of them is hard. Each one is a skipped step.
- Old addresses taken only from the sitemap. Sitemaps are often incomplete, and Search Console knows pages that were never in it. Missed addresses turn into 404 errors and lost visitors
- Everything redirected to the home page. The fastest way and the worst result. Google's site move guide warns that sending many old addresses to one unrelated page, like the home page, can be treated as a soft 404
- Redirect chains. Old address to an in-between one, then to the new one. Google advises redirecting straight to the final page, so we make it one hop
- A leftover Disallow from the test site. One line in robots.txt can keep Google out of the whole site. We check it on launch day, not a month later
- Text “trimmed for the design”. The text is what ranked. Cut it in half and you cut what the page can be found for
- Watching stopped after a week. Google says it can take a few weeks for a medium-sized site to start showing the new addresses instead of the old ones, so problems often show up after the first week
What gets moved, and what keeps working
All of the text, the headings, the meta descriptions, the images with their alt text, the internal links and the structured data. On pages that already rank, we keep the wording of the headings. Before the move we also check which inner pages other websites link to, because those addresses must keep working. They do: the redirect sends visitors to the matching new page, and Google passes the old page's signals to the new address. Google recommends keeping redirects for at least a year.
From WordPress or anything else, with or without logins
WordPress is the most common case. We also move sites from other systems and hand-coded sites. What matters is not the system but that the pages can be reached on the web, so logins to the old system are usually not needed. We can read the content from the public pages and collect the old addresses from the sitemap, Search Console and a crawl. What we do need is access to your domain, so it can point to the new site on launch day. If nobody knows who has it, we help you get it back. Here is who should own your domain, and why it matters.
Price and timing
The new site is built like any other: a fixed price agreed on the call before any work starts, a free first version in 2 days, and launch usually within 1 to 2 weeks. An ordinary site of 5 to 10 pages fits into a normal new-site project. An archive of hundreds of articles is a separate job, priced by its size, and moving the content adds time. We automate the repetitive part of moving a big archive, which keeps that job realistic. The 4 to 8 weeks of watching after launch are part of the job, not an extra. If you are still deciding whether to replace your site at all, start with fix or rebuild or the free website checker.
How it works
- Before we touch anything: an inventory and a “before” snapshot. Every old address from the sitemap, Search Console and a crawl, plus clicks, impressions, top searches and top pages for the last 3 months.
- A redirect map. Each old address gets one new match, in a spreadsheet, not from memory: 301 redirects, no chains, nothing dumped on the home page, with the www and non-www and the http and https versions included.
- Moving the content: text, headings, meta descriptions, images with alt text, internal links and structured data.
- Launch day: a new sitemap, robots.txt checked, canonical tags pointing to the new addresses, 20 to 30 old addresses tested by hand, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools told about the move, and analytics running from the first minute.
- 4 to 8 weeks of watching: day 1, 404 errors. Day 3, the page indexing report. Week 1, indexing. Week 2, clicks. Weeks 4 and 8, a comparison with the “before” snapshot. Numbers, not an email saying everything looks fine.
Questions owners ask
Will I lose my Google rankings if I move my website?
You shouldn't, if the move is done properly. Losses happen when nobody lists the old addresses and they start showing 404 errors, or when everything is redirected to the home page. When each old address has a 301 redirect to its match, Google carries the old page's signals over. Google also says rankings can move around for a while during a move, and that this is normal and settles over time.
Do you move sites from WordPress?
Yes, it is the most common case. We also move sites from other systems and hand-coded sites. What matters is that the pages can be reached on the web, not which system they run on.
I don't have the logins to my old site, and the person who built it doesn't answer.
That happens a lot, and it usually doesn't block anything. We can read the content from the public pages and collect the old addresses from the sitemap, Search Console and a crawl. What we really need is access to your domain, so it can point to the new site on launch day. If nobody has that either, we help you get it back.
What does a website migration cost?
A fixed price, agreed on the call before any work starts. An ordinary site of 5 to 10 pages fits into a normal new-site project. A large archive of articles is priced separately, by its size. Here is how a fixed price is set.
How long does a move take?
The new site is built like any other: the first version in 2 days and launch usually within 1 to 2 weeks. A big archive adds time for moving the content. The job doesn't end at launch: the 4 to 8 weeks of watching Search Console afterward are part of it.
What happens if my traffic dips after the move?
We tell you before the move what we tell you after it: for the first few weeks Google rereads the site, so traffic can move around. Every old address is redirected, and we have the “before” snapshot to compare against. We talk about this before the move, not when you call us in week three.
See your own site first.
We build the first version free, in 2 days. You click around it, then decide. If it is not for you, you owe nothing.