โ๏ธ
FREE
+55 XP
Site Migrations & Redesigns
๐
The night before the new site launch
"Launching tomorrow! New design, new URLs, new domain. Everything's great!"
๐ฐ
One week later
"Traffic dropped 70%. All old URLs return 404. Customers can't find us on Google. What happened?!"
โ ๏ธ Site migration โ one of the riskiest SEO operations. Without proper preparation you can lose all accumulated organic traffic. With proper preparation โ nearly no losses at all.
Types of Migrations and Their Risk Level
| Migration type | Risk | Key action |
|---|---|---|
| Redesign (same URLs) | ๐ก Medium | Check content, speed, structure |
| URL structure change | ๐ High | 301 redirects for every old URL |
| HTTP โ HTTPS | ๐ก Medium | 301 redirects + update GSC property |
| Domain change | ๐ด Very high | 301 + GSC Change of Address + patience |
The Right Migration Plan
URL mapping
All old URLs โ corresponding new ones
โ
301 redirects
One-to-one, no chains
โ
Update sitemap
New URLs only
โ
GSC + monitoring
Notify Google, watch for 4 weeks
Post-launch monitoring:
โ GSC Coverage: no mass 404 errors
โ GSC Performance: traffic shouldn't drop
โ New URL indexing in GSC
โ All redirects working correctly
โ Internal links updated (no extra hops)
โ Backlinks from external sites โ request updates
โ GSC Coverage: no mass 404 errors
โ GSC Performance: traffic shouldn't drop
โ New URL indexing in GSC
โ All redirects working correctly
โ Internal links updated (no extra hops)
โ Backlinks from external sites โ request updates
๐ฏ Golden migration rule: launch during off-hours (night/weekend), have a rollback plan, and never do two large migrations at once.
๐ฎ Test yourself: put the site migration steps in the correct order!
Lesson Task
Test your knowledge and earn +20 XP