SEO Migration Checklist: Change Your Domain, Platform or Design Without Losing Rankings
A website migration keeps its SEO when every old URL redirects one to one to its closest new page, the map is tested before launch, Google and Bing are told on launch day, and rankings and AI answers are watched for eight weeks. The before, launch-day and after checklist, from Google's and Bing's own docs.
How do you migrate a website without losing SEO? The short answer
Redirect every old URL to its closest new URL with a permanent 301 or 308 redirect, test that map before launch, tell Google and Bing on launch day, and watch crawls, rankings and AI answers for at least eight weeks. Google's site-move guide says to keep those redirects "for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year," and warns that rankings can fluctuate for "a few weeks or more" while it swaps old URLs for new ones. Most lost traffic after a move comes from a gap in the map: pages that were dropped, sent to the homepage, or never tested.
This checklist covers domain moves, rebrands, redesigns and platform changes. Every Google, Bing, IndexNow and OpenAI rule below was read from their own documentation on November 3, 2026, and the links are in the sources at the end.
Which kind of migration are you doing?
The steps depend on what changes. A redesign on the same domain doesn't need Search Console's Change of Address tool, and a domain move needs everything.
| Move | Do URLs change? | Google Change of Address? | Where it usually breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| New domain (often a rebrand) | Yes, every URL | Yes, for every verified variant | Signals split across two domains; the old name lingers in AI answers |
| Rebrand on the same domain | Sometimes | No | Old name left in titles, schema, profiles and third-party listings |
| Redesign on the same domain | Often | No | Pages dropped in the new site map, new templates without canonicals or schema |
| Platform change (WordPress to Webflow, CMS to custom code) | Usually | No | New URL patterns with no redirects; schema and internal links lost in the export |
| HTTP to HTTPS, or www to non-www | Yes | No (Google says it works these out itself) | Redirect chains and mixed canonicals |
| New host or CDN only | No | No | A robots.txt or firewall rule that blocks crawlers |
If you're switching platforms, price the new one before you plan the move. Our Squarespace vs WordPress and Webflow pricing pages cover the plan limits that affect redirects and site size.
Before launch: the checklist
- Export every URL you have. Combine your sitemaps, a full crawl, every page with impressions in Search Console, your top analytics landing pages, and the URLs other sites link to. The crawl alone misses orphaned pages that still get traffic.
- Triage before you map. Mark each URL keep, merge or retire. Google's guide says to return a 404 or 410 for content you delete, and that merged content can redirect to the one page that replaces it.
- Build the redirect map one to one. Each old URL gets its closest new page. Google warns against sending many old URLs to one unrelated page, such as the homepage. Point each redirect at the final URL, since Google says chains should ideally be no more than 3 hops.
- Verify every property. Google says to verify the old and new sites in Search Console, including every www, non-www, HTTP and HTTPS variant. Verify both in Bing Webmaster Tools too.
- Fix what the new templates carry. Canonicals that point to the new URLs, hreflang if you have it, internal links rewritten to the new URLs (not left to redirect), and Organization schema with the new name, logo and profile links.
- Prepare robots.txt. Keep the staging copy blocked, and plan which
noindexrules come off at launch. Bing's migration guide says to block all bots on the new host until the move starts. - Test the map on staging. Every row should return one 301 or 308 to a page that returns 200. Test it with a crawler, not by clicking a few links.
- Carry the cleanup over. Google says to re-upload any disavow file to the new property. Bing's guide says to do disavow work ahead of time, because it takes a while.
- Pick the date. Bing suggests starting at the end of your busy season, so the crawl settles before the next one. Google says Googlebot crawls the new site harder after a move, so check that the server can take it.
- Take a baseline. Save rankings for your top queries, clicks by page, crawl counts by bot, and the answers ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI give to 20 to 50 buyer questions. Without a baseline you can't tell a normal dip from a broken redirect.
Launch day: what to submit and where
| Task | Where | What the docs say |
|---|---|---|
| Turn on redirects and spot-test the top pages | Your server, CMS or CDN | Google recommends server-side permanent redirects; client-side redirects are a last resort |
| Submit the new sitemap | Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools | Google says warnings that old-URL sitemap entries redirect are normal; the new sitemap's indexed count should rise as the old one falls |
| File the Change of Address | Search Console, old domain property | Domain moves only; you must own both properties, and the old homepage must 301 to the new one. Signals are forwarded for 180 days |
| Run the Site Move tool | Bing Webmaster Tools | Bing's guide says to tell Bing about the move with this tool, after verifying ownership |
| Send an IndexNow ping | IndexNow endpoint, or your CMS or CDN's built-in support | Covers added, updated and deleted URLs, up to 10,000 per request, shared with every participating engine |
| Check robots.txt lets search crawlers in | New domain | OpenAI says robots.txt changes can take about 24 hours to reach ChatGPT search |
IndexNow's participating engines, per its own list, are Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver, Yep, the Internet Archive and Amazonbot. Its docs cover added, updated and deleted URLs and don't mention redirects. We send the new URLs and the old ones, since an old URL that now redirects has changed, and a crawler has to visit it to find the redirect.
Why do AI assistants keep using your old name and URLs?
Two reasons, and they need different fixes. First, a model's training data is a snapshot, so the model may know you by your old name for a long time after the move. You can't edit that. Second, assistants that search the web, like ChatGPT search with its OAI-SearchBot crawler, read your site and also the review sites, directories, press and other people's articles that mention you. If those still say the old name, the answer often will too.
What helps:
- Say "formerly [old name]" on your About page and in your Organization schema (as
alternateName), so a reader or a crawler can connect the two names. - Update the third-party pages assistants read most for your category: review sites, directories, marketplace listings, social bios and partner pages. Start with the ones that show up as citations in your baseline answers.
- Keep the old domain and its redirects live. Old links in articles, bookmarks and AI citations keep working, and land on the right page.
- Re-ask your baseline buyer questions every week and note which cited source still uses the old name. That source is your next fix.
After launch: what to watch for eight weeks
| When | Check | Healthy | Act if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 3 | Server logs for Googlebot, Bingbot and OAI-SearchBot | Crawlers hitting the new URLs and following redirects | 404 or 5xx spikes, or a crawler that stopped visiting |
| Week 1 | Every row of the redirect map, re-tested on production | One hop, 200 at the end | Chains, loops, or rows sending to the homepage |
| Weeks 1 to 4 | Search Console Sitemaps and page indexing reports | New sitemap's indexed count rising, old one falling | New URLs "crawled, not indexed" in bulk |
| Weeks 2 to 8 | Clicks and impressions for your baseline queries | A dip that recovers as new URLs replace old ones | A top page that hasn't recovered; check its redirect, canonical and content |
| Weeks 2 to 8 | Your baseline buyer questions in each assistant | New name and new URLs showing up in answers and citations | An assistant still citing an old third-party page with the old name |
Bing's guide goes further and says to check server logs daily for at least three months after launch. On a big site, that's the right bar.
How long should you keep the old domain and its redirects?
Google says at least a year, and as long as possible. Its Change of Address tool forwards signals for 180 days and suggests keeping the old domain registered for at least a year. Bing's migration guide says 1 to 2 years, "preferably longer." We keep old domains for good. The renewal is cheap, links to it keep sending people for years, and a lapsed domain can be bought by someone else along with every link pointing to it.
Who can run a website migration for you?
A small site with a few dozen pages can follow this list in-house. Bring in help when the site has hundreds of URLs, the domain or brand name is changing, or the move lands in a busy season. SuperDupr's SEO website migration services cover the inventory, the one-to-one map, tests by section, launch-day submissions to Google and Bing, and eight weeks of ranking and AI-answer monitoring, at a fixed fee priced after a short scoping call. Migration work is included for companies on our AI Search Program. If you're still choosing who should own this, our guide to how to choose an SEO agency has the questions to ask first.
Sources
- Google Search Central, Site moves with URL changes, read November 3, 2026: redirect types, chains, duration, sitemaps, Search Console steps, fluctuation and timing.
- Google Search Console Help, Change of Address tool, read November 3, 2026: requirements, 180-day forwarding, what the tool doesn't cover.
- Bing Webmaster Blog, Website Migration with Bing (December 17, 2020), read November 3, 2026: Site Move tool, redirect duration, disavow, timing, log monitoring.
- IndexNow, documentation and participating engines, read November 3, 2026.
- OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers, read November 3, 2026: OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, robots.txt timing.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Before launch: a full URL export, a keep, merge or retire triage, a one-to-one 301 redirect map, every site variant verified in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, updated canonicals, internal links and schema, a tested map on staging, and a baseline of rankings and AI answers. On launch day: redirects on, new sitemap submitted, Change of Address and Bing's Site Move tool for domain moves, and an IndexNow ping. After: eight weeks of log, index, ranking and AI-answer checks.
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Google's site-move guide says it can take a few weeks or more for Google to start showing the new URLs on a medium-sized site, longer on large ones, and that rankings can fluctuate during the move. A clean redirect map shortens the dip; missing or wrong redirects are the usual reason a page never recovers.
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No. Google warns against sending many old URLs to one unrelated page such as the homepage. Redirect each old URL to its closest new page. For content you're retiring with no good match, Google says to return a 404 or 410.
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It helps. IndexNow lets you tell Bing and the other participating engines (Yandex, Seznam, Naver, Yep, the Internet Archive and Amazonbot) about up to 10,000 changed URLs in one request, and a submission to one is shared with all of them. Google doesn't take part, so you still need Search Console for Google.
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Assistants that search the web re-read your pages and follow redirects, so new URLs show up as they re-crawl. But they also read third-party sites that may still use the old name, and a model's training data keeps the old name until it's retrained. Say "formerly [old name]" on your site and in your schema, update the third-party profiles assistants cite, and keep the old domain's redirects live.
Written by
Justin McKelveyFormer CTO at an AI startup and former Head of Product, with 50+ products shipped. I ran snowboard and bike shops before I taught myself to code, so I build AI systems and websites with the owner in mind.