How to move a WordPress site without losing your Google rankings
Rankings survive a platform move when every old address still leads somewhere sensible. List every URL before you start, keep URLs the same where you can, permanently redirect (301) every one that changes, carry over titles, descriptions and structured data, and submit the new sitemap at launch. Expect some movement for a few weeks, and keep the redirects in place for at least a year.
Why rankings drop after a move
Search engines rank individual addresses. When a site moves to a new platform, the addresses often change: /2019/05/our-services/ becomes /services/, images move, and old pages quietly disappear. Every old address that now returns an error loses the trust it had built up, along with any links from other sites pointing at it. Almost every lost ranking after a migration comes back to this.
The same applies whether you are moving off WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or Webflow.
Before you move
- List every URL. Combine three sources: your current sitemap, the pages report in Google Search Console, and your analytics (pages that get visits). Add any page that other sites link to. Put them all in one spreadsheet.
- Record what ranks. Export your top pages and search queries from Search Console, so you can compare after launch.
- Capture the metadata. For each important page, note the title, meta description, main heading, canonical tag and any structured data.
- Decide each URL's new home. Keep the same address where you can. Where it must change, choose the closest matching new page. Avoid sending everything to the home page.
During the build
- Carry over titles, descriptions, headings and the main content of pages that rank. Rewriting everything at the same time as moving makes it hard to tell what caused any change.
- Keep internal links pointing at the final addresses, not at addresses that redirect.
- Keep image file names and alt text, or redirect old image addresses if they get search traffic.
- Block the staging copy from search engines so it does not compete with your live site.
Launch day
- Turn on the redirects at the same moment the new site goes live. Use permanent (301) redirects from every changed URL to its new home. On Cloudflare, redirects can run at the edge before a page is even loaded.
- Test a sample of old URLs, including your top pages, and check each lands on the right new page in a single hop.
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and use URL inspection on your most important pages.
- Keep the domain the same if you can. A change of domain is a bigger move with its own steps in Search Console.
After launch
- Watch the pages report in Search Console for new errors and fix any old URL you missed.
- Compare clicks and positions for your top queries with the export you made before the move. Some movement in the first few weeks is normal.
- Keep the redirects for at least a year. Google recommends this, and links from other sites keep pointing at your old addresses for much longer.
When to get help
A small site with a few dozen pages is very manageable with this checklist. Larger sites, online stores and anything with years of blog posts benefit from a crawl-based redirect map and a parallel run before switching over.