MOJO.MEFree Mojo Audit
All guides

How to change your website without losing your Google rankings

Google ranks pages. Move or rename them without telling Google where each one went, and the rankings you built up over years leave with them.

Updated MOJO.ME

In short

  • List every old page, and what each one brings in, before anything changes.
  • Keep the addresses that rank. Redirect the rest permanently to the closest new page.
  • Never point every old page at the home page. Google may treat that as a soft 404.

Before launch

  • List every page from the sitemap, Search Console, your analytics and a crawl.
  • Mark the pages that bring in enquiries, and protect those first.
  • Keep the addresses and topics that rank, even if the wording changes.
  • Keep the area pages. They often bring in more than anyone realises.

Redirects done properly

  • Permanent (301 or 308), never temporary (302 or 307).
  • Each old page to its closest new one, never all of them to the home page.
  • Kept for at least a year, Google says, and ideally for good.
  • Change of Address in Search Console, but only if the domain itself changes.

Launch day and the weeks after

  • Remove any noindex tag or robots.txt block left over from development.
  • Test twenty of the most important old addresses by hand.
  • Submit the new sitemap and update the link on your Google profile.
  • Check Search Console twice a week for the first few weeks, and fix every page not found.

You run the jobs. We run this.

  • Every old page listed and mapped before design starts
  • Redirects built, tested and left in place
  • Rankings measured before launch and after
  • Launch-day checks done, and Search Console watched for you
Get your free Mojo AuditA website that books the job

Written for electricians, heating engineers, plumbing firms, air conditioning firms, M&E contractors, construction companies and landscaping firms.

Sources
  1. Google Search Central, Site moves with URL changes
  2. Google Search Central, Redirects and Google Search
  3. Search Console Help, Change of Address tool

Questions owners ask.

Will a new website lose my Google ranking?

Not if the move is planned: list the pages, keep what ranks, redirect the rest and watch the weeks after. Some movement in the first few weeks is normal.

Can I redirect all my old pages to the new home page?

No. Google says that can be treated as a soft 404, and the old page’s standing is lost. Send each one to its closest new page.

How long do redirects need to stay?

At least a year, Google says, and for visitors it suggests keeping them indefinitely.

Read next.