Website migration
A domain change can temporarily affect search traffic while pages are recrawled. Careful page-to-page redirects, testing and monitoring make the move understandable to visitors and search engines.
Redirect every pageUse permanent 301 or 308 redirects.
Change one thingAvoid redesigning during the move.
Expect movementRankings can fluctuate temporarily.
Before moving
Build and test the new site first. Keep the page structure and content stable where practical, verify both domains in Google Search Console, preserve analytics access and prepare an old-to-new URL list.
Launch
Redirect every old page to the closest matching new page with a 301 or 308. Do not send every URL to the new homepage. Keep the old domain registered and the redirects active for as long as visitors or links may use it.
After launch
Update canonical links, internal links and sitemaps, then submit the new sitemap. Watch crawl errors, indexing, traffic and conversions. Temporary ranking fluctuation is normal while search engines process the move.
Google recommends changing one major element at a time so problems are easier to isolate.
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