Redesign or Move Your Website Without Losing SEO: A Checklist

What kind of move are you making?

The risk depends on what changes. Google's guide to site moves with URL changes treats a host change with the same addresses very differently from a move that changes URLs.

Before the move: the preparation checklist

1. Back up the old site completely (files, database, media) and keep the backup somewhere you control.
2. Export a list of every URL: from your sitemap, your CMS, and Google Search Console's Pages and Performance reports. Include blog posts, product pages, PDFs and images that get traffic.
3. Mark your important pages: the ones that get search traffic, enquiries or backlinks. These must have a clear new home.
4. Record a baseline: clicks and top queries from Search Console, and sessions and enquiries from analytics, for the last three months.
5. Write down your DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT for SPF, DKIM and DMARC) before anyone touches them.
6. Verify Search Console for the old site and the new one, including all the www and non-www versions.
7. Copy page titles, descriptions and headings for important pages, so they don't get lost in the rebuild.

Redirect mapping: the step that saves your rankings

A redirect map is a two-column spreadsheet: old URL on the left, new URL on the right. Every old page that mattered should point to the most relevant new page, not to the home page.

Google's guidance on site moves recommends:

• Use server-side permanent redirects (301 or 308) where possible. Google says these do not cause a loss in PageRank.
• Avoid redirect chains. Googlebot can follow up to 10 hops, but each extra hop slows things down. Point old URLs straight at their final destination.
• Keep the redirects for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year, so Google can transfer all signals, including links from other sites.
• Update internal links on the new site so they point directly at new URLs, rather than relying on redirects.
• Submit a new sitemap listing the new URLs.

On WordPress, a redirect plugin or server rules handle this. Shopify has a built-in URL redirects section. Wix has a redirect manager. Whatever the platform, test a sample of old URLs after launch to confirm each one lands on the right page with a single 301.

Launch day: switching over without breaking email

Most "we moved the website and lost email" problems come from DNS. The website needs only its A or CNAME records changed. Your MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records must stay exactly as they were, unless you are moving email too.

1. A day ahead, lower the TTL on the records you will change, so the switch takes effect quickly.
2. Put the new site live on its final domain and confirm HTTPS works on every version (with and without www).
3. Change only the website records. Compare MX and TXT records with your notes from before.
4. Turn on the redirect map and test 20 to 30 old URLs, including your most important pages.
5. Check that robots.txt does not block the site, and that no page carries a leftover "noindex" tag from the staging site.
6. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console. For a new domain, submit Change of Address for each verified variant of the old domain.
7. Send a test email to and from your business address and test every contact form.

If your old domain's DNS is managed by the old designer, get control of the domain first. Our guide to .sg and .com.sg domains explains how to take it back.

After the move: what to watch for 4 to 8 weeks

Google says to expect temporary fluctuation in rankings during a site move while it recrawls and reindexes, and that rankings settle down over time. Watch these each week:

• Search Console Pages report: look for a rise in "Not found (404)" and fix it with extra redirects.
• Performance report: compare clicks and top queries with your baseline. A gradual recovery is normal; a sharp, lasting drop on key pages points to missing redirects or lost content.
• Enquiries and sales: forms, booking widgets and checkout working, with notifications arriving.
• Speed: test the new site in PageSpeed Insights; a redesign can quietly add heavy images and scripts. See our guide to fixing Core Web Vitals.
• Backlinks and profiles: update your Google Business Profile, social profiles and directory listings to the new URLs.

Common mistakes

• Redirecting every old page to the home page. Google may treat these as missing pages (soft 404s), and visitors land somewhere unhelpful.
• Dropping pages that ranked, such as old blog posts or FAQ pages, because they "looked old" in the redesign.
• Launching with the staging site's "discourage search engines" setting still on.
• Removing the redirects after a few months to tidy up, or letting the old domain expire.
• Changing nameservers to a new provider without copying the email records first.
• Cancelling the old hosting before checking that every file, image and PDF was copied.

Do it yourself or get help?

A small site with ten or fifteen pages, moving host with the same URLs, is a reasonable do-it-yourself job if you follow the checklist above. A platform change, a new domain, or a site that brings in most of your enquiries from Google is worth handing to someone who has done it before.

Website Migration (S$490, 5 days) includes a full backup before anything changes, files, database and media moved, redirects kept so rankings are not lost, a DNS cut-over planned to avoid email downtime, SSL on the new host and a check of every page and form. If the new site also needs its titles, sitemap and speed sorted, add the Speed & SEO Fix (S$390).