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For a permanent domain move, map every important old URL to its matching new URL, configure server-side 301 (or 308) redirects, test the complete map, update Search Console and your sitemap, then monitor both domains. A redirect should take visitors and crawlers directly to the most relevant replacement page—not send unrelated URLs to the new home page.

First, identify what is actually moving

A domain migration changes the URLs people see, such as moving from old-example.com to new-example.com, changing a subdomain, changing HTTP to HTTPS, or restructuring paths. A hosting-only change is different: the visible URLs stay the same while the servers behind them change. Treating a hosting move as a domain migration can lead to unnecessary redirects and confused diagnostics.

Google’s guidance for URL changes is documented in Site Moves and Migrations. For a hosting change with no URL changes, follow the separate process described in Changing Your Web Hosting and SEO: prepare and test the replacement infrastructure, change DNS, keep the old and new hosting available while traffic shifts, and shut down the old environment only after users and Googlebot are being served correctly.

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Moves that need URL redirects

  • A complete domain change, such as old-example.com to new-example.com.
  • A subdomain change, such as blog.old-example.com to blog.new-example.com.
  • A protocol change from HTTP to HTTPS.
  • A path restructuring, such as /products/ moving to /catalog/.
  • A consolidation in which several old pages are replaced by a smaller set of new pages.

Moves that do not need a domain-wide 301

If the hostname and visible paths remain unchanged and only the hosting provider, server, or infrastructure changes, change DNS and validate the new environment instead of creating a redirect for every URL. An HTTP-to-HTTPS, www/non-www, or path-only move on the same domain also does not require a Search Console Change of Address request, although the changed URLs still need correct redirects where applicable.

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What a 301 redirect does

A 301 response tells browsers and search engines that a resource has moved permanently. Google also recognizes 308 as a permanent redirect. For a permanent migration, Google recommends a server-side redirect whenever the platform supports one. The redirect is a signal, not a guarantee that rankings will remain unchanged or that every URL will be processed immediately.

Response Use it when Migration implication
301 The old URL has moved permanently. Signals a permanent destination and is the usual choice for a domain move.
308 The old URL has moved permanently and your stack supports it. Also recognized by Google as permanent.
302 The move is temporary. Signals that the original URL may return and can remain eligible in search results.
307 The move is temporary and your stack supports it. Temporary intent; do not use it for a permanent domain migration.

Client-side redirects can be a fallback when server-side configuration is unavailable, but they are not the preferred implementation for a permanent move. Ask your server administrator or hosting company which server-level method your environment supports before changing production configuration.

Plan the migration before changing DNS

Do not start with a single wildcard rule and hope it covers the site. Begin with an inventory and a decision about whether the old URL structure will survive.

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Choose simultaneous or staged deployment

Approach Best fit How to control risk
Simultaneous move Small or medium sites whose content and URL relationships are well understood. Prepare the new site, activate redirects, submit the new sitemap, and monitor the entire property at once.
Staged move Large sites where a section-by-section rollout makes errors easier to isolate. Move defined groups, validate each group, and expand only after crawling and error checks are clean.

A staged move is not a reason to leave sections half-configured. Every moved section needs a complete mapping, working destination pages, and a way to distinguish its traffic and errors from the sections that have not moved.

Set a launch owner and rollback plan

Decide who can change server rules, DNS, robots.txt, canonical tags, and Search Console settings. Keep the old site available until the new site is serving correctly. Before launch, record the current status of traffic, indexed URLs, crawl errors, and server capacity so a post-launch change is visible rather than mistaken for normal fluctuation.

Prepare the new domain

Build and test the destination site before redirecting visitors to it. Transfer the page content and hosted resources that are meant to survive the move, and configure a valid TLS certificate if the new site uses HTTPS.

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  • Make sure every intended destination URL loads on the new host.
  • Remove temporary noindex directives and migration-only robots.txt blocks at launch.
  • Set robots.txt to allow the crawling you actually want on the new site.
  • Use canonical annotations that point to the new URLs, not the old domain.
  • Verify the relevant HTTP/HTTPS and www/non-www variants of both sites in Search Console.
  • Prepare a sitemap containing the new canonical URLs.

A block that was useful on a staging server can prevent Google from discovering the migrated site. Treat robots.txt and indexing directives as launch-critical configuration, not as cleanup for later.

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Build a complete old-to-new URL map

Create the map before writing redirect rules. At minimum, include the old URL, its intended new URL, and the expected response. Add columns for status, redirect pattern, test result, and owner if several people will implement or review the migration.

Old URL New URL Expected response Reason or action
http://old-example.com/guide https://new-example.com/guide 301 Path preserved on the new domain.
http://old-example.com/legacy-plan https://new-example.com/pricing 301 Content has a clearly corresponding replacement.
http://old-example.com/discontinued-widget None 404 or 410 No replacement exists; do not force an unrelated destination.

Find URLs worth mapping

Start with XML sitemaps, Search Console data, analytics, server logs, and known high-value inbound links. Include pages that receive organic visits, links, conversions, or recurring direct traffic even if they are not in the current sitemap. Add URL variants that users may still request, including old protocol and hostname versions where the old site served them.

Decide whether a wildcard is safe

A domain-only change that preserves paths can often use a domain-wide pattern: the old host maps to the new host while the path remains the same. That approach is appropriate only when the path and query-string behavior are genuinely compatible. If paths change, pages are consolidated, or query parameters need special handling, use individual mappings or narrowly defined patterns.

Handle pages with no replacement

When content was removed and no relevant successor exists, return a real 404 or 410. Redirecting every deleted page to the new home page creates an irrelevant destination for users and may be treated as a soft 404. Google specifically warns against sending many unrelated old URLs to one destination such as the new home page; see Google’s site-move guidance and its crawling-error troubleshooting documentation.

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Choose where the redirect is implemented

Implement the redirect at the earliest reliable server layer that receives the old request. Depending on your stack, that may be Apache configuration or rewrite rules, NGINX configuration, or a server-side application script such as PHP. The exact rule depends on both hostnames, path structure, query-string requirements, and the platform’s syntax, so an illustrative rule from documentation is not automatically a drop-in migration rule.

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Server-side configuration

Server-side 301 or 308 responses are the preferred option because the response is returned before the old page is rendered. They work for users, crawlers, images, documents, and other resources that the server handles, provided your rules cover those paths correctly.

Application or CMS logic

If the platform cannot change web-server configuration, use its supported server-side redirect mechanism or a server-side script. Keep the mapping explicit enough to prevent accidental loops, and make sure the application returns the permanent status code rather than rendering a page that merely contains a link to the new URL.

Client-side fallback

Use a client-side method only when server-side redirects are technically unavailable. It can add processing time and may not communicate permanent intent as clearly as a proper 301 or 308 response. Treat it as a compatibility fallback, not the default migration design.

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Configure direct redirects to final destinations

Each old URL should normally produce one redirect to its final new URL. Avoid chains such as old URL to an intermediate path, then to HTTPS, then to the final domain. Chains add latency, increase the chance of a broken hop, and complicate testing. Consolidate rules so the first response points directly to the final canonical destination.

Preserve a path only when the new site serves equivalent content there. If the migration changes both hostname and path, map the old path to the new page explicitly. Decide how query strings should behave before launch: some parameters should be preserved for application function, while tracking or obsolete parameters may need to be removed according to your platform’s rules. Test the behavior rather than assuming a wildcard will handle every query-string case correctly.

Test before launch

Test representative URLs from every redirect pattern before changing DNS or switching traffic. Then test the full old-URL list where practical.

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  1. Request an old HTTP URL, an old HTTPS URL, and each old hostname variant that was publicly reachable.
  2. Confirm the response is 301 or 308 for a permanent move—not 200, 302, or 307.
  3. Confirm the Location target is the intended new URL, with the expected path and query-string behavior.
  4. Request the destination and verify that it returns successfully, uses the intended canonical URL, and is not blocked by robots.txt or a temporary noindex directive.
  5. Check that the redirect reaches the final destination in one hop whenever possible.
  6. Repeat the checks for representative pages, images, downloadable files, trailing-slash variants, uppercase or lowercase variants where relevant, and URLs with common parameters.

For a quick command-line check, request only the response headers, for example:

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curl -I https://old-example.com/example-page

Review the status and Location header, then request the destination separately. For larger migrations, use a script or crawler against the URL map and save the results so failures can be assigned and retested. Google recommends URL Inspection for individual URLs and command-line tools or scripts for larger groups.

Validate the new site’s indexing signals

  • Canonical tags point to new-domain URLs.
  • Robots.txt does not block the pages you want crawled.
  • Temporary noindex rules have been removed.
  • The sitemap lists the new URLs rather than old URLs or staging addresses.
  • Internal links use the new domain directly instead of relying on redirects.

Launch sequence

  1. Put the new site and its TLS configuration in production and verify destination pages.
  2. Remove migration-only crawl blocks and noindex directives.
  3. Activate the tested server-side redirects on the old site.
  4. Change DNS or routing as planned, keeping the old environment available while the transition is observed.
  5. Run smoke tests from outside your development network, including old and new URLs, both protocols, and hostname variants.
  6. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
  7. Inspect representative old URLs and new URLs in Search Console.

Do not take the old host offline immediately after the DNS change. Users, crawlers, caches, and external links can continue requesting old addresses long after the first successful test.

Use Search Console’s Change of Address correctly

For a domain or subdomain change, verify the relevant old and new properties in Search Console and submit a Change of Address request for the old site after the redirects are active. This tells Google about the intended move in addition to the URL-by-URL signals from your redirects.

You do not need the Change of Address tool for an HTTP-to-HTTPS change, a www/non-www switch on the same domain, or a path move within one domain. Those changes still require correct redirects, canonical annotations, internal links, and sitemap handling where URLs changed.

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Monitor the migration after launch

Keep the redirects active for as long as possible. Google’s guidance says, “Keep the redirects for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year.” A longer period—including indefinite retention—helps people who follow old bookmarks and external links. During that period, update internal links and ask owners of important external links to point directly to the new URLs.

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Monitor both domains and the infrastructure serving them. Track:

  • HTTP 4xx and 5xx responses, especially unexpected 404s on pages that should redirect.
  • Redirect status codes, loops, and chains.
  • Search Console indexing, coverage, and crawl reports.
  • Organic traffic, direct traffic, referrals, and conversions on old and new properties.
  • Server capacity and response times, because Google may crawl the new site more heavily for a period after the move.
  • Sitemap processing and whether new URLs are appearing as expected.

Google says small-to-medium sites can take a few weeks for most pages to move, while larger sites take longer. Search visibility can fluctuate temporarily, and the duration depends on the number of URLs and server speed. A temporary drop is a reason to inspect errors and signals, not evidence that a redirect guarantees unchanged rankings.

Troubleshoot common failures

Old URLs return 200 instead of 301

The redirect rule may not be loaded on the server receiving the request, may be overridden by an application route, or may match only one protocol or hostname. Test the exact old variant that users request and inspect the response headers. Check server configuration with the administrator or hosting company.

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Redirect loops occur

A loop commonly results when both the old and new sites force a rule that points back to the other host, or when HTTP-to-HTTPS and domain rules are applied in conflicting layers. Trace each hop and make the old host’s rule terminate at the final HTTPS URL on the new domain.

Many pages land on the home page

Replace the blanket destination with page-level mappings or a well-defined pattern. A home page is appropriate only when it is genuinely the relevant replacement. Otherwise, restore the matching page or return 404/410 for content that has no successor.

New pages are not being indexed

Check that the destination is reachable, canonical tags use the new URL, robots.txt allows crawling, no temporary noindex remains, and the sitemap contains the new address. Inspect representative URLs in Search Console and review crawl and not-found reports.

Traffic falls after launch

First separate normal processing fluctuation from implementation errors. Compare old and new traffic, inspect redirect coverage, look for chains and server errors, and verify that high-value pages were mapped to equivalent destinations. Google does not promise instant processing or unchanged rankings; larger moves naturally take longer to settle.

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Migration checklist

  • Classify the change as a URL migration or hosting-only change.
  • Verify the new site, TLS certificate, robots.txt, canonical tags, and sitemap.
  • Inventory important old URLs from sitemaps, Search Console, analytics, logs, and inbound links.
  • Map every replacement and mark pages with no replacement as 404 or 410 candidates.
  • Choose 301 or 308 for permanent moves; reserve 302 or 307 for genuinely temporary changes.
  • Implement redirects at the server layer when possible.
  • Test every redirect pattern, destination, protocol, hostname, path, and relevant query-string case.
  • Eliminate chains and loops.
  • Activate redirects before or at the routing change, not weeks afterward.
  • Submit a Change of Address request for a domain or subdomain move.
  • Submit the new sitemap and inspect representative URLs.
  • Keep redirects running for at least one year and monitor errors, crawling, traffic, and server capacity.

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