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Topic hub · 18 guides

Migration SEO: keeping rankings through a move

This hub covers the SEO side of any website migration: building a redirect map, deciding whether to keep old URLs, protecting backlinks and featured snippets, phasing a large move, handling archives and pagination, what to check in the first week after launch, and how long recovery actually takes. The rules apply to any platform pair, not only WordPress to Lovable, because Google sees URLs and responses, not CMSs.

What this hub covers

  • Redirect maps and 301s
  • URL structure decisions
  • Backlinks and featured snippets
  • Archives, tags and pagination
  • Launch-week monitoring and recovery

Start here

The WordPress migration SEO checklist that works: a grid of grey dots on a pale ground with brand-coloured lines redirecting from old positions on the left to new positions on the right
SEO

The WordPress migration SEO checklist that works

The exact checklist we run on every move: map redirects, carry metadata over, keep Google crawling, and bank the speed win, so your rankings survive the switch.

5 min read

Every guide in this hub

The Easiest Way to Move WordPress to a New Host: a wide gauge arc in grey with a brand-coloured segment and a dark needle pointing to the right side
Guides

The Easiest Way to Move WordPress to a New Host

A host move should change nothing a visitor or search engine can see. Keep every URL, copy files and database, test on the new host, then switch DNS.

11 min read
WordPress to Squarespace: Where the SEO Loss Comes From: a grid of grey dots on a pale ground with brand-coloured lines redirecting from old positions on the left to new positions on the right
SEO

WordPress to Squarespace: Where the SEO Loss Comes From

The platform is fine for search. The losses come from its opinionated URL structure, a lighter CMS, and redirect handling that is workable rather than generous.

10 min read
Migrating Without Losing Local Traffic or Map Rankings: a grid of grey dots on a pale ground with brand-coloured lines redirecting from old positions on the left to new positions on the right
SEO

Migrating Without Losing Local Traffic or Map Rankings

Local rankings depend on things a normal migration never touches: your Business Profile link, NAP consistency, location pages and LocalBusiness markup.

11 min read
How Long Does Ranking Recovery Take After a Migration?: a wide gauge arc in grey with a brand-coloured segment and a dark needle pointing to the right side
SEO

How Long Does Ranking Recovery Take After a Migration?

A clean migration dips for two to four weeks and is back within six. A broken one does not recover on its own, and the difference is visible by day ten.

11 min read
What to Check in Google Search Console After a Migration: a faint blueprint grid on a pale ground with a dark outline of a page layout and a brand-coloured highlighted block
SEO

What to Check in Google Search Console After a Migration

The scheduled routine: launch-week setup, the four damage reports of month one, the settling trends, and the reference answers that make it diagnosis.

11 min read
Do Canonical Tags Matter After a Website Migration?: a wide gauge arc in grey with a brand-coloured segment and a dark needle pointing to the right side
SEO

Do Canonical Tags Matter After a Website Migration?

Yes, as tie-breakers when versions multiply: self-canonical at the final URL, redirects for gone pages, and the launch check that catches the five classic mistakes.

10 min read
How to Migrate a Multilingual WordPress Site Safely: a wide gauge arc in grey with a brand-coloured segment and a dark needle pointing to the right side
Guides

How to Migrate a Multilingual WordPress Site Safely

A standard migration multiplied per language, plus the hreflang web that breaks invisibly. The translation matrix that makes the whole move verifiable.

11 min read
What to Do in the First Week After a Migration Goes Live: a faint blueprint grid on a pale ground with a dark outline of a page layout and a brand-coloured highlighted block
SEO

What to Do in the First Week After a Migration Goes Live

Day one is redirects and crawling. Day two is analytics and forms. By day seven you should know whether anything is broken, not be guessing at rankings.

11 min read
How to Keep Your Backlinks When You Change Platforms: a wide gauge arc in grey with a brand-coloured segment and a dark needle pointing to the right side
SEO

How to Keep Your Backlinks When You Change Platforms

Backlinks point at addresses, not at pages. Keep the addresses working and the links keep working, including links to pages you deleted years ago.

10 min read
What Is a Redirect Map and How Do You Build One?: a faint blueprint grid on a pale ground with a dark outline of a page layout and a brand-coloured highlighted block
Guides

What Is a Redirect Map and How Do You Build One?

One row per old URL with its new destination. It is the load-bearing file of any migration, and it is built from a crawl rather than from memory.

10 min read
How to Test 301 Redirects After a Migration, in Bulk: a wide gauge arc in grey with a brand-coloured segment and a dark needle pointing to the right side
SEO

How to Test 301 Redirects After a Migration, in Bulk

Spot-checks catch nothing: failures cluster in the long tail. The full-inventory workflow, three pass conditions, and the failure classes with their fixes.

10 min read
How to Migrate a Website Without Losing SEO in 2026: a grid of grey dots on a pale ground with brand-coloured lines redirecting from old positions on the left to new positions on the right
Guides

How to Migrate a Website Without Losing SEO in 2026

Preservation is a sequence, not a hope: inventory the live site, keep the URLs you can, map the rest, carry the content whole, then verify by request.

14 min read
Should You Keep Your Old URLs After a Migration?: a wide gauge arc in grey with a brand-coloured segment and a dark needle pointing to the right side
SEO

Should You Keep Your Old URLs After a Migration?

Default to keeping them. Every URL you change costs a redirect, a recrawl, and a small permanent risk, and most URL changes buy nothing measurable.

11 min read
Website migration checklist before you switch: two smooth waves crossing the frame, one thin grey and one thick brand-coloured, over a pale background
Guides

Website migration checklist before you switch

The steps that protect a migration happen before launch. Inventory, backup, baseline, redirect map, staging, index check: the pre-switch checklist in order.

5 min read
Will I lose Google rankings if I change platforms?: a faint blueprint grid on a pale ground with a dark outline of a page layout and a brand-coloured highlighted block
SEO

Will I lose Google rankings if I change platforms?

No, not if the move is done right. Here is what actually decides whether you keep your rankings, the real causes of loss, and how long any dip lasts.

5 min read
What are Core Web Vitals and why do they matter?: a grid of grey dots on a pale ground with brand-coloured lines redirecting from old positions on the left to new positions on the right
SEO

What are Core Web Vitals and why do they matter?

Core Web Vitals are Google's three page-experience metrics. Here is what LCP, INP, and CLS measure, the thresholds to hit, and how they affect your SEO.

5 min read
Do 301 redirects preserve SEO when you switch?: two smooth waves crossing the frame, one thin grey and one thick brand-coloured, over a pale background
SEO

Do 301 redirects preserve SEO when you switch?

Yes, 301 redirects preserve SEO when every old URL maps one-to-one to its new home. Here is how the signal transfer works and the mistakes that quietly break it.

5 min read

Related topic hubs

Named across this hub: Google Search Console, 301 redirects, XML sitemaps, Canonical tags, Screaming Frog.

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