Redesign or migrate your website: how to stay visible on Google

Want to redesign or move your website without losing your Google ranking? Then two things must be right. Every old web address (the address of a page, such as yourbusiness.be/services) automatically forwards to the right new page: a permanent redirect, or 301. And your titles, texts, links and images come along. To be honest: nobody can promise you won't lose a single visitor. Google itself says your ranking can fluctuate for a while during a move, and that for a small to medium-sized site it takes a few weeks before most pages have moved.

Having it done for you? Then use the checklist at the bottom as a list of questions for your web designer. Each step says what you can do yourself.

If you only do three things, do these. Every old web address points to the right new page, not to the home page. On switch-over day, the block that kept Google out during the build is removed. And you test your email and your contact form straight away.

When does Google see it as a move?

Whenever the web addresses of your pages change: a new platform, a new structure or a new domain name. If every address stays the same, the risk is lower. But when text disappears, you'll be found less for what that text said.

So change as little as possible at once; otherwise you won't know what caused a drop.

Step 1: Which web addresses do you have today?

List every web address of your current site: pages, articles, products, PDFs. That list becomes your checklist after the move.

• Yourself: open yourbusiness.be/sitemap.xml: it usually lists all your pages.

• Yourself: Google Search Console is free. First you prove the site is yours, for example with a code your web designer adds to the site. Then Performance shows which pages get clicks. Do it now, before the move, so you can compare later.

• Yourself: note which web addresses appear in your ads, newsletters and social media profiles.

• Your web designer: builds the full list, with titles and descriptions, using a crawler: a program that goes through every page of your site. The free version of Screaming Frog does this for up to 500 web addresses.

Step 2: Where does each old web address go?

Next to every old address comes the new one. The best address is the one you already have, so keep it where you can.

• Every old page gets a permanent redirect (301 or 308) to the page with the same content, ideally on the server itself, not with a bit of code in the page.

• Don't send everything to the home page. Google may treat many old addresses pointing to one unrelated page as pages that no longer exist.

• If a page is really gone and there's no good replacement, show a "page not found" message (a 404 or 410).

• No detours (A to B to C): point straight to the final address.

• Keep the redirects active for at least a year, and ideally forever, for your visitors' sake.

Yourself: ask for the old-to-new list and check that your main pages are on it.

Step 3: Carry over your titles, descriptions and texts

A page's title and description are what people see in Google. If they've worked for years, copy them as they are and improve them only once the move has settled. A page that gets much shorter will be found less for the words that disappeared. Every new page should also tell Google that its new address is the right one (with a canonical tag): ask your web designer whether that's in place.

Yourself: read your main pages on the new site. Is everything still there?

Step 4: Update your links

Your web designer makes the menu, texts and buttons link straight to the new addresses.

Yourself: update the links you manage: your Google Business Profile, Facebook, LinkedIn, your ads and your email signature. Ask the sites that send you the most visitors to update their link.

Step 5: Move your images too, with their alt text

Images and PDFs have web addresses as well, and Google recommends moving them like the rest. Keep the alt text, the short description of each image: Google uses it to understand what the image shows.

Step 6: Site in several languages? Update the language links

A bit of code (hreflang) tells Google which pages are translations of each other. After a move, each language version must point to the new addresses of all the others, and to itself; otherwise Google ignores the link. Ask your web designer to check it. More in setting up a bilingual website.

Step 7: Domain and email: don't break your email

This is where something can go wrong that has nothing to do with Google: your email. Your domain name controls two things: where your site lives and where your email arrives. A move only changes the first. Have whoever does the move confirm that your email won't be affected.

Yourself: check who owns your domain. For a .be domain, do that at dnsbelgium.be (Verify details); for other endings, ask your registrar. For .be, the code to move your domain to another company goes to the holder's email address. If your web designer or old platform is the holder, sort that out first.

For your web designer:

• Write down every DNS record before anything changes, especially the MX records (which route your email to your mailbox) and the TXT records for SPF, DKIM and DMARC. If the domain moves to another provider, copy those records over beforehand.

• Lower the TTL a few days in advance, for example to 5 minutes (the short value Google Workspace mentions), so the switch takes effect quickly.

• Only change what serves the website (usually an A or CNAME record) and leave the email records alone.

Yourself: keep your old platform for another month, in case you forgot something.

Step 8: What can you get out of Wix, Webflow or WordPress?

Don't know which platform your site runs on? Check your invoices or ask your web designer.

• Wix. Wix itself says a Wix site can't be hosted by another company. CMS collections can be exported as CSV files, one at a time. Text and images from regular pages have to be copied over. After the move, your domain points to your new site, so that's where the redirects go, not at Wix.

• Webflow. CMS collections export as CSV, one collection and one language at a time; images appear as links, so save them before you cancel. A code export doesn't contain your CMS content, and forms and site search don't work outside Webflow.

• WordPress. Tools > Export creates an XML file with your posts, pages, comments, categories and menus. The images aren't in it: your web designer gets them separately. Take titles and descriptions from an SEO plugin from your list in step 1.

Step 9: Switch over and test right away

• During the build, a new site often asks Google not to list it (with a noindex or in the robots.txt file). Turn that off on switch-over day, or your whole site can disappear from Google.

• Yourself: type the ten old web addresses with the most clicks into your browser. Do you land on the right page straight away? For the whole list, your web designer uses the crawler from step 1.

• Yourself: send an email to your business from another address (e.g. Gmail), and reply to it. Fill in your contact form too.

• Your web designer submits the new sitemap in Search Console, and for a new domain name also a Change of Address.

Step 10: Measure the first weeks in Search Console

• Performance: compare clicks and impressions with the weeks before the move. If your business is seasonal, also compare with the same weeks last year.

• Pages: which addresses can't Google find? A redirect is missing there.

• Your forms: are enquiries still coming in?

How much of a drop is normal? Google gives no percentage, only that it can take a few weeks. Our rule of thumb: if after six weeks you still get clearly fewer visitors than before the move, and fewer than in the same weeks last year, use your list from step 1 to find the missing redirect, title or text.

Checklist: your questions for your web designer

• Do you have a list of all old web addresses, with the clicks from Search Console?

• Does every old address point with a 301 to the right new page, not to the home page?

• Are you carrying over my titles, descriptions and texts?

• Do the menu and texts link to the new addresses?

• Do images and PDFs move too, with their alt text?

• Are the language links right, for a site in several languages?

• Is my domain in my name, and will my email keep working?

• Is the block for Google removed on switch-over day?

• Will you submit the new sitemap?

• Will the redirects stay in place for at least a year?

• Who checks Search Console in the first weeks?

Kintsu handles this move for you: we carry over your texts, images, titles and web addresses, set up every redirect, and your domain stays with your own registrar (see how a website redesign works). If you run an online shop with many products, choose a platform built for that.

Sources

All sources accessed on 4 November 2026.

• Google Search Central, Site moves with URL changes (fluctuations, a few weeks, server-side 301 and 308, not everything to the home page, 404 or 410, at least a year, images, hreflang, links, removing noindex and robots.txt blocks, sitemap)

• Google Search Console Help, About Search Console (free) and Verify your site ownership

• Google Search Console Help, Change of Address tool

• Google Search Central, Localized versions of your pages (hreflang)

• Google Search Central, Google Images best practices (alt text)

• Screaming Frog, SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs)

• Google Workspace, DNS basics (TTL of 300 seconds, MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

• DNS Belgium, Who holds the key to your online business? (18 February 2026)

• DNS Belgium, Transfer your domain name to another holder (transfer code sent to the holder's email address)

• Wix, Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere

• Wix, CMS: Exporting content from your collection

• Webflow, Code export (CMS content, forms and site search not included)

• Webflow, Export CMS content as a CSV

• WordPress, Tools Export screen and Importing content