Carrying your addresses across to the new site

This is the single most common way a redesign destroys years of accumulated visibility, and it is entirely preventable with a spreadsheet and an afternoon of attention.

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Before launch, export every existing page address and map each one to its closest equivalent on the new site, then implement those as permanent redirects. Do not send everything to the homepage: search engines treat that as a soft failure. Check a sample after launch and watch for errors in Search Console.

What is actually at stake

Every address on your current site may be known to search engines, linked to from other websites, saved in somebody's bookmarks, or printed on something. All of that value attaches to the specific address rather than to your site in general.

When the address stops existing and nothing directs the visitor onward, that value is discarded. Years of accumulated visibility can disappear in the afternoon of a launch.

Build the map before anything else

Export a complete list of existing addresses from three sources and combine them, because each catches something the others miss.

  • Your current sitemap file.
  • Analytics, for every page that received a visit in the past year or two.
  • Search Console, for every page search engines know about.
  • Any list of pages linked from external sites, if you can get one.
  • Printed material, vehicles and signage, for addresses that exist offline.

Choose the destination for each one

For every old address, name the page on the new site that most closely serves the same purpose. The test is whether somebody who wanted the old page would be satisfied by the new one.

Where there is a genuine equivalent, redirect to it. Where there is not, decide deliberately: either create the equivalent, or accept that the page is gone and let it return a proper not-found response.

The homepage mistake

The tempting shortcut is to send everything to the homepage. It looks like it works: nobody sees an error page.

Search engines treat a redirect to an irrelevant page as a soft failure and generally drop the old page anyway, so the value is lost while appearing to have been preserved. Visitors also dislike it, because they asked for something specific and were dropped somewhere general.

Use permanent redirects, and avoid chains

A permanent redirect is the instruction that transfers the accumulated value. Temporary ones tell search engines the old address will return, which is not what you mean.

Also avoid chains, where one address redirects to another that redirects again. They slow things down and lose value at each step. Point every old address directly at its final destination, even if that means editing the map after a later change.

Check after launch, and keep checking

On launch day, test a sample by hand: your most visited pages, your converting pages, and any address printed on physical material. Confirm each lands where the map says.

Then watch Search Console over the following weeks for pages it cannot reach, and fix anything that appears. The first month after launch is when problems are cheapest to correct.

  • Test the top twenty addresses by hand on launch day.
  • Confirm the redirects are permanent, not temporary.
  • Check for chains and shorten them.
  • Watch Search Console weekly for a month.
  • Update internal links to point at the new addresses directly.

How Licheo handles migrations

The map is built as part of the launch rather than promised afterwards, from the combined sources above, with a named destination for every address.

Redirects go live at the same moment as the new site, and a sample is verified by a person before the launch is called finished.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Redesign and revenue. The other parts:

Questions people ask

What are redirects and why do they matter in a redesign?
A redirect sends an old address to its replacement and transfers the accumulated value attached to that address. Without them, links, bookmarks and search visibility built up over years are discarded when the old pages disappear.
Can I just redirect everything to my homepage?
No. Search engines treat a redirect to an irrelevant page as a soft failure and generally drop the old page anyway, so the value is lost while appearing preserved. Visitors dislike it for the same reason.
Where do I get a list of my current addresses?
Combine your sitemap, analytics for pages visited in the last year or two, and Search Console for pages search engines know about. Each source misses something the others catch.
What if a page has no equivalent on the new site?
Decide deliberately: either create the equivalent, or let the address return a proper not-found response. Forcing a redirect to something unrelated is worse than an honest not-found.
How do I check the redirects worked?
Test your top pages by hand on launch day, confirm the redirects are permanent rather than temporary, shorten any chains, and watch Search Console weekly for a month for pages it cannot reach.

Keep what you have already earned

The redirect map is built and verified as part of the launch, not promised for afterwards.

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