How to Redirect Website Without Losing Traffic

It is crucial to ensure that you retain all of your hard-earned SEO strength and organic traffic when rebranding, transferring, or relocating your website.

Unfortunately, a lot of businesses move their websites without knowing how to maintain their search engine optimization, which leads to a significant drop in their search engine ranks.

Are You Rebranding, Relocating or Both?

Rebranding is essentially painting a fresh look for your company. Maybe you're updating an antiquated brand image, or maybe you're going through a name change.

Your website will typically need to be moved to a new domain name or URL in conjunction with a name change.

The following are the salient features of each to assist you in determining which applies to your situation:

• Website Rebrand
• Website Relocation
• Website Rebrand & Relocation

How To Migrate Without Losing SEO

Moving to a new home is an excellent chance to get rid of stuff you have accumulated over the years, but you probably don't want to take everything with you. The same goes for migrating your website.

You can make sure that everything of value is switched over smoothly and that outdated pages and unusable content are left behind by carefully planning every step of your website rebuild and domain relocation.

Use 301 Redirects (Permanent Redirects)

A 301 redirect tells search engines that the page has moved permanently to a new location.

It preserves the SEO value (link equity) and ensures that the new page can maintain or improve its ranking.

Example in .htaccess for Apache servers:

Redirect 301 /old-page-url https://www.example.com/new-page-url

Maintain a Similar URL Structure

Try to maintain the original URL structure as much as feasible. Too many abrupt changes to the URL format could mislead users and search engines.

Make sure the sites that are most pertinent are referred to related material on the new website.

Update Internal Links

Verify all internal links are pointing to the new URLs after the redirects have been put into place. This entails changing the links in the sitemap, navigation, and any embedded material on your website.

Redirect chains, in which one page redirects to another, should be avoided as they can impair SEO and cause loading times to increase.

Submit the Updated Sitemap to Search Engines

After the redirect is set up, submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to help search engines index your new pages faster.

Remove the old URLs from your sitemap, and ensure your new URLs are well-indexed.

Monitor Traffic with Google Analytics and Search Console

After a redirection, set up Google Analytics and track traffic.

Check for any crawl issues and ensure that all redirects are operating as intended with Google Search Console.

Notify Backlink Partners

To avoid depending entirely on redirects, get in touch with the owners of any high-value backlinks to your website and request that they adjust their links to the new URL.

Ensure a Fast Page Load Speed

A seamless, quick changeover benefits search engines and improves user experience. Verify the performance optimization of your redirected pages or new website.

Maintain Content Quality

To make sure that users continue to receive the value they anticipate, maintain or enhance the quality of the information on the new pages. Additionally, this may support or improve search engine rankings.

What Comes Next Following The Website Migration

After your website has been rebranded and moved, there are a few crucial things you need to do to make sure all of your hard work has paid off.

The first thing you should do is search through all web directories for your company (including social media accounts).

Because consistent information across platforms helps Google trust and rank your website higher, it's imperative that you update these listings with your new brand name and website URL.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I transfer to a new domain and still keep my SEO?

Use 301 redirects to move traffic from the old URLs to the matching new URLs when switching to a new domain in order to preserve SEO.

This protects your SEO rankings and link equity by ensuring that users and search engines are redirected to the appropriate pages.

How do 301 redirects affect my website’s SEO?

Maintaining your website's search engine rankings and SEO equity is made easier with 301 redirects, which transfer the majority of the old URL's ranking power to the new URL.

How long do I need to keep redirects in place after moving a website?

After relocating a website, 301 redirects should be left in place for a minimum of a year.

During this time, users and search engines can become used to the new URLs, ensuring that user access is unhindered and that the SEO value is fully conveyed

Weft Technologies is a leading SEO agency based in Kerala, India, specializing in helping businesses enhance their online visibility. By offering tailored SEO strategies, Weft Technologies drives organic traffic, improves search rankings, and boosts overall digital presence, ensuring long-term growth for its clients.