Rankings Dropped After a Website Migration? How to Recover
Rankings usually drop after a migration because old URLs don’t redirect to the matching new pages, content was removed, or internal links changed. List your old URLs (from Search Console or an old sitemap), map each one with a 301 redirect to its closest new page, restore missing content and resubmit your sitemap.
Why do rankings drop after a website migration? The most common reason is missing redirects. When old page addresses change and aren’t redirected to the matching new pages, Google treats the old pages as gone and the rankings they held disappear. Other causes are pages left out of the new site, the new site being blocked from Google, slower pages, and changes to titles and content.
What should I check first? 1. Redirects: take a list of old URLs (from Search Console, an old sitemap or analytics) and check each one goes to the right new page with a 301 redirect. 2. Robots and noindex: developers often block the staging site; make sure that setting didn’t copy across to the live site. 3. Sitemap: submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console. 4. Search Console Pages report: look for spikes in “Not found (404)” and “Excluded by noindex”. 5. Content and titles: compare top pages before and after. Lost text, headings or internal links often explain drops.
How long does recovery take? After fixes, rankings often come back over a few weeks as Google recrawls. If the domain changed, set up a Change of Address in Search Console and keep the old domain redirecting for at least a year.
How do I avoid this next time? Map every old URL to a new one before launch, keep the same URLs where you can, test the new site with a crawler before going live, and record rankings and traffic for the main pages so you can compare.
| Check | Tool | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Old URLs returning 404 | Search Console → Pages | 301 redirects |
| Lost content | Compare old and new pages | Restore key text and FAQs |
| Titles changed | Crawl both versions | Restore strong titles |
| Noindex left on | Page source | Remove noindex |
| Sitemap | Search Console | Submit the new sitemap |
