site migration
Also called: website migration, site move, domain migration
A site migration is any change that moves a website to a new domain, URL structure, CMS, hosting, or protocol. Google splits them into moves with URL changes (which need redirects) and moves without URL changes (hosting or CMS swaps where the visible URLs stay the same).
Two kinds of migration
Google treats site moves as two separate cases. A move with URL changes covers a new domain (example.com to example.net), a switch from HTTP to HTTPS, or a reworked URL path. A move without URL changes covers swapping hosting, CDN, or CMS while the addresses visitors see stay identical.
For URL changes, the load-bearing step is mapping every old URL to its closest new equivalent, then serving server-side permanent redirects (301 or 308). Google recommends filing a Change of Address request in Search Console, which forwards signals from the old site to the new one and stays active for 180 days. Keep the redirects live for at least a year so links pointing at old URLs get reassigned. A small to medium site takes a few weeks for most pages to move, and larger sites take longer.
For hosting or CMS moves where URLs stay put, the risk shifts to infrastructure. Lower your DNS TTL about a week ahead, test on an IP-restricted staging host, and confirm Googlebot can reach the new server before you cut over. A short crawl-rate dip right after launch is normal, followed by a steady recovery.
Migrations are where rankings quietly leak: a botched redirect map, an accidental noindex carried over from staging, or a target domain that already carries a manual action. Export a full Search Console and analytics baseline first so you can tell a normal settling period from a real regression.
How it affects your traffic
A migration is the fastest way to lose organic traffic you already earned. Rankings built over years can drop within days when redirects are wrong, canonicals get lost, or the new domain has a poisoned history. Because the failure modes are structural and hard to reverse once crawlers have re-indexed the mess, this is high-stakes work worth planning with SEO Consulting before you flip the switch, not after traffic has fallen. The same care now protects AI-search visibility: broken redirects and dropped canonicals can cut you out of the pages that AI Overviews and assistants cite.
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