Redirects and site migrations
The Doily team
Reviewed by the Doily team, Oct 2026 Updated 4 min read
Quick answer
Map every old URL to its closest new equivalent, serve permanent server-side redirects such as 301 or 308 from old to new, avoid chains, and keep the redirects for at least a year. Test before launch, submit the new sitemap, and use Change of Address in Search Console only when the domain changes.
Why it matters
Google says permanent redirects tell it the target should be canonical, and temporary redirects tell it to keep showing the source page. Using the wrong type, or pointing many old pages at the home page, can leave your new URLs unindexed or treated as soft 404 errors.
Google also says permanent redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank and that rankings can fluctuate while it recrawls a moved site. A planned move limits that fluctuation. An unplanned one extends it.
Key takeaways
- Use 301 or 308 for moves that will not be reversed and 302, 303, or 307 for temporary changes.
- Redirect each old URL to the most relevant new URL, not to the home page.
- Point redirects at the final destination to avoid chains, and keep them for generally at least a year.
- Change only one major thing at a time, and use Change of Address only for domain or subdomain moves.
Step by step
-
Inventory the old URLs
Export every URL that matters from your crawl, sitemap, analytics, and Search Console. Add pages with backlinks from your link data. Include images and downloads that receive traffic or links.
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Build the URL map
Create a sheet with the old URL in one column and the closest equivalent new URL in the next. Where content was merged, point the old pages to the merged page. Where content is gone with no equivalent, plan a 404 or 410 on the new site rather than a redirect to the home page.
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Prepare and test the new site
Build the new site on a staging address that is blocked from indexing. Check titles, canonicals, internal links, structured data, and speed. Prepare the new robots.txt and a list of noindex rules to remove at launch, since Google reminds site owners to remove blocks that were only meant for development.
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Set up server-side permanent redirects
Configure 301 or 308 redirects at the server or in your CMS, following your platform's documentation. Google recommends server-side redirects because they are most likely to be interpreted correctly. Use JavaScript redirects only if nothing else is possible.
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Remove chains and test every rule
Send each old URL straight to its final destination. Google says Googlebot can follow up to 10 hops but advises redirecting to the final destination directly, and keeping any chain ideally to no more than 3 hops. Test the whole map with a crawler and spot check key URLs in the URL Inspection tool.
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Launch and tell Google
Switch the redirects on, make sure the new canonical tags use the new URLs, and submit the new sitemap. If the domain or a subdomain changed, submit Change of Address for every verified variant of the old domain. You do not need it for HTTP to HTTPS moves, www to non-www, or moving paths within a domain.
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Monitor and keep the redirects
Watch both properties in Search Console, the Page indexing report, and your analytics. Expect temporary fluctuation while Google recrawls. Google advises keeping redirects for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year, and updating your own links and high-volume external links to the new URLs.
Redirect types at a glance
| Method | Type | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP 301 or 308 | Permanent | Page or site has moved for good |
| HTTP 302, 303, or 307 | Temporary | A short-term detour where the original URL should stay in results |
| Meta refresh at 0 seconds | Permanent | Only when you cannot change server settings |
| JavaScript location | Permanent | Last resort, because Google may not see it if rendering fails |
Example data for a map. The last row has no equivalent, so it returns a 404 instead of a redirect.
| Old URL | New URL | Action |
|---|---|---|
| /services/boiler-repair | /services/boiler-repair-hartford | 301 |
| /blog/winter-checklist-2024 | /guides/winter-heating-checklist | 301 |
| /old-promo | None | 404 |
How Doily helps
Doily's site audit crawls your pages and ranks fixes by priority, which helps you find broken links, redirect chains, and error pages before and after a move.
Questions
301 or 302?
Use 301 or 308 when the move is permanent, because Google treats them as a signal that the new URL should be canonical. Use 302, 303, or 307 for temporary changes where the original URL should stay in results.
How long will a migration take to settle?
Google says a small or medium site can take a few weeks for most pages to move, and larger sites take longer. It also says visibility may fluctuate temporarily during the move.
Should I redirect everything to the home page?
No. Google advises against redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant destination such as the new home page, because it can confuse users and be treated as a soft 404. If content was consolidated into a single page, redirecting the older URLs to that page is fine.
Sources
Primary sources, checked Oct 11, 2026.
