How to handle a redesign, CMS change, or technical migration without losing organic traffic and Google rankings.
In short
How to handle a redesign, CMS change, or technical migration without losing organic traffic and Google rankings.
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A website migration is one of the easiest moments to lose organic traffic. The issue is rarely the redesign itself. More often, it is missing redirects, changed URL structure, removed content, or launch without indexing checks.
Before work starts, collect all important URLs: service pages, blog posts, categories, landing pages, and pages with organic traffic. Then decide which URLs stay, which are merged, and which need redirects.
If a URL changes, it needs a 301 redirect. Without it, users and Google land on 404 pages, and authority from the old URL does not move to the new one. Redirects should be tested before launch, not after traffic drops.
New websites are often shorter and cleaner, but they can lose sections that answered specific search queries. Every removed section should be reviewed: did it bring traffic, links, inquiries, or support an important service?
After publishing, check sitemap, robots, canonicals, HTTP statuses, indexing, forms, and analytics. A migration is finished only when the new site works technically and preserves the signals that already supported visibility.