Migrate a Website Without Losing Important URLs in Granger

A website migration should begin with the current URL set.

Existing addresses are part of the site's public identity. Some may be bookmarked, linked from other sites, indexed in search, printed on documents, or used by customers directly.

Inventory before changing the structure

Export or crawl the existing URLs before rebuilding.

Then classify important pages by:

• current business relevance;
• known traffic where data is available;
• inbound links where known;
• customer use;
• whether the same content will exist after migration.

Do not wait until after launch to discover what disappeared.

Keep URLs that still make sense

If a page continues to serve the same purpose, keeping its existing path is often the simplest migration.

A new framework, CMS, or design does not require a new slug.

Change URLs only when the content structure genuinely changes.

Map genuine moves one to one

When an old page has a clear new replacement, redirect the old URL to that page.

Google's current site-move guidance continues to recommend mapping old URLs to their new locations and using redirects for moved resources.

Avoid blanket redirects that send unrelated old pages to the homepage.

Update the new site itself

Internal links, canonicals, navigation, and sitemap entries should point directly to current URLs instead of depending on redirects for normal use.

Redirects are primarily for legacy entry points.

Verify after launch

Test important old URLs, new URLs, redirect destinations, unexpected 404s, canonical references, and sitemap output.

For a related next step, see Move a Website Without Unnecessarily Changing Every URL in Novelty and Keep Old Website Links Working During a Migration in Hurdland.

For authoritative guidance on this subject, see Google's guidance on site moves.

See Also

• Change Website URLs Without Throwing Away Search Visibility in Alexandria

Switchboard can help Granger and Northeast Missouri businesses treat URL preservation as a planned part of migration instead of an emergency cleanup after the new site goes live.