How to Move an Existing Website Without Losing Rankings

en 2026-09-22 7 min read

Moving a website without losing rankings depends on one thing above the rest: every URL that ranks today must still answer after the move, at the same address or through a permanent redirect to its replacement. The cost follows what you move: a host change on the same code is scoped on its own, and a platform or agency change that means a rebuild is priced at the step the new site belongs to, from EUR 600-900 for a single-page landing to EUR 3.500-7.500 for an advanced site or web app.

Search engines rank pages, not websites. A new design that keeps every page at a known address, with the words that earned its position, gives them little to re-learn. Renaming every URL and dropping the pages nobody thought mattered throws that away, and the loss shows up slowly.

Three kinds of move, three different risks

Moving a website can mean three separate jobs, and each goes wrong in its own way.

What your rankings are attached to

Before anything moves, know what has to carry over.

• The URL. Links and search results point at an exact address. Change it without a permanent 301 redirect and it returns an error.
• The content on the page. Rewriting a page that ranks is fine. Cutting what it answered is a loss you chose.
• Titles and descriptions. They are what appears in the results, and a template that replaces them with the business name throws that away.
• Internal links. A new menu that stops linking to an old service page tells search engines it no longer matters.
• Indexability. A new site is built on a staging address that search engines are told to ignore. Forgetting to lift that instruction at launch hides the whole site.

The order to do it in

1. Inventory every URL. Pull the list from the current sitemap, the pages report in Google Search Console, the landing pages in analytics, and any page you know other sites link to. Pages with search impressions are the ones you cannot afford to lose.
2. Map old to new. Every old URL gets a destination: the same address, its direct replacement or the closest relevant page. Sending everything to the homepage is not a redirect map, and search engines treat it as a missing page.
3. Carry the content across first. Titles, descriptions, headings and the text on pages that rank move over before anything is rewritten. Improve them after launch, one change at a time, so you can see what each change did.
4. Build on staging, blocked from search. Check the new site against the redirect map and submit every form end to end.
5. Copy the DNS records before touching them. Email records sit next to the website record, and moving nameservers without copying them takes the email down with the site.
6. Launch and lift the block. Switch the DNS, remove the staging instruction, submit the new sitemap in Search Console and test the redirect map against the live domain.
7. Keep the old site until the new one is confirmed. Export the old files and database, and do not cancel the old hosting until redirects, forms and email all work on the live domain.
8. Watch Search Console. Pages reported as not found after launch are old URLs the map missed. Each one gets a redirect.

How long it takes

When the move is a rebuild, the timeline is the step's timeline: 1-2 weeks for a single-page landing, 2-3 weeks for a mini-site, 3-6 weeks for a business website and 6-12 weeks for an advanced site or web app. A custom SaaS platform is scoped in discovery first. The inventory and the redirect map sit at the start of those weeks, not at the end.

Access comes before all of it, and this is the part that waits on you: the domain registrar, the current host, Search Console, analytics and the code or an export of it. If the old search setup was never done properly, the SEO foundation at EUR 450-750, one-off, puts Search Console, analytics, indexation and titles in order at launch.

Changing agency: what to collect first

• Owner access to the domain at the registrar, in your own name
• Access to the hosting account, or a full export of the files
• The repository, if the site is built in code
• A database export, if the site stores anything
• Owner access to Search Console and analytics, so the history stays with you

Ask for these before you give notice, while the relationship is still cooperative. With us you own the code, the repository and the database, so a later move away from us begins from the same list. Hosting is agreed per project, and the studio can host when that is what we agree.

When to spend less

If the only complaint is the host, because it is slow, expensive or unreliable, move the host and leave the site alone. Same code and same URLs is the lowest-risk move there is, and a rebuild would add risk you do not need.

If the site works and the problem is the agency, collect the accounts and the code and keep the site. Leaving someone does not require a rebuild. Care from whoever takes over, or nothing at all on a site that rarely changes, may be all you need.

If you are on Wix or Squarespace and the site does what you need, stay. Changing platform to fix what a better title or a new page would fix is an expensive way to take on risk. And if Search Console shows almost no search traffic, redirect the pages other sites link to and skip the migration project. In any of these cases, do not hire us for a move yet.

Questions buyers ask

Will my rankings drop after the move?

Nobody can honestly promise no movement, since search engines have to recrawl the new pages. Losses that last come from URLs that stopped answering, content that was cut or a staging block left on. All three are preventable, which is why the redirect map comes before the build rather than after launch.

Should I change my domain name at the same time?

Only if you have to. A new domain is a separate move with its own risk, and combining it with a new platform means that if something drops, you cannot tell which change caused it. If the domain must change, redirect every old URL and use the change of address tool in Search Console.

Can I move from WordPress to a coded site without losing pages?

Yes, if the URL inventory and redirect map are done first. The new build keeps the addresses that rank where it can and redirects the rest to their direct replacements. How a coded build works is on Next.js development in Amsterdam, and the step prices are on packages.

What if my current agency will not hand over the site?

Start with the domain, because whoever controls it controls where the site points. Ask the registrar how to transfer it into your name, and request Search Console and analytics access in writing. Without the code a rebuild may be the only route, priced at the step the new site belongs to.

Send us the current address and what you want to move, and we will tell you which kind of move it is: get in touch.