Start with what already works
A rebrand is about name, colour and story. Search engines mostly look at addresses, content and links. Forget that layer and you lose pages that brought in visitors and enquiries for years.
So first list every existing URL: from the sitemap, the CMS, server logs and the links report in Search Console. Include images, PDFs and other files people find.
- Which pages bring traffic and enquiries today?
- Which URLs receive links from other websites?
- Which content disappears on purpose?
One old URL, one new destination
Map every old URL to the best matching new page. Google recommends permanent server-side redirects such as 301 or 308, and states that they do not cause a loss in PageRank.
Do not send everything to the homepage. An old service page redirects to the new service page. For content that really disappears, a 404 or 410 is more honest than a redirect to something unrelated.
Avoid chains and point straight to the final destination. Keep redirects for as long as possible, according to Google generally at least a year.
- Permanent server-side redirects (301 or 308)
- No redirect chains
- Internal links straight to the new URL
- Canonical and hreflang updated
Launch day
Check that robots.txt and noindex do not block the new site. Add both the old and the new address to Search Console and submit the new sitemap. If the domain changes, also use the Change of Address tool in Search Console; for new paths only or a switch to https that is not needed.
- robots.txt and noindex checked
- New sitemap submitted
- Spot check: ten old URLs lead to the right page in one step
- Forms, analytics and structured data tested
The first month after
Expect fluctuation. Google calls temporary ranking shifts normal, and for a medium-sized site it can take a few weeks or more before the new URLs show everywhere.
So measure per page instead of only the total: do the most important old URLs get their traffic back on the new addresses? Check 404s and coverage in Search Console every week and fix missed redirects straight away.
Primary sources
The factual and technical claims in this article were checked against these sources.
