Will I lose my Google rankings if I move my website?

Not if the move is done carefully, though nobody honest can promise you a ranking. What Google ranks is your pages at their addresses. Keep the addresses, forward the ones that change, keep the titles and the words, and you have kept the things your ranking rests on. Most damage in a move comes from broken addresses and pages that quietly vanish, and both are avoidable.

Do I need to keep my web address when I move?

Yes. Your web address - your domain - is where your reputation lives. Moving hosts while keeping the same address is like moving house while keeping your phone number: callers notice nothing. Change the address itself and you start again from the beginning, so keep the domain in your own name and take it with you.

What is a 301 redirect?

A forwarding instruction. When a page's address changes, a 301 tells browsers and search engines that the old address has permanently moved to the new one, and sends both along. A visitor with an old bookmark lands in the right place, and Google passes the old page's standing to the new address instead of dropping it.

How long does Google take to catch up after a move?

It varies with the size of the site and how often Google visits it - days for some sites, weeks for others. Expect some wobble in the numbers while the old addresses are rechecked, and judge the move over weeks, not days. A well-forwarded site settles; a badly-forwarded one does not.

Report · 24 July 2026

How to move your website without losing your Google rankings

"Will I lose my Google ranking?" is the question everyone asks before moving a website, and it deserves a straight answer. A move done carelessly can cost you years of being found. A move done carefully keeps what you have earned. The difference is five practical things, and none of them is secret.

This is the checklist, whoever does your move.

Keep your web address

Your domain - the address people type - is where everything Google knows about you is filed. Keep it, and the move is invisible from the outside. Give it up, and you are starting again as a stranger.

So the first rule is simple: the domain stays yours, in your own name, and it comes with you. Any mover who wants to take ownership of your address, or park your site on an address of theirs, is asking you to hand over the thing you are trying to protect.

Keep the page addresses, or forward them

Google does not rank your website as one lump. It ranks pages, each at its own address. If your pottery classes lived at /classes before the move, the safest thing is for them to live at /classes after it.

Where an address has to change, the old one must forward to the new one - a permanent redirect, called a 301. That single instruction does two jobs: a visitor with an old bookmark or an old link lands on the right page, and Google transfers the old address's standing to the new one instead of writing it off. Broken old addresses are the single biggest way moves go wrong, because every link anyone has ever made to you points at the old addresses, not the new ones.

Keep the titles and the words

A page's title and description are how Google understands what the page is for, and often what it shows in the results. If the move rewrites them, or replaces them with something generic, you have changed your name mid-introduction. The words on the page matter the same way - they are what you rank for. A move should carry the words across as they are. Improving them is worthwhile work, but it is separate work, best done after the move has settled, one change at a time.

Account for every page

Sites lose pages in moves the way houses lose teaspoons - quietly, and nobody notices for weeks. A page that vanishes takes its search standing with it, and any links pointing at it now point at nothing.

Before the move, list every page. After it, check the list: each page either kept its address, forwards to a new one, or was dropped on purpose and you know why. "Every page accounted for" is the whole discipline in four words. If your mover cannot show you that accounting, you are trusting the teaspoons to luck.

Tell Google, then be patient

Once the site is moved, make sure it has a sitemap - the machine-readable list of pages search engines read - and expect a wobble. Google rechecks a moved site address by address, and while it does, the numbers can dip and sway. That is normal. Judge the move over weeks, not days. What settles well is a site whose addresses work and whose pages are all present. What never settles is a site full of broken forwarding.

How Bernard does it

This checklist is how Bernard was built to move houses. As he packs, he writes down every page - its address, its title, its description - like a removals man photographing every shelf before the boxes are sealed. He keeps page addresses as they are, keeps the links between pages working, and carries the titles and words across with the furniture. Your domain never leaves your hands: the site moves, the keys stay yours. And he will measure up first and tell you plainly if your site is one he cannot lift, before any money changes hands.

None of that is a promise about rankings - be wary of anyone who makes you one. It is the careful handling that gives your rankings nothing to trip over.

Paste your current address and Bernard will measure up, free, and show you the new place before you decide anything.

Questions people ask

Will I lose my Google rankings if I move my website?: Not if the move is done carefully, though nobody honest can promise you a ranking. What Google ranks is your pages at their addresses. Keep the addresses, forward the ones that change, keep the titles and the words, and you have kept the things your ranking rests on. Most damage in a move comes from broken addresses and pages that quietly vanish, and both are avoidable.
Do I need to keep my web address when I move?: Yes. Your web address - your domain - is where your reputation lives. Moving hosts while keeping the same address is like moving house while keeping your phone number: callers notice nothing. Change the address itself and you start again from the beginning, so keep the domain in your own name and take it with you.
What is a 301 redirect?: A forwarding instruction. When a page's address changes, a 301 tells browsers and search engines that the old address has permanently moved to the new one, and sends both along. A visitor with an old bookmark lands in the right place, and Google passes the old page's standing to the new address instead of dropping it.
How long does Google take to catch up after a move?: It varies with the size of the site and how often Google visits it - days for some sites, weeks for others. Expect some wobble in the numbers while the old addresses are rechecked, and judge the move over weeks, not days. A well-forwarded site settles; a badly-forwarded one does not.