Moving a site without losing search traffic
The redirect list, the checks before launch and the two weeks after it, from the last twelve sites we moved.
A new site can lose a third of its search traffic in a week if old addresses stop working. It does not have to.
Before launch
We export every URL that had a visit in the last year, from analytics and the search console, and map each one to its new address. Pages that are being removed point to the closest page that still exists.
On launch day
The redirect list goes live with the site. We request every old URL and check it lands where it should, with a single permanent redirect.
The two weeks after
We watch the search console daily for errors and fix anything that slipped through. On the last twelve sites we moved, search traffic was back to its old level within three weeks.