How to Do SEO After Domain Migration
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Once a move to a new domain has launched, a temporary traffic dip is expected while Google recrawls both sites and shifts its results to the new addresses. Your job during that window isn’t to hurry Google. It is to make every signal point the same way, find what still points at the old domain, and track the trend so a stall gets caught early and a normal dip isn’t mistaken for failure.
Expect movement, then read the trend
Google’s site move guide tells you to expect temporary fluctuation in site ranking during a move. It asks you to monitor traffic on both the old and new URLs, and to verify both sites, with all their variants, in Search Console.
The pattern to look for is two lines crossing: the new domain’s indexed pages and impressions rising while the old domain’s fall. A new domain that stays flat while the old one keeps its presence is the stall to investigate.
Confirm the Change of Address
Google’s Change of Address help says to use the tool after you’ve moved and redirected your site, and lists its requirements: you must own both the old and new properties in Search Console and manage them with the same Google account. It also says:
- the move shows as in progress in Search Console for 180 days
- you should maintain the redirects for at least 180 days, longer if you still see traffic to them from Google Search
- keeping the same site architecture in the new location helps pass the signals more directly
If the request was never completed, or the redirects were taken down early, fix that first.
Look for canonical signals that disagree
A permanent redirect from each old URL and a self-referencing canonical on each new page tell Google the same thing. Trouble starts when another signal contradicts them. Google’s guide to consolidating duplicate URLs documents both a rel="canonical" link element and a rel="canonical" HTTP header, and says not to specify different URLs as canonical for the same page using different techniques.
That makes the response headers one place to look. A CDN rule, a cache layer or an old server config can still send a canonical header naming the old domain while the HTML names the new one, and the page source won’t show it. Request a stuck URL, read the full response headers, and fix whichever layer is sending the stale header. Then run the new URL through the URL Inspection tool and read the Google-selected canonical.
Read the status of stuck new-domain pages
Google’s Page indexing report help defines each status, and each points somewhere different after a move:
| Status on a new-domain URL | What it means | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user | The page is marked canonical, but Google thinks another URL makes a better canonical | Conflicting signals: headers, sitemaps, internal links still naming old URLs |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | A duplicate that doesn't indicate a preferred canonical | A missing canonical tag on the new template |
| Page with redirect | A non-canonical URL that redirects to another page | A rule sending new URLs somewhere else, or a loop |
| Crawled – currently not indexed | Crawled but not indexed; it may or may not be indexed in the future | Page quality, or time; Google says there's no need to resubmit the URL |
Group the stuck URLs by status and treat each group for what it means.
Find what still points at the old domain
A find-and-replace in the codebase can miss references stored elsewhere:
- URLs built in JavaScript or stored in database fields
- canonical and hreflang tags generated by a template that still holds the old host
- XML sitemaps that list old-domain URLs
- links inside PDFs and other downloadable files
Crawl the new site for any link or resource on the old hostname, and open the downloadable documents a code search skips.
Update links from other sites
The redirects carry visitors and crawlers from old links to new pages, but Google’s site move guide also suggests contacting the sites that link to your content and asking them to update their links to the new site. Start from the Links report and prioritize the links that bring visitors or point at your most important pages.
Don’t disavow links to the old domain; they are the links you moved to keep. The site move guide asks for the opposite kind of care: if you uploaded a disavow file for the old site, re-upload it in the new site’s Search Console property.
Report the trend, not a date
Send stakeholders the weekly trend for both domains against the pre-move baseline. The site move guide gives no recovery date, so frame the dip as the expected cost of the move while the lines cross, and flag it as a problem only when the new domain stops gaining.
Frequently asked questions
My redirects all work but traffic dropped. What’s wrong?
Maybe nothing yet: Google’s site move guide tells you to expect ranking to fluctuate during a move. Check the Change of Address status, the canonical in the response headers of stuck pages, and the Page indexing status of new-domain URLs before concluding the move stalled.
How long should I keep the old domain’s redirects?
Google’s Change of Address help says at least 180 days, and longer if Google Search still sends traffic to them.
Should I disavow the links to my old domain?
No. They are the links you want to keep. If you had a disavow file on the old site, re-upload it for the new site, as the site move guide recommends.