How to rebrand without losing your Google traffic
Rebrands often launch with a beautiful new website and a quiet disaster behind it: organic traffic falls because URLs changed, redirects were forgotten or the new domain started from zero. The design is rarely at fault. The migration was simply not planned. This is the checklist we follow.
Before launch: map what you have
- Export every indexed URL from Google Search Console and from a site crawl
- Mark the pages that bring traffic, links and conversions
- Save the titles, descriptions and headings of those pages
- Record current positions for your most important queries
Keep URLs where you can
The safest migration changes as few addresses as possible. If the structure of the new site allows it, keep the paths of your key pages the same. Change the design and the content, not the address, unless there is a strong reason.
Redirect everything else, one to one
Every old URL that changes needs a permanent 301 redirect to the most relevant new page. Avoid sending everything to the home page. Search engines treat that as a soft error, and visitors from old links land somewhere that does not answer their question.
If the domain changes
- Keep the old domain registered and redirect it page by page to the new one
- Verify both domains in Google Search Console
- Use the Change of Address tool in Search Console once the redirects are live
- Update the links you control: social profiles, directories, email signatures and partner sites
- Keep the redirects in place for at least a year, ideally permanently
Launch day checks
- The new site is not blocked by robots.txt or noindex tags left over from staging
- The XML sitemap lists the new URLs and is submitted
- Canonical tags point to the new addresses
- Structured data, analytics and conversion tracking work
- A crawl of the old URL list returns 301 responses, not 404 errors
Carry the old name for a while
People will keep searching for your previous name. Mention it on the About page and in a short announcement, for example “formerly known as”. This helps both customers and search engines connect the two brands.
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