The two options
Mapping URLs, preserving structure and testing redirects before the new site goes live.
- A replatform, redesign or domain change is planned
- URL structure will change for any reason
- You still have several weeks before launch
Diagnosing and repairing losses after a migration has already damaged visibility.
- The site has already launched and traffic has fallen
- Redirects were partial, missing or chained
- Nobody captured the pre-migration baseline
How they differ
| Pre-launch migration support | Post-launch recovery | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical outcome | Most rankings preserved | Most rankings recovered, eventually |
| Duration | Two to six weeks before launch | Two to four months after |
| Relative effort | A fraction of recovery | Substantially higher |
| Needs a baseline | Captures one | Reconstructs one, imperfectly |
| Permanent loss risk | Low | Real, where old URLs are unknown |
What actually decides it
The single artefact that decides a migration is the URL map: every old URL, its status, and where it now points. Built before launch, it is a spreadsheet exercise. Reconstructed afterwards from archives and log files, it is guesswork with gaps, and every gap is a page whose accumulated links now resolve to nothing.
The second decisive factor is the baseline. Knowing what ranked where before the change is what makes recovery measurable rather than speculative. Teams that migrate without capturing one end up arguing about whether traffic has recovered, because there is no agreed number to recover to.
Recovery does work. Most migrations we see recover substantially within a quarter once redirects are repaired and the new structure is crawled properly. What does not fully come back is equity from links pointing at URLs nobody documented, because there is no way to redirect a URL you cannot identify.
Questions
How early should SEO be involved?
Before URL structure is finalised, which usually means during design rather than before launch week. The most expensive migration decisions are made when someone chooses a new URL pattern without knowing what the old one earned.
We already launched and traffic dropped. Is it recoverable?
Usually most of it. Repairing redirects and resolving indexation typically restores the bulk within two to four months. Equity from links pointing at undocumented old URLs is the part that may not return.
Does keeping the same URLs avoid all of this?
It removes the largest risk. Rendering changes, internal linking changes and template changes can still affect visibility, so the migration still needs testing — but the hardest problem is gone.
Related services
- Site Migration SEO — SEO
- Penalty Recovery — SEO
- Technical SEO Audit — SEO
- SEO Analytics — SEO
Still not sure?
Thirty minutes with a senior strategist. We pull your live visibility while we talk and tell you which of these two is actually binding for you — including when the answer is neither. Book a discovery call →