How long should I keep the redirects?

Google's documentation on moving a site with URL changes says to keep them for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year, and adds that from the user's point of view you may want to keep them indefinitely. The Change of Address help page mentions at least 180 days. These are not in conflict: 180 days is the tool's signal forwarding window, one year is the recommendation.

Do I lose ranking power with a 301?

No. Google states plainly that permanent redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank. The difference between 301 and 302 is not power but signal: a permanent redirect tells the indexing pipeline that the target should be canonical, a temporary one leaves the source as canonical.

Should I use the Change of Address tool?

Only for a domain change, and only if you own both properties in Search Console, under the same Google account, at domain level. For an http to https move Google explicitly says not to use it. Same for www to non-www, where redirects and canonical tags are enough.

How long will the turbulence last?

Google writes that a medium sized site can take a few weeks for most pages to move in the index, and larger sites take longer. The move happens on a per URL basis, so you see a gradual picture rather than a single switch.

Can I change domain and redesign at the same time?

Technically yes, in practice we avoid it. Google recommends splitting the move into smaller steps where that makes sense. If URLs, content and structure all change at once, you will not know what caused what when traffic drops.

What are redirect chains and why do they matter?

A chain is when an old URL points to a second URL which points to a third. Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, but Google advises redirecting to the final destination directly and, if that is not possible, ideally no more than 3 hops.

Can I redirect all old pages to the homepage?

No. Google names this explicitly as a mistake: redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant destination such as the homepage confuses users and may be treated as a soft 404. If content was genuinely removed, return 404 or 410.

What about images, videos and files?

They belong in the plan like everything else. Google asks specifically that you include embedded content in your site move plans: videos, images, JavaScript and CSS files.

Site migration without losing SEO: what Google documents

Some technical jobs forgive you. A site migration is one of the very few where one badly prepared evening can undo three years of work. I know how that sounds. It is not dramatic phrasing, it is arithmetic: organic search traffic is built slowly, it rests on URLs that third parties have linked to, and when those URLs vanish without a plan, the building starts again from zero. It is taking down the scaffolding before the concrete has set.

The good news? Google documents the process in unusual detail. So let me be clear early on: what follows is not opinion, it is what Google itself says.

First things first: what kind of move is this?

Google splits migrations into two entirely different cases, and the first mistake gets made right here.

Without URL changes. You are changing host or infrastructure and the URLs stay the same. The main recommendation is practical and free: lower your DNS TTL to a few hours at least a week in advance. Google notes it is normal to see a temporary drop in Googlebot’s crawl rate right after the launch, followed by a steady increase over the next few days. So do not panic on day one.

With URL changes. A domain change, merging two sites, restructuring paths, or moving from http to https. Good intentions will not carry this one. It needs a full plan.

The map almost everyone walks straight past

The step that gets skipped most often. Google puts it third in its five documented steps, before you touch the server at all: prepare a mapping from every current URL to its new form.

And I know what you are thinking. “Paperwork, we will do it at the end if there is time.” It is not paperwork. It is the file you will write the redirects from, check what you forgot against, and answer the question “why did this page drop” three months later. Without it you are working blind, and a blind bet gets paid for in visitors.

The map includes embedded content: images, videos, JavaScript and CSS files. Google asks for this explicitly, and it is the most common gap on accommodation and e-commerce sites, where photographs bring in traffic from image search on their own.

301 or 302, and why it is not what you think

The answer is 301, but not for the reason you hear at most tables.

Google writes plainly that permanent redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank. There is no “link juice leak” in a 301, however long that phrase has been passed around. The real difference is the canonicalisation signal. In the redirects documentation, a permanent redirect is used as a signal that the target should be canonical, while a temporary one leaves the source page as canonical. In practice: with a 301 the new URL shows in results, with a 302 the old one does.

Every new page also needs a self-referencing canonical link. A page declaring who it is.

The Change of Address tool, and the two numbers that confuse everyone

Search Console has a Change of Address tool, with prerequisites that turn half the people who want it away: you must own both properties, under the same Google account, and they must be domain level properties.

What it does, according to the help page: it tells Google to emphasise crawling the new site, forwards various signals from old to new, and tells Google to prefer the new site when determining canonical pages. These actions continue for 180 days. After that, Google does not recognise any relationship between the two sites and treats the old one as unrelated.

That is where the apparent contradiction comes from. The same page says to maintain redirects for at least 180 days. The site move page says at least 1 year, and adds that from the users’ perspective you might keep them indefinitely. So which is it? Both. They do not conflict: one is the tool’s window, the other is the recommendation for transferring links and signals. Google further recommends continuing to pay for the old domain for at least a year. Bing is stricter and asks for one to two years, preferably longer. You do not throw the old domain away. You leave it on, like a light in the hallway.

For an http to https move, Google explicitly says not to use the tool. Same for www to non-www.

What to expect once the button is pressed

Temporary fluctuation. Google frames it as expected: on a medium sized site it takes a few weeks for most pages to move in the index, longer on large ones. And a detail that calms nerves: the move happens per URL. There is no moment when “the site went across”, there is a gradual shift as Googlebot visits every old and new URL at least once. It is not a switch flipping, it is a house move done box by box.

A useful timing note: Google suggests moving during a traffic dip. For a Greek accommodation business that means November, not May. And yes, in November nobody feels like touching their website. That is exactly why it is the right month.

Let us walk through the five mistakes

Redirect chains. Old URL to a second, second to a third. Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, but the advice is to redirect straight to the final destination and, failing that, ideally no more than 3. It typically happens when an old http to https rule coexists with a new domain rule, which is to say nobody cleaned up behind themselves.

Everything to the homepage. The classic “send it all to the homepage”. Google names this as a mistake that may be treated as a soft 404. If content was removed, return 404 or 410. If it was consolidated, send it to the page that absorbed it.

Forgotten noindex. The staging site had a blocking rule. The one that is now stopping anyone from seeing you at all. Build the list of URLs you will remove it from before you press the button.

Forgotten internal links and hreflang. Internal links should point at the new URLs, not travel through a redirect. If the site is multilingual, the hreflang annotations need updating too. You have met this one: a menu still pointing at the old world.

Redesigning at the same time. Google does not forbid it, but it does recommend splitting the move into smaller steps. Change URLs, copy and structure together and the next drop will be undiagnosable. Then the guessing starts, and guessing costs more than measuring.

How this goes in practice, from our own experience

We have walked this road several times. On yachtsgreece.com the restructure happened on a site with heavy history, and on osyllektis.gr the rebuild had to preserve every product URL. Even on our own blog, when we retired an article we did not let it become a 404: a redirect to the article index went in, so that anything already linked from elsewhere was not lost.

The pattern is always the same. Map first, redirects second, monitoring on both sides for months. Boring? Extremely. But boring work is the kind that does not wake you up at night.

Why any of this matters

Migration is not dangerous because it is hard. It is dangerous because it looks easy: change DNS, upload files, done. And that is precisely the moment the scaffolding comes down before the concrete has set. The difference between a move nobody notices and one that costs a year of recovery is a mapping file and some patience with the schedule.

If you are wondering whether it is time to change your site, I have written separately about the signs that say so. If you have already decided and want it done without losses, get in touch before you change anything.

Changing domain or moving your site: how not to lose your SEO overnight