How to Move Your Website to a New Domain and Protect Search Traffic: Redirects, Change of Address and Bing

What Is a Domain Move?

A domain move is a site move in which every page's URL changes because the hostname changes, for example from example.com to example.net, and search engines must be told, through redirects, that each old URL now lives at a new address.

Google treats it as one kind of “site move with URL changes”, alongside HTTP-to-HTTPS moves and path changes (Google, How to move a site). The move “takes place on a per-URL basis”: Google says that to consider a move complete, “Googlebot will have to visit every URL on your old and new site at least once.” A hosting or CDN change with no visible URL change is a different process with its own Google guide. Google's overview has five stages: learn the best practices, prepare the new site, prepare a URL mapping, start the move with redirects, and monitor traffic. The steps below follow that order and add the Search Console and Bing actions.

How to Move a Website to a New Domain at a Glance

Time: preparation for a small site can take a few days (our estimate); Google says moving most pages of a small to medium site “can take a few weeks”, longer for large sites, and the redirects should stay at least a year. Tools: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, server or CMS access, a crawler or command line for testing. Cost: the search tools are free; budget for keeping the old domain registered. Skill level: intermediate to advanced; server redirect rules are the technical core.

What You Need Before Starting

• The new domain registered, with DNS control.
• Owner access in Google Search Console to the old site, or the ability to verify it, using the same Google account you will use for the new site.
• Access to the server configuration (for example Apache .htaccess or NGINX config) or a CMS that can issue server-side 301 redirects.
• A list of current sitemaps and access to server logs or analytics.
• A plan to keep the old domain registered. Google recommends paying for it “for at least a year” so others cannot buy and misuse it.
• A decision to change only the domain. Google advises: “Change only one thing at a time”, for example moving domains first and redesigning later.

Step 1: Verify Both Domains in Search Console and Bing

Verify the old and new sites in Google Search Console, including every variant, and add the new site to Bing Webmaster Tools.

Why: the Change of Address tool will not run unless you are “an owner of both the old and new properties” and “use the same Google account to manage both properties” (Change of Address help). Google's site move guide says to verify “all variants of both the old and new sites”, such as www.example.com and example.com, on both HTTP and HTTPS.

Process: follow our guide to verifying your site in Google Search Console for each property. In Bing Webmaster Tools you can import verified sites from Search Console; Bing says imported sites “get automatically verified” and their sitemaps come with them (Bing, Add and verify site).

Expected result: verified properties for the old domain's variants and the new domain. How to verify: each appears in the Search Console property selector with owner permission. Common mistake: verifying with an HTML file or meta tag and then not copying it to the new site. Google warns to keep verification working after the move, as tokens “may be different when the URL changes.”

Step 2: Check the New Domain's History

Check the new domain's Search Console property for manual actions and leftover URL removals before you move anything to it.

Why: Google's guide says to “clean up your recently purchased domain” and make sure it is free of “outstanding issues from the previous owner”. A previously used domain can carry spam history; see our explainer on expired domain abuse for why Google watches reused domains.

Process: in the new property, check for manual actions and for URL removal requests. Address any manual action and file a reconsideration request; cancel any removal left by the previous owner, “especially a site-wide URL removal.” If you disavowed links on the old site, Google recommends re-uploading the disavow file in the new site's property. (The guide also says to set the crawl rate to “Let Googlebot determine”, but Google deprecated the crawl rate limiter tool on January 8, 2024, so there is no such setting to change.)

Expected result: no manual actions and no active removals on the new domain. How to verify: both reports show nothing pending. Common mistake: buying an aftermarket domain without checking it, then attributing inherited problems to the move.

Step 3: Build an Inventory of Old URLs

List every URL on the old site that has traffic, links or search visibility, including embedded files.

Why: any URL that is not mapped will end up without a redirect. Google notes that for a simple domain change you may be able to use a wildcard server rule, but for more complex moves you need a list.

Process, using the sources Google names in its site move guide:

• Your sitemaps, which likely contain your most important URLs.
• Server logs and analytics for the most-visited URLs, over a period that covers seasonal variation.
• The Links report in Search Console for pages with internal and external links.
• Your CMS's list of all content URLs.
• Images, videos, PDFs, JavaScript and CSS, which Google says “need to be moved in the same way as all other content.”

Expected result: a single deduplicated list of old URLs. How to verify: the list includes every URL in your current sitemap plus the top pages by traffic and links. Common mistake: leaving out images and PDFs that already get search traffic or links.

Step 4: Map Every Old URL to a New URL

Create a mapping that gives each old URL its exact new equivalent. For a pure domain change, the path can usually stay the same, so example.com/pricing maps to example.net/pricing.

Why: Google's Change of Address help says that “keeping the same site architecture in the new location helps to pass the signals more directly to the new site”, and that combining a move with a redesign of content and URL structure will “probably” cost some traffic while Google reassesses pages.

Process: store the mapping in a spreadsheet, database or rewrite rules. For content you are not moving, plan for the old URL to return 404 or 410; Google says to “make sure those URLs correctly return an HTTP 404 or 410”. For content you merged, redirect each old URL to the consolidated page.

Expected result: one destination per old URL. How to verify: no destination in the map is itself an old URL (which would create a chain). Common mistake: sending many unrelated URLs to the new homepage. Google says this “can confuse users and might be treated as a soft 404 error.”

Step 5: Prepare the New Site

Set up the new site so that every page refers to new URLs only, then confirm it can handle extra crawling.

Checklist from Google's site move guide:

• Canonicals: “Each new URL should have a self-referencing rel="canonical" <link> tag.” Our definition of a canonical URL explains how Google uses it.
• hreflang: update any rel-alternate-hreflang annotations to the new URLs.
• Internal links: change them from old URLs to new ones using the mapping.
• Sitemaps: prepare a sitemap of the new URLs, and keep the old sitemap for monitoring.
• robots.txt and noindex: if you block crawling or use noindex during development, prepare the production robots.txt and a list of pages to un-noindex at launch.
• Verification and analytics: carry over Search Console verification files or tags, and set up analytics so you can compare traffic on both domains.
• Capacity: Google says that after a migration it “will temporarily crawl your new site more heavily than usual”; warn your host if the site is large.

Expected result: a staging copy that, apart from the hostname, matches the old site. How to verify: crawl the staging site and confirm no links or canonicals point to the old domain. Common mistake: leaving canonicals pointing at the old domain, which tells search engines to keep the old URLs.

Step 6: Turn On Server-Side 301 Redirects

Configure the old domain's server to answer every request with a permanent redirect to the mapped URL on the new domain.

Why: Google says to use “HTTP permanent redirects if possible, such as 301 and 308”, and lists server-side redirects as the type it is most likely to interpret correctly (Redirects and Google Search). Permanent redirects signal that “the redirect target should be canonical”; temporary ones (302, 303, 307) do not. Client-side redirects such as JavaScript are a last resort. Bing's guidelines also say to use 301 for permanent changes.

Example of a whole-domain rule for Apache, where paths are unchanged (adapt to your server; for NGINX the equivalent is a return 301 rule):

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.net/$1 [R=301,L]

Put any page-specific rules from your mapping before the catch-all rule.

Small vs large sites: Google recommends moving all URLs at once for small and medium sites, and allows large sites to move one section at a time.

Expected result: every old URL returns 301 (or 308) with a Location header pointing to the mapped new URL. How to verify: see Step 7. Common mistake: redirect chains. Googlebot can follow up to 10 hops (HTTP status codes), but Google advises redirecting “to the final destination directly” and, if not possible, keeping chains to “ideally no more than 3 and fewer than 5” (How to move a site).

Step 7: Test Redirects, Canonicals and Robots Rules

Test a sample of old URLs, then the full list, as soon as the redirects are live.

Process: Google suggests the URL Inspection tool for individual URLs and “command line tools or scripts” for large numbers. A quick command-line check of one URL:

curl -sI https://example.com/pricing | grep -iE "^(HTTP|location)"

Then confirm on the new site that canonicals use new URLs, that development noindex rules are gone, and that robots.txt no longer blocks crawling. Our guide to checking whether a page is indexed by Google shows how to read URL Inspection results.

Expected result: one 301 hop to a URL that returns 200. How to verify: a crawler run over the old URL list shows no 404s, loops or chains. Common mistake: Google says it “frequently” sees people “redirecting to the wrong (non-existent) URLs on the new site.”

Step 8: Submit a Change of Address in Search Console

Open the Change of Address tool in the old domain's Search Console property and follow its instructions, after the redirects are live.

Requirements (Change of Address help):

• Owner of both old and new properties, with the same Google account.
• Domain-level properties only (for example example.com, not example.com/petstore/).
• The tool “does not move any subdomains below the specified domain (including www)”, so submit it separately for www.example.com, example.com and any other subdomains, “even if you're not actively using these variants.” It moves all protocols of the source property.
• A 301 from the old homepage to the new homepage at minimum; Google recommends 301s for all canonical pages.

When not to use it: HTTP to HTTPS, www to non-www on the same domain, path changes within a domain, or a hosting change with no URL change.

What it does: Google says it emphasizes crawling the new site, forwards signals and prefers the new site when choosing canonicals, for 180 days. The tool runs pre-move checks, including checks “for 301s on a few pages”; critical failures must be fixed before you can continue.

Expected result: both properties show a notice that the move is in progress, for 180 days. How to verify: the notice appears in each property. Common mistake: chaining moves. Google says that after moving site A to B “you can't immediately submit another change of address from site B to site C,” and advises against moving several sites into one at the same time. You can cancel within 180 days.

Step 9: Submit the New Sitemap to Google and Bing

Submit the sitemap of new URLs in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and keep the old-URL sitemap available for monitoring.

Google: its site move guide says submitting the new sitemap “will help Google learn about the new URLs”, and recommends submitting both saved sitemaps so you can watch indexing shift: the old sitemap's indexed count should fall toward zero as the new one rises. Google says redirect warnings on the old sitemap are normal. Step-by-step instructions are in our guide to submitting a sitemap to Google and Bing.

Bing: as of October 2026, Bing's help center documents no site move procedure beyond redirects. What it does document:

• Use 301 redirects for permanent URL changes, 302s only for changes of “less than 2 days”, and “redirects instead of canonical tags” (Bing Webmaster Guidelines).
• Submit the new sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing Sitemaps help).
• Bing's URL Submission tool accepts redirected and dead URLs “to inform Bing that these URLs are now dead links”, up to 10,000 URLs per domain per day (Bing URL Submission help).
• IndexNow's FAQ says that after a migration “it is acceptable to submit all URLs using IndexNow”, and that redirected URLs can be submitted (IndexNow FAQ). See how to set up IndexNow.

The Bing Site Move tool: a guest post on the Bing Webmaster Blog (December 2020) says to make the move “known to Bing using the Site Move Tool” after verifying ownership. When we checked on October 7, 2026, the help link for that tool no longer resolved and Bing's help center listed no Site Move article. If you see a site move option in your Bing Webmaster Tools account, use it for the old site; if not, rely on the steps above.

Expected result: both search engines show the new sitemap as processed. How to verify: Search Console's Sitemaps report shows “Success”; Bing's Sitemaps page shows a processing status and URL count. Common mistake: Google lists “Not updating sitemaps” among common migration mistakes.

Step 10: Update Links, Monitor Traffic and Keep the Redirects

Update the links you control, monitor both domains, and leave the redirects running.

Links: Google says to update internal links, contact sites linking to old URLs (prioritizing by inbound visits), update social profile links, and point ad campaigns to new landing pages.

Monitoring: watch the Page indexing report and Performance report on both properties, and server logs for Googlebot activity and unexpected errors. Google says: “You should expect to see traffic drop on the old site and rise on the new site.”

How long to keep redirects: Google's site move guide says: “Keep the redirects for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year. This timeframe allows Google to transfer all signals to the new URLs, including recrawling and reassigning links on other sites that point to your old URLs.” The Change of Address help sets the minimum at “at least 180 days—longer if you still see any traffic to them from Google Search”, and warns that after 180 days Google “does not recognize any relationship between the old and new sites.” The 2020 Bing blog post suggests keeping old-domain redirects “for at least 1 to 2 years, preferably longer.” Following the longest of these covers all three.

Expected result: over weeks, impressions and clicks move to the new property. How to verify: see the next section. Common mistake: letting the old domain lapse. Google recommends paying for it for at least a year so it cannot be bought and misused.

How to Verify It Worked

• HTTP response: any old URL returns a single 301 or 308 to its mapped new URL, which returns 200.
• Search Console notice: both properties show the Change of Address notice that the move is in progress.
• Sitemaps: the indexed count for the new-URL sitemap rises while the old-URL sitemap's falls, as Google describes.
• Page indexing report: indexed pages decline on the old property and grow on the new one, with no spike in “Not found (404)” errors.
• Performance report: new-domain URLs begin to receive impressions and clicks.
• Bing: the new sitemap shows as processed, and new URLs appear in URL Inspection.

Google says ranking fluctuations during a move are normal and that “a site's rankings will settle down over time.” No step here guarantees the new domain will rank as the old one did.

How to Choose a Redirect and Notification Method

Common Problems and Fixes

What Not to Do

• Do not redirect everything to the new homepage. Consequence: Google may treat it as a soft 404. Correction: one-to-one redirects.
• Do not use 302s for a permanent move. Consequence: Google says temporary redirects are not used as a signal that the target should be canonical. Correction: 301 or 308.
• Do not rely on canonical tags instead of redirects. Consequence: Bing's guidelines say to use “redirects instead of canonical tags” for moves. Correction: redirect, then add self-referencing canonicals on the new site.
• Do not remove redirects after a few weeks. Consequence: links to old URLs stop passing users and signals. Correction: keep them at least a year, ideally indefinitely.
• Do not combine a domain move with a redesign or CMS change. Consequence: harder diagnosis and likely traffic loss while Google reassesses pages. Correction: change one thing at a time.
• Do not let the old domain expire. Consequence: someone else can buy it. Correction: renew it for at least a year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources and Methodology

This guide is built from Google Search Central and Search Console Help documentation, Bing Webmaster Tools help pages and Bing Webmaster Blog, and the IndexNow FAQ, read on October 7, 2026. Google's site move guide showed a last-updated date of August 20, 2026. Bing's help pages load with JavaScript, so we read them through Bing's help-content interface; we also requested the Site Move help link given in Bing's 2020 blog post, which redirected to a page that returned 404. We did not sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools, so we could not see whether a site move option appears inside the tool. We did not move a site for this guide. The time estimate for preparation is ours.

1. official Google Search Central, How to move a site (site move with URL changes), last updated August 20, 2026. Read October 7, 2026.
2. official Google Crawling Infrastructure, How HTTP status codes affect Google's crawlers. Redirect hop limit. Read October 10, 2026.
3. official Google Search Central, Redirects and Google Search, last updated April 14, 2026. Read October 7, 2026.
4. official Google Search Central Blog, Upcoming deprecation of Crawl Rate Limiter Tool in Search Console, November 24, 2023. Read October 7, 2026.
5. official Google Search Console Help, Change of Address tool. Read October 7, 2026.
6. official Google Search Console Help, URL Inspection tool and Page indexing report. Read October 7, 2026.
7. official Bing Webmaster Tools Help, Bing Webmaster Guidelines, section 7, “Handle URL Moves with Proper Redirects”. Read October 7, 2026.
8. official Bing Webmaster Tools Help, Add and Verify site, Sitemaps and URL Submission. Read October 7, 2026.
9. official Fili Wiese (guest post), Bing Webmaster Blog, Website Migration with Bing, December 17, 2020. Read October 7, 2026.
10. official IndexNow.org, FAQ. Read October 7, 2026.