Restructuring without losing search traffic

What can go wrong

A restructure changes addresses, and every address is a promise to someone: a bookmark, a link from another website, a search listing, a QR code on a printed brochure. Break those promises and people land on error pages, search engines drop pages they can no longer find, and staff may field questions such as "where did that go?" None of this is inevitable. It comes from skipped steps.

Step 1: Inventory everything that has an address

Build a complete list of current addresses. Combine:

• a crawl of the public site,
• your content system's page list,
• analytics data on pages that received visits in the past year,
• search console data on pages that appear in results,
• files such as PDFs and images that are linked from elsewhere.

Google's site move guidance says the mapping should cover images, videos, JavaScript and CSS as well as pages. Files are easy to forget and are linked from documents and emails you do not control.

Step 2: Decide each page's fate

For every address, record a decision:

• Keep: same content, possibly a new address.
• Merge: content combined into another page.
• Retire with replacement: content removed, but a close equivalent exists.
• Retire without replacement: content removed with nothing comparable.

Record the reason, and have the page owner confirm. This is the slowest part of the work, and shortcuts here cause trouble later.

Step 3: Build the redirect map

For each old address that changes or disappears, choose a new address. Google's guidance is direct: map each old URL to its best new destination rather than to a generic page such as the home page. Sending every retired page to the home page frustrates people and gives search engines no useful signal.

For pages retired without any replacement, a "410 Gone" or "404 Not Found" response with a helpful error page is more honest than a redirect to something unrelated.

Step 4: Choose the right redirects

Google recommends "HTTP permanent redirects if possible, such as 301 and 308". Use server-side redirects where you can; they are faster and more reliable than redirects done in page scripts.

Check the map for:

• Chains: A redirects to B, which redirects to C. Point A straight at C.
• Loops: A redirects to B, which redirects back to A.
• Case and slash variants: decide the canonical form and redirect the alternatives in a single step.

Step 5: Update internal links

Do not rely on redirects for your own links. Update menus, body text, related links and templates to point directly at new addresses. Redirects slow visits down; Google's guidance suggests considering keeping redirects indefinitely partly for that reason, which is a good argument for not routing your own visitors through them.

Step 6: Prepare the new sitemap

Generate an XML sitemap of the new addresses only. Google's guidance says that once you submit the new sitemap in Search Console, you can remove the old one, because Google will use the new sitemap going forward. Make sure every address in the new sitemap returns a normal page, not a redirect or an error.

Step 7: Launch

• Put the redirects live at the same moment as the new structure.
• Test a sample of old addresses from each section of the map, including files.
• Submit the new sitemap.
• If the domain changes too, follow Google's additional steps for domain moves in Search Console.

Step 8: Watch and fix

For the weeks after launch, monitor:

• 404 errors in your server logs and in search console,
• pages that were busy before launch and are now quiet,
• external links to addresses you missed.

Add redirects for anything you missed. Expect stragglers; no inventory is perfect.

Communicating the change

Redirects take care of machines; people need to be told. Before launch, let staff know which sections are moving and give front-line teams a short list of the most-asked-about pages and their new addresses. Update links in email signatures, newsletters, social media profiles and printed material that is still being handed out. If the change affects members, customers or partners who link to your site, a short note telling them about the new structure is a courtesy that also helps your redirects work less hard.

Mistakes to avoid

• Redirecting every retired page to the home page.
• Forgetting PDFs, images and other files.
• Launching the new structure before the redirects are live, even for an hour.
• Leaving internal links pointing at old addresses and relying on redirects.
• Removing redirects after a few months to tidy the server configuration.
• Submitting a new sitemap that still contains old or redirected addresses.

How long to keep redirects

Google recommends keeping redirects "for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year", and suggests considering keeping them indefinitely from the users' point of view. Old links on other sites and in printed material do not expire after a year. Unless a redirect causes a problem, leave it in place.

Being honest about traffic

Google states that "the visibility of your content in Search may fluctuate temporarily during the move", and that this is normal. Careful work reduces the risk and shortens the unsettled period, but nobody can guarantee that traffic will hold steady through a restructure. Be wary of anyone who promises it. What you can control is that every address you know about has a sensible destination.

A worked illustration

Measuring the result honestly

Decide before launch how you will judge the restructure, and record a baseline. Useful measures include the number of 404 errors, the share of site searches that end in a click, the number of support enquiries about finding information, and the results of a repeat tree test. Compare like with like over the same season, because seasonal changes in traffic can look like the effect of a restructure.

Getting help

The content restructuring service produces the inventory, decisions, redirect map, link updates and launch checklist described here. If you are still planning the new structure, start with the sitemap planning guide.

Sources checked 4 November 2026 for restructuring a website

1. Links, Google
2. Sitemaps, Google
3. URL structure, Google
4. Site moves, Google