Websites & search
How to preserve SEO during a B2B website migration
Plan a B2B website migration with a worked URL map, redirect examples and practical launch checks that protect useful content, search signals and inquiry paths.
The short answer
Inventory the URLs and content that already matter, map each changed address to a relevant destination and test the new pages before launch. Preserve useful information and conversion paths alongside redirects, canonicals and internal links. Monitor the move afterward; a careful migration reduces avoidable losses but cannot guarantee unchanged rankings.
Start with what the current site is doing for the business.
A new website can look better and make existing buyers work harder. A useful capability page disappears. A bookmarked technical document breaks. A strong search result starts sending people to a generic homepage.
Before choosing new URLs, build an inventory from the live site, sitemap, analytics, Search Console and available crawl data. Include pages with inquiries, useful nonbrand search visibility, external links and regular use by sales or customers. Add PDFs and other resources people share directly.
Record the purpose of each important page and the information that makes it useful. A redirect cannot preserve an explanation that no longer exists at the destination. This is a content decision as well as a technical one.
Give every important URL a destination—or a deliberate ending.
The following paths are fictional. They illustrate a migration plan and are not changes being made to Carbon’s site.
| Old address | Decision | New address or response |
|---|---|---|
| /capabilities/cnc.html | Same capability, cleaner address | Permanent redirect to /capabilities/cnc-machining/ |
| /industries/medical/ | The existing URL still works | Keep it and return 200. A redesign does not require a new address. |
| /services/prototyping/ and /prototype-services/ | Consolidate overlapping pages after content review | Redirect both to /capabilities/prototyping/ with the useful material retained. |
| /news/old-award/ | No useful replacement after review | Return a genuine 404 or 410 rather than an unrelated redirect. |
| /resources/material-guide.pdf | An established document is still useful | Keep the asset address or map it to an equivalent current document. |
Make the map a working record with an owner, reason and check result. Ask sales about links in proposals and email signatures. Search data will not reveal every address a customer depends on.
Keep the redirect simple and relevant.
Google recommends permanent server-side redirects for permanent moves. Send an old URL directly to its final equivalent. Avoid an old page pointing to an intermediate page that points somewhere else.
Illustrative HTTP behavior
GET /capabilities/cnc.html
301 Moved Permanently
Location: /capabilities/cnc-machining/
GET /capabilities/cnc-machining/
200 OKThis is a behavior example, not server configuration to paste into a hosting platform. Your implementation depends on the site. Test the response and destination after deployment, including variations that actually receive traffic.
Redirecting unrelated old pages to the homepage can confuse visitors and be treated as a soft 404. If a page has no suitable successor, a genuine missing-page response is clearer. Keep useful redirects in place long enough for users and search engines to follow the move; Google advises at least a year for site moves, and longer may serve existing links.
Preserve the answer, not just the address.
Compare important old and new pages side by side. Check the capability explanation, application examples, evidence, headings and next step. If the old page answered a specific buyer question, make sure the new one still does.
Review documents and images as part of the move. A migrated page can look complete while a linked specification sheet returns an error. Confirm that forms route correctly, confirmation pages still appear and analytics distinguish a real submission from a page visit.
For an acquisition, coordinate the migration with the brand-transition plan. Someone searching for the old company name needs an explanation of the relationship, not an unexplained new logo.
Use a launch checklist with owners.
Test staging access controls separately from the live launch rules. Do not assume a visually correct page is indexable. Also check the actual error response for a made-up URL: a branded error page that returns 200 is still a technical problem.
Watch the pages that matter after launch.
In the first review, check live status codes, redirect destinations, indexability, forms and the sitemap. Then compare important page groups over time using Search Console, analytics and available server logs. Record the launch date so the team can distinguish migration effects from other changes.
Look for patterns: a capability group losing impressions, old URLs returning unexpected errors, missing documents or fewer qualified inquiries despite similar relevant traffic. Investigate the affected group instead of rewriting the entire site in response to a single day’s movement.
Google’s site-move guidance notes that visibility can fluctuate while changed URLs are processed. Set expectations accordingly and keep the implementation stable enough to diagnose. The broader B2B redesign checklist covers the planning work around the migration.
Put it to work
Website migration URL mapping worksheet
Download the editable CSV worksheet and use it with your team. No form needed.
Download the worksheetSources and further reading
Sources reviewed September 16, 2026.