You can change website platforms without losing your Google rankings, as long as you keep your domain name, give every old page address a permanent redirect to its new equivalent, carry across the content that ranks, and watch Search Console for a few weeks afterwards. Google's own guidance says to expect some movement either way: "you may experience ranking fluctuations while Google recrawls and reindexes your site." Nobody can honestly promise zero change. What a careful migration does is make the dip short and shallow, where a careless one makes it deep and sometimes permanent. This guide follows Google's site move documentation step by step, and explains what Wix, Squarespace and WordPress will and will not let you take with you.
Why do rankings drop when a website is rebuilt?
Because Google ranks pages, and it knows each page by its address. Your builder is invisible to Google. What Google has stored is that a specific URL, with specific content, has earned links and a history. A rebuild on a new platform usually changes those URLs, because every platform builds addresses its own way. If the old address simply stops working, Google finds an error where a ranking page used to be, and the history attached to it has nowhere to go.
So a platform move is mostly a job of telling Google, page by page, "this moved to here". The design is the part everyone looks at. The redirects are the part that protects the enquiries.
Which kind of move are you making?
Google documents two kinds, and they carry very different risk:
- A move with no URL changes. Same domain, same page addresses, new hosting behind them. Google's guide to this kind of move is short: copy the site to the new host and test it, lower the DNS TTL so the change spreads faster, update the DNS records, and monitor. Google notes "it's normal to see a temporary drop in Googlebot's crawl rate immediately after the launch, followed by a steady increase over the next few days."
- A move with URL changes. This is what almost every platform change turns out to be, and it is the subject of Google's longer site move guide. Its outline: review the general best practices, prepare the new site and test it thoroughly, "Prepare a URL mapping from the current URLs to their corresponding new format", start the move by redirecting old URLs to new ones, and monitor traffic on both.
If you are also changing your domain name at the same time, that is a third layer of risk. Unless the rebrand is the point of the project, change the platform now and leave the domain alone.
Can you export your site from Wix, Squarespace or WordPress?
Less than most people expect, which is why a platform move is a rebuild and not a transfer.
- Wix. Wix's help centre is direct: "Your site must run on Wix's servers." The design and pages cannot be exported to another host. The same article says the content you build on Wix belongs to you, so your words and images can be copied across by hand.
- Squarespace. Squarespace can export an .xml file designed for importing into WordPress. It includes layout pages, one blog page with its posts, text blocks and image blocks. It does not include store pages, product blocks, portfolio pages, video blocks, style settings or custom CSS. Squarespace's own summary: "Not everything will export, as many features rely on our platform's JavaScript and CSS."
- WordPress. The built-in export tool creates an XML file containing "your posts, pages, custom post types, comments, custom fields, categories, tags, custom taxonomies, and users." That is your content. The theme and design do not come with it.
In all three cases the practical approach is the same: treat the old site as the source of your words, images and URLs, and build the new site fresh. Before you start, check you can get at all three. Our post on who owns your website explains what you are entitled to take.
Step 1: Make sure you control the domain
Everything depends on the domain staying put, so confirm that you, not a former designer or employee, are the registered holder and that you can log in to the registrar. If you cannot, fix that before anything else. Our .nz domain guide covers how to check and how to recover control.
Step 2: List every URL on the old site
You cannot redirect what you have not listed. Build the list from three places: the old site's sitemap, the Pages and Performance reports in Google Search Console, and the landing pages report in Google Analytics. Search Console matters most because it shows which URLs Google actually sends people to, including old ones you had forgotten. Mark the pages that bring the most clicks and enquiries. Those are the ones where a mistake costs money.
Step 3: Build the new site where Google cannot see it
Build on a temporary address and keep it out of Google while you work, normally with a noindex setting or password protection. Then write "remove the noindex" at the top of your launch checklist in capital letters. A new site launched with its staging block still switched on is an easy mistake to make and a painful one to discover, and it is one of the causes we cover in why a website is not showing up on Google.
Step 4: Keep what already ranks
A rebuild is a tempting moment to rewrite everything. For the pages you marked in step 2, resist it. Keep the page's topic, its title, its main headings and the substance of its text, and keep the URL identical where the new platform allows. Improve these pages after the move has settled, one at a time, so that if rankings change you know why. Thin or duplicate pages that bring no traffic are different: merge or drop them, and redirect their addresses to the closest relevant page.
Step 5: Map every old URL to a new one
This is the spreadsheet that protects your rankings: old URL in one column, new URL in the next. Google's instruction is to "decide where each one should redirect to", and it includes a specific warning: "Don't redirect many old URLs to one irrelevant single URL destination, such as the home page of the new site. This can confuse users and might be treated as a soft 404 error." Sending every old service page to the home page is the classic shortcut, and Google is telling you it may treat the result as if the pages had been deleted.
Step 6: Use permanent, server-side redirects
Google's redirect documentation explains why the type matters. With a permanent redirect, "the indexing pipeline uses the redirect as a signal that the redirect target should be canonical." With a temporary one, it does not. The site move guide recommends "HTTP permanent redirects if possible, such as 301 and 308", set up on the server. Ask whoever builds the new site to confirm, in writing, that the redirects are permanent and that every row of your mapping is covered. Then test a sample yourself by pasting old addresses into a browser.
Step 7: Switch the DNS carefully, and do not break your email
Going live usually means pointing your domain's DNS records at the new host. Google suggests lowering the records' TTL value beforehand so the change reaches internet providers faster. The detail that catches small businesses: your domain's DNS also directs your email. Change only the records that point the website, and leave the mail records alone, or the launch day story becomes "the new site looks great and nobody has received an email since Tuesday". If you are unsure which records are which, have your web team make the change.
On timing, Google's advice is practical: "If your traffic is seasonal or dips on certain weekdays, it makes sense to move your site during the recurring traffic dips." Do not launch an accommodation site in the week before Christmas.
Step 8: Tell Google, then watch
- Submit the new sitemap in Search Console on launch day.
- Update internal links so they point straight at the new addresses instead of relying on redirects.
- Update the links you control elsewhere: your Google Business Profile, social profiles, directory listings and email signatures. Google also suggests contacting the most important sites that link to you.
- Check the Page indexing report weekly for a rise in "Not found (404)" errors. Each one is an old URL your map missed. Add the redirect.
- Use the Change of Address tool only if the domain changed. Google's help page says it is for when you "move your website from one domain or subdomain to another", and not for moving pages within the same site, switching from http to https, or changing hosts without a URL change.
How long until rankings settle?
Google gives a range, not a date: "For medium-sized websites, it can take a few weeks or more for Google to gradually start showing the new URLs instead of the old ones (and for larger sites, even longer)." For small and medium sites Google also recommends "moving all URLs on your site simultaneously" instead of in stages. During those weeks, position changes in both directions are normal. What is not normal is a key page vanishing, a growing list of 404s, or enquiries stopping. Those point to a missed redirect or a blocked page, and both are fixable if you are watching.
How long should the redirects stay?
Google's answer: "Keep the redirects for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year." This has a practical consequence people miss. If your redirects live on the old platform, cancelling that subscription deletes them. Because you kept your domain, the redirects should live on the new site, where they cost nothing to keep. Leave them in place indefinitely. Other websites may link to your old addresses for years.
What usually goes wrong?
- Every old URL redirected to the home page
- The staging noindex left on after launch
- Temporary redirects used where permanent ones were needed
- Ranking pages rewritten or merged during the move, so nobody can tell what caused the change
- Page titles and descriptions not carried over
- Images moved without their alt text or descriptive filenames
- Analytics and Search Console not connected to the new site, so the dip is invisible
- Email records overwritten during the DNS change
- The old platform cancelled while it still held the only copy of the content
Do this today
- Confirm you are the registered holder of your domain and can log in to the registrar
- Verify your current site in Google Search Console if you never have, so the history starts recording
- Export the list of pages and their clicks from the Performance report
- Save a copy of every page's text and images outside the old platform
- Ask whoever is quoting the rebuild to show you their redirect plan before you sign
Where we come in
Our website redesign service rebuilds sites from Wix, Squarespace, WordPress and other platforms. We move your existing content and images, map your URLs and set up permanent redirects as part of the build, and the site stays on your existing domain. We will not promise that your rankings cannot move, because Google itself says they may while it recrawls the site. What we commit to is the process in this guide, done completely, and watching Search Console with you after launch. If you want to know what state your current site is in before deciding, the free website audit is a good first step, and you can talk to us about the move without obligation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I lose my Google rankings if I move my website to a new platform?
Not if the move is handled properly, though some temporary movement is normal. Google says a site may experience ranking fluctuations while it recrawls and reindexes after any significant change. Keeping the same domain, redirecting every old URL permanently to its new equivalent, and keeping the content of pages that already rank are what prevent lasting losses. Nobody can guarantee zero change.
Can I export my Wix or Squarespace website?
Only partly. Wix states that a Wix site must run on Wix's servers and cannot be exported to another host, although the content belongs to the site owner and can be copied. Squarespace exports an XML file for WordPress that includes layout pages, one blog page, text and images, but not store pages, product blocks, style settings or custom CSS. In practice a platform move is a rebuild using your existing content.
What is a 301 redirect and why does it matter?
A 301 is a permanent redirect that sends visitors and search engines from an old page address to a new one. Google's documentation says its indexing pipeline uses a permanent redirect as a signal that the redirect target should be canonical, which is how a page's search history follows it to a new URL. Temporary redirects do not send that signal. Google recommends server-side permanent redirects such as 301 and 308 for site moves.
How long does Google take to process a website move?
Google says that for medium-sized websites it can take a few weeks or more to gradually start showing the new URLs instead of the old ones, and longer for larger sites. Rankings may fluctuate during that time. Submitting the new sitemap in Search Console and checking the Page indexing report for 404 errors each week helps catch missed redirects early.
How long should I keep redirects after a site move?
Google's guidance is to keep redirects for as long as possible, generally at least one year. Because other websites may link to old addresses for years, leaving redirects in place indefinitely is the safer choice. If the redirects are hosted on the old platform, cancelling that subscription removes them, so they should be set up on the new site under the same domain.
The bottom line
Your rankings are attached to your addresses and your content, not to the company that hosts them. Keep the domain, list every URL, redirect each one permanently to its real equivalent, carry across what already works, and watch Search Console until things settle. Done that way, leaving a platform you have outgrown is a few weeks of minor movement, not a restart from zero.