Moving From WordPress Without Losing Your Google Ranking
Many business owners stay on a WordPress site they no longer like for one reason: fear of losing their Google ranking. The site breaks after plugin updates, the developer who built it has moved on, every small change is a ticket, but the site still brings in enquiries from Google, and nobody wants to risk that.
The good news is that a move done carefully keeps what you have earned. Google publishes clear guidance on site moves, and the steps are not complicated. This article walks through them in plain language.
Your ranking is not attached to WordPress. It is attached to your domain, your page addresses (URLs), the content on those pages and the links pointing to them. A move goes wrong when one of those changes without Google being told. The most common mistakes are:
Each of these is avoidable.
If you have Google Search Console, export the pages report for the last 12 months. It shows which URLs get clicks and for which searches. If you do not have it, list every page in your WordPress menu and sitemap (usually at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml or /wp-sitemap.xml).
For each important page, copy the page title and meta description. These are what people see in Google, and they should carry over.
Service pages and location pages usually matter far more than old blog posts. Make sure they are moved first and moved carefully.
Moving platforms does not mean changing your domain. Keeping the same domain removes most of the risk. Only change it if there is a strong business reason.
The safest option is to keep the same URL for every important page. If that is not possible, set up a permanent (301) redirect from each old address to its new one. Google describes redirects as the way to tell it that a page has moved, and recommends permanent server-side redirects for a site move (Google: redirects and Google Search; Google: site moves with URL changes).
Redirect each old page to its closest new equivalent, not everything to the home page. A redirect from your old "AC repair in Al Barsha" page to the home page throws away the relevance that page had built.
Also move over:
Done this way, most businesses see their rankings settle back to where they were, and often improve because the new site is faster on mobile.
The reasons we hear are rarely technical. They are things like: the contact form stopped working after an update and nobody noticed for a month; a security warning appeared and customers called to ask if the site was safe; three different people are involved (a host, a developer, a plugin vendor) and none of them takes responsibility. The fix most owners want is simpler: a site that does not break, and one team they can message when something needs changing.
Moving from WordPress is free with any of our build packages: we copy your pages and content across to your new site. Before you switch, use the checklist above to record your important page addresses, titles and descriptions, and after launch check that every old address still lands on the right page. The full process is on our move from WordPress page.
After the move you can stay on the yearly platform renewal or choose a Care plan, where our team makes your changes for you. Care covers sites on our platform, so once the move is done there are no plugins to keep updated. Care tiers are explained on the Care plans page and prices for your country are on the pricing page.
Not if you keep your domain, keep or redirect every important URL, and move the content and titles across. Short-term movement is normal while Google re-crawls the site.
It varies with the size of the site. For a small business site, a few weeks is typical. Check Search Console during that period for missed redirects.
Move the posts that get traffic or links. Posts that get no visits can be dropped, ideally with a redirect to a related page.
Changing where the website is hosted does not have to touch your email. We check your domain's email settings before switching anything.
Send us your current site address on WhatsApp and we will look at which pages matter before anything is moved.
