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Will I lose my Google ranking when I switch?

The honest answer: your pages are rebuilt, so ranking isn't guaranteed — but here's exactly how to protect it with matching URLs and 301 redirects.

If people already find you on Google, this is the question that matters most. Let's be honest with you, because this is where other platforms go quiet.

The honest truth

Your pages are rebuilt here — we don't secretly copy your old site across, and no honest platform can promise your rankings survive a rebuild unchanged. Google re-reads your new pages over time and decides where they rank.

The good news: rankings usually hold — and often improve on a faster, healthier site — as long as you carry the important things across carefully. It's the careless moves (changing every web address, deleting the old site overnight) that cause a drop, not switching itself.

Three things that protect your rankings

1. Keep the web addresses that already rank.
Every page has an address (URL), like yourbusiness.com/services. When you rebuild, give your important pages the same addresses they have now. If Google already ranks yourbusiness.com/services, keep that exact address and the ranking has nothing to relearn.

2. Set up a 301 redirect for any address that changes.
Sometimes an address has to change. A 301 redirect is a permanent "moved to here" sign — it forwards anyone (and Google) from the old address to the new one, and passes most of the old page's ranking strength along with them. Set one up for every old address that isn't staying the same. Avoid temporary (302) redirects for a permanent move — they don't pass ranking the same way.

3. Keep your old site live during the switch.
Don't take the old site down the moment you publish the new one. Keep both up, test the new one, point your domain over, and only retire the old host once everything checks out. That way there's never a gap where a visitor or Google hits a dead page. See Move your website to us without breaking your email for the safe cutover order.

After you move: check nothing is broken

Once you've switched, run our free redirect checker. Paste an old web address and it traces where it now sends people — so you can spot a missing or broken 301 before it quietly costs you traffic. Also add your site to Google Search Console and submit your sitemap so Google re-crawls the new pages sooner.

What we can and can't promise

We can help you keep matching addresses, set up redirects, and move without downtime. We can't promise a specific ranking — nobody honestly can, because Google decides. What we won't do is pretend the risk doesn't exist. Do the three things above and most sites come through fine. Not sure where your key pages rank or which addresses to keep? Contact us and we'll map it with you — or the Done-For-You service can handle the whole migration.

More in Website builder

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Start from one of 20 ready-made designs for your kind of business — and switch any time.

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Click any text to change it, style it like a document, and add photos from your phone or free stock.

Publish your website

One click puts your site live on the internet, instantly, with a free web address.

Connect your own domain

Point yourbusiness.com at your site — one setting at your domain company, and we check it for you.

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