Duplicator’s New Migration Service: Move Your Website Without Lifting a Finger
Duplicator’s New Migration Service: Move Your Website Without Lifting a Finger
Website migrations are exciting, but you might wonder how to move everything without destroying years of SEO work.
301 redirect maps will change everything about how you approach migrations.
Think of it as a change-of-address form for your website. Just like forwarding your mail when you move houses, a redirect map will help you inform browsers and search engines where each of your old pages has moved.
With a proper redirect map, you can move your site with confidence, knowing that every link will work and every bit of search engine authority will transfer to your new home.
Here are the key takeaways:
A 301 redirect map is just a spreadsheet with at least two columns: your old URLs and your new URLs. This URL redirect mapping process is essential for maintaining your site’s SEO value during any migration.
301 refers to the HTTP status code that tells browsers and search engines this is a permanent move. When someone clicks an old link or Google tries to crawl an old page, the 301 redirect automatically sends them to the new location.
A 301 redirect moves visitors to the correct location, but it also passes along what SEO experts call “link equity.” All the authority and ranking power that your old page earned from backlinks and search engine trust gets transferred to the new page.
Without redirects, those old URLs become dead ends that return 404 errors. Google stops showing those pages in search results.
The backlinks you worked so hard to earn become worthless. Years of SEO effort vanish overnight.
You need a redirect map anytime you’re changing your site’s URLs. Here are the most common scenarios:
Basically, if your URLs are changing, you need redirects. To help manage redirects, many SEO experts create maps to keep track of them all. This is especially important when dealing with a large number of pages that need to be redirected.
A redirect map protects three critical parts of your site migration:
Every page that shows up on Google’s first page represents months or years of work. When you migrate without redirects, you’re starting from scratch.
A proper redirect map preserves SEO value by telling search engines, “This page didn’t disappear—it just moved.”
Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. They bookmark your best blog post, then visit six months after your migration. They click the link and hit a 404 error.
Users don’t care about your technical challenges. They want the content they were looking for. When they can’t find it, they leave.
Redirects turn potential frustration into a smooth experience. Each URL redirect ensures visitors find exactly what they’re looking for without confusion.
The redirect map is your safety net against human error.
It forces you to account for every single URL. It catches edge cases you’d never think of—like that outdated landing page that still gets occasional traffic.
Here are the key steps to create a 301 redirect map before your website migration:
Before you can map old URLs to new ones, you need a complete inventory of what you’re working with.
Start with your sitemap. Most websites have an XML sitemap at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. This gives you a baseline list of your most important pages.
But don’t stop there—sitemaps don’t always capture everything.
For a more comprehensive list, use a crawling tool like Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free for up to 500 URLs). Point it at your current site and let it crawl every page it can find.
This approach will save time compared to manually discovering URLs one by one.
Don’t forget about:
If you’re doing a simple domain change (keeping the same URL structure), this step is easy. Just do a search-and-replace on your old URL list: change “oldsite.com” to “newsite.com” and you’re done.
For more complex migrations, you’ll need to crawl your new site the same way you crawled the old one.
Most developers set up the new site on a staging domain before going live. Crawl that staging site to get your complete list of new URLs.
Open Google Sheets or Excel and create a simple spreadsheet with these columns:
Keep it simple, and remember you can use AI tools to help you. I used Gemini to create this 301 redirect map in under a minute.
This is where the real work happens. You’ll go through each old URL and decide where it should redirect.
For straightforward cases, this is obvious. Your old “About Us” page maps to your new “About Us” page. Your contact form stays a contact form.
But you’ll run into trickier situations. Maybe you had five different product category pages that you’ve consolidated into two. Or you’ve restructured your blog and changed the URL format entirely.
Take your time here. Every decision you make affects both SEO and user experience.
I recommend working in batches (maybe 50-100 URLs at a time) so you don’t burn out or start making careless mistakes.
Double-check your work as you go. One typo in a destination URL means a redirect that leads nowhere.
Not every old URL will have a perfect new equivalent. Maybe you deleted outdated content, or you combined multiple old pages into one comprehensive new page.
Here’s some solutions, from best to worst:
Whatever you do, don’t leave old URLs without redirects. A redirect to a somewhat relevant page is always better than a dead link.
Creating the map is only half the battle. Now you need to actually implement those redirects on your website.
For WordPress users, I strongly recommend using a plugin rather than trying to edit server files manually. All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is my go-to choice because it lets you import your entire redirect map from a CSV or JSON file.
Instead of creating hundreds of redirects one by one, you can upload your entire spreadsheet at once. Save your redirect map as a CSV file, upload it to AIOSEO, and you’re done.
The plugin handles all the technical implementation behind the scenes. There’s no risk of breaking your site with a misplaced character in a configuration file.
If you’re not using WordPress, or if you prefer more technical control, you can implement redirects through your server configuration:
But unless you’re comfortable editing server files and understand the syntax, stick with a plugin. The risk of breaking your site isn’t worth the minor performance benefits of server-level redirects.
Once you set up 301 redirects, it’s time to test them. If you used AIOSEO’s redirection add-on, you’ll have Check Redirect buttons under each URL.
AIOSEO will tell you the link’s status code. If it’s set up properly, it’ll be a 301 redirect.
You can also use a bulk status code checker tool. Tools like HTTP Status Code Checker can test hundreds of URLs at once and show you which ones return 301 redirects versus 404 errors.
After implementing your redirects, run another Screaming Frog crawl on your list of old URLs. Each one should show a 301 status code pointing to the correct new URL.
Do manual spot-checks of your most important pages. Open a browser and manually visit 10-20 of your most important old URLs. Make sure they redirect quickly and land on the right pages.
After your migration goes live, watch for new 404 errors in Google Search Console. A spike in 404s usually means you missed some URLs in your redirect map.
No. Google actually recommends using 301 redirects when you move content permanently. They pass nearly all ranking power to the new URL, though you might see a temporary dip that recovers within a few weeks.
Yes, you can remove or change 301 redirects at any time. However, it might take weeks for Google to notice the change and adjust accordingly.
A 302 redirect signals a temporary move instead of a permanent one. Use 302s for maintenance pages or A/B tests, but stick with 301s for migrations since they pass maximum SEO value.
Individual redirects add minimal load time—just a few milliseconds. However, redirect chains (A → B → C) do slow things down significantly, so keep your redirects direct.
I’ve seen too many business owners skip redirect maps and regret it later. Their organic traffic disappears, and their users hit dead ends and leave frustrated.
With a comprehensive redirect map, you maintain control over your migration. Every bit of SEO authority transfers to your new site, and your users find what they’re looking for.
The redirect map is only one piece of a successful migration, though. Before you can implement any redirects, you need to actually move your website files and database safely.
That’s where Duplicator Pro becomes essential. It handles the complex process of moving everything to your new hosting environment or domain. Think of it as the foundation that makes everything else possible—you can’t redirect to pages that don’t exist yet.
Start your next migration with confidence. Create your redirect map, use Duplicator Pro to move your site safely, and watch your SEO rankings follow you to your new home.
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