How to Move Your Website Without Losing Your Google.ph Rankings

Your online store has been climbing Google rankings for three years. You’re finally on page 1 for your main keywords. Traffic is steady with 800 visitors daily and it generates ₱60,000 per month.

Then your hosting starts acting up. Slow loading times, random downtime, and support takes days to respond. You get tired and decide to switch providers.

But there is something holding you back: fear.

You’ve heard all sorts of horror stories. Someone moves their website over the weekend. And  by Monday, their traffic drops by 70%, rankings disappear, months of SEO work gone just like that without any warning.

You are now scared that the same thing could happen to you.

I won’t lie to you. Website migration is risky but it’s not a coin flip. There’s a safe way that if used will protect your rankings. 

Follow it exactly, and your traffic survives the move. Skip steps, and you’re gambling with your business.

In this guide, I will show you exactly how. Ready?Let’s start.

What Actually Happens When You Move Your Website

Let’s say you run a physical store. Customers know your address and how to find you. You’ve built a reputation at this location. They know this as their go to place for Pancit.

Now you’re moving across town. If you:

• Tell customers your new address
• Put signs at the old location pointing to the new one
• Update your Google Maps listing
• Forward your business mail

Your customers find you easily and business continues without interruption.

But  what if you just disappear? Or lock the doors one day with no forwarding information? Your starving  customers will think you went out of business and rush for those scrumptious Pancits from your competitors restaurant instead.

Google is your biggest customer. When you move your website, you must tell Google exactly where everything went. Miss this step, and Google thinks your site is broken.

Here’s what happens during migration:

Your website has hundreds of pages. Each page has a unique URL- an address. Google has indexed all those addresses. When people search, Google sends them to those specific URLs.

Also when you migrate, those URLs might change. Maybe you’re moving from oldsite.com to newsite.com or are reorganizing: website.com/page1 to become website.com/shop/page1.

If you don’t tell Google about these address changes, people click your search result and hit a dead end. Error page. They click back to Google. Google thinks the site is broken and it stops showing it.

As a result, your rankings collapse within 48 hours.

The One Thing That Protects Your Rankings: Redirects.

That’s the important piece most people miss.

A redirect is an automatic forwarding system. Someone visits your old URL, and the redirect instantly sends them to your new URL. They never see an error or even notice anything has changed.

Google follows those redirects too. Google sees that your  page moved and  transfers all the ranking power to the new location.

So without redirects:

Old URL>Error page >Google removes you from search results

With redirects:

Old URL> Automatically forwards to new URL > Google transfers your rankings

You need redirects for:

• Your homepage
• Product page
• Blog post
• Category page
• Single page indexed in Google

 If you are thinking that your 200 pages are too many , you are wrong.

It’s not because every page is important. Therefore, every page without a redirect is a page that disappears from Google.

The good news? Most hosting providers can set up redirects for you. Some migrate your entire site files, database, and redirects for free.

What You Must Do Before Migration Day

Smart migration starts before you touch anything. You need to know exactly what you have, so you know if something breaks.

Two Weeks Before: Document Everything

Open Google Search Console then go to Performance from there, export your data. Now you have a record of:

• Which pages get traffic
• Which keywords bring visitors
• Your current rankings

Screenshot everything. This is your backup evidence if something goes wrong.

List every page on your website. Use Google Search Console or a tool like Screaming Frog to export the list.

Why?

Because after migration, you need to verify every important page still works. You can’t check what you didn’t document.

One Week Before: Create Your Redirect Map

This is your insurance policy. A simple document matching old URLs to new URLs:

• oldsite.com/laptops → newsite.com/laptops
• oldsite.com/phones → newsite.com/phones
• oldsite.com/about → newsite.com/about

Do this for every single page.

If your hosting provider offers free migration, they create this map for you. And if you’re doing it yourself, this document is non-negotiable. You just have to create it.

Test Your New Hosting Speed

Speed affects rankings. If your new hosting is slower than your current hosting, you’ll lose ranking positions even with perfect redirects.

Set up a test site on the new hosting, run it through PageSpeed Insights, and compare the loading time to your current site.

If it is slower, find different hosting. You’re trying to improve or maintain what you have, not downgrade.

Migration Day: The Exact Steps

If you prepare properly, migration day is just execution.

Step 1: Set up all redirects

Your hosting provider handles this if they offer migration services. If you’re doing it yourself, you’ll add redirect rules to your .htaccess file or control panel.

Every old URL must point to its new URL.

Step 2: Move your files and database

Copy your website files and database to the new server.

Step 3: Update your DNS

Point your domain name to the new hosting server. DNS changes take a few hours to spread across the internet, sometimes up to 48 hours.

Step 4: Submit your new sitemap

First, go to Google Search Console. Then submit your updated sitemap. This tells Google you have a new page list and it should start crawling it.

Step 5: Test your top 20 pages

Don’t assume everything works. Open your 20 most important pages manually.Then verify:

• They load properly
• URLs are correct
• No error messages appear

If your top 20 pages work, you’ve protected the majority of your traffic.

What to Expect After Migration

Even perfect migrations see temporary fluctuations. Google needs time to re-crawl, verify redirects, and update its index.

This is their normal routine, so don’t panic when:

• 5-15% traffic drop for 1-2 weeks
• Some rankings temporarily shift down a few positions
• A handful of 404 errors for minor pages

This recovers on its own within 2-3 weeks.

But if you notice these signs then act immediately,

• 50%+ traffic drop lasting more than one week
• Hundreds of 404 errors increasing daily
• Your most important pages vanish from search results

This is because something serious might be  broken. In most cases, it’s usually redirects that weren’t set up correctly.

How to fix it:

Check Google Search Console’s Coverage Report. It shows which URLs have errors and why.

Verify your redirect map. Are all old URLs actually forwarding?

If you can’t fix it quickly, revert to your old hosting while you troubleshoot. It’s better to lose two days than two months of rankings.

The Silent Ranking Killer: Slow Hosting

Redirects protect you from broken links. But there’s a sneaky ranking killer: slow hosting.

Google cares about speed. If your new hosting loads pages slower than your old hosting, Google gradually lowers your rankings.

You fix all your redirects. Everything looks perfect. But three weeks later, your traffic still hasn’t recovered. Why? Your new hosting is slower.

Pages that loaded in 2 seconds now take 5 seconds. Google notices. Your rankings drop to about 10-15% simply because your site is slower.

Test hosting speed before you commit. If the new hosting is slower, that’s not an upgrade, that’s a downgrade with better marketing.

Why Professional Migration is important for your business

Migration has too many moving parts. One missed redirect, one slow server, one DNS misconfiguration, your rankings collapse.

Some hosting providers include free professional migration. Their technical team:

• Creates the redirect map
• Moves your files and database
• Sets up all redirects correctly
• Tests everything before switching DNS
• Monitors your site after migration

Here at Truehost Philippines we offer  this for free. Our team migrates your site without you touching technical settings. We verify all redirects work and monitor your Google Search Console for errors.

Our  servers are also fast- Litespeed, NVMe SSD storage, optimized for Philippine users. You’re not sacrificing speed for savings.

When something goes wrong because migrations are complex and issues happen, our 24/7 support responds within minutes.

The alternative? Save ₱100/month on cheaper hosting and risk losing ₱240,000 in revenue if the migration fails.

Your Migration Checklist

Two Weeks Before:

• Export rankings and traffic from Google Search Console
• List all pages on your site
• Identify your 50 most valuable pages
• Test new hosting speed

One Week Before:

• Create redirect map (old URL → new URL for every page)
• Set up test site on new hosting
• Verify redirects work

Migration Day:

• Implement all redirects
• Move files and database
• Update DNS
• Submit new sitemap
• Test top 20 pages manually

Week After:

• Check Google Search Console daily for errors
• Monitor traffic in Analytics
• Fix any 404 errors immediately
• Track rankings for top keywords

The Bottom Line

You’ve spent years building your rankings. Your website brings customers and your business depends on that traffic.

Website migration done right is invisible because your rankings stay stable, traffic continues, and  your business doesn’t skip a beat.

Done wrong? You’ll spend months recovering from a preventable disaster, lost revenue, lost customers, and lost momentum.

The difference isn’t luck. It’s preparation. Document everything before you start. Set up redirects for every page. Test your new hosting speed. Monitor everything after you move.

Migration is just a process. Follow the process, and your rankings survive.

The choice isn’t whether to migrate, sometimes you have to. The choice is whether to do it properly or hope for the best.

Hope is expensive. Four months of lost income is expensive. Don’t hope. Prepare.

Ready to migrate without destroying your rankings? 

Get professional migration support, fast servers, and 24/7 monitoring included.

Your rankings took years to build. Don’t lose them in one weekend.