Move your site without losing it.
Redesigns, new platforms and domain changes are where rankings most often disappear. We plan migrations so your traffic comes with you, and when a site has been hacked or penalised, we clean it up and get it trusted again.
Redesigns and replatformsDomain changesHack and penalty recovery
Your Services | Same Rankings, New WebsiteRankings carried overRedirect mapping
Every old URL redirected to its closest new page, metadata carried over, and the new site checked before and after launch.Content and metadata keptMigration QA
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What we handle
Pre-migration audit
A full crawl and traffic baseline, so we know exactly which pages and links carry your rankings.
Redirect mapping
Every valuable old URL mapped one-to-one to its best new equivalent, never bulk-redirected to the homepage.
Staging QA
Titles, headings, canonicals, schema, internal links and noindex checked on staging before launch.
Launch and monitoring
Redirects tested on launch day, sitemaps submitted and rankings watched daily for the first weeks.
Hack and spam clean-up
Injected pages removed, the vulnerability closed and junk URLs returned as 410 Gone so Google drops them.
Penalty recovery
Manual action review, link clean-up and disavow where needed, and a properly evidenced reconsideration request.
Why migrations lose rankings
Rankings belong to URLs. Change the URLs, or the content and structure behind them, without a plan, and search engines treat your new site as a stranger.
The usual causes are missing or chained redirects, lost page content, noindex tags left on from staging, changed internal links and new templates that drop key headings or schema. All of them are preventable.
What counts as a migration
It isn't only a domain change. Any of these makes search engines re-evaluate your site, and most real projects combine several at once, which multiplies the risk.
- New domain or HTTPS switch
- Every URL changes, even if the pages don't.
- Redesign or new templates
- Headings, content and internal links shift.
- New CMS or platform
- URL patterns, rendering and metadata handling change.
- Restructures and merges
- Folders renamed, or several sites combined into one.
Recovering a hacked site
We know this one first hand: our own previous site was compromised and filled with injected spam pages. Recovery isn't only deleting files. It's removing every injected URL from Google's index, closing the hole, and rebuilding trust.
| Step | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Contain and back up | Preserve evidence and stop further changes. |
| Clean rebuild | Restore from known-good files or rebuild, never patch infected code. |
| 410 the spam URLs | Tells Google the junk pages are permanently gone, faster than a 404. |
| Review backlinks | Spam campaigns often leave toxic links pointing at the domain. |
| Re-submit and monitor | Clean sitemap, Search Console checks and security monitoring. |
How it works
Baseline
Crawl, traffic and backlink data for every URL that matters.
Map
One-to-one redirect map and content checklist.
QA on staging
Every template and key page checked before launch.
Launch
Redirects live, tested and sitemaps submitted.
Monitor
Daily checks for the first weeks, then a post-migration report.
Questions we get asked
Will I lose rankings when I redesign my site?
Not if the migration is planned properly. Some movement for a few weeks is normal, but with full redirect mapping and QA, rankings should settle at or above where they were.
My site was hacked and Google shows spam pages. What now?
We clean the site, close the vulnerability and return the spam URLs as 410 Gone so Google removes them quickly, then submit a clean sitemap and monitor recovery.
How can I tell if my site has been hacked?
Common signs are a sudden traffic drop, unfamiliar pages showing in a site: search, a security warning in Search Console, or Google results with spammy titles. Injected pages often load normally for you but redirect visitors from search elsewhere.
Why are rankings still down after the clean-up?
Usually because only the visible damage was fixed. Hidden backdoors let attackers return, and thousands of spam URLs and injected links can stay in Google's index. Full recovery means finding everything they touched, then dealing with the SEO aftermath too.
Can you recover from a Google penalty?
For manual actions, yes: we fix the cause and submit an evidenced reconsideration request. Algorithmic drops need a broader review of content, links and technical health.
Do you build the new site too?
We can. When we build and host the new site, migration QA is part of the build. More on SEO web design.
Related services
- ds-search.co.uk › technical-seoTechnical SEO ServicesCrawl, indexation, Core Web Vitals and structured data, fixed rather than reported.
- ds-search.co.uk › seo-web-designSEO Web DesignFast, SEO-first websites designed, built and hosted by the team that ranks them.
- ds-search.co.uk › seo-auditSEO AuditA full technical, on-page and entity audit with a prioritised fix plan.
- ds-search.co.uk › link-buildingLink Building ServicesRelevant, earned links and digital PR, every link reported.
See what search sees.
Get a free audit of how Google, Maps and AI assistants understand your business, with the fixes in priority order.
- Technical, on-page, local and entity checks
- AI answer visibility for your core services
- A prioritised fix list you keep, whatever you decide