An SEO checklist for a site restructure, with every old address redirected
Before your site's addresses change, list the pages that bring search clicks, map each to its new address, add the redirects with approval and check them after.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time
- about 90 min
- Works with
- Rank Math, Redirection
I'm restructuring my site on the same domain: [the blog moves from /news/ to /blog/, and three service pages merge into /services/]. Before anything moves, list every page that got clicks in Search Console over the last [12 months], with its clicks, and the redirects the site already has. Build a table: old address, new address, 301. Flag any old address with nowhere to go, any redirect that would chain, and existing redirects that point to addresses that will move. When I tell you the new pages are live, add the redirects one by one with my approval. A week later I'll ask you to inspect the new addresses in Search Console.
Already connected?
If SAR is already in your AI app, this is enough:
Map my old addresses that get search clicks to [the new addresses] and add 301 redirects once the new pages are live.
What happens
- The AI app reads Search Console by page for the period you chose, lists your pages and posts, and lists the redirects the site already has.
- It builds the table of old and new addresses and flags old addresses with nowhere to go, chains, and existing redirects that point to an address that will move.
- Once the new pages are live, each redirect waits for your approval in SAR and can be undone for 30 days. A redirect to an address that itself redirects is refused, so an old redirect is removed and made again to the final address, each with its own approval.
- Afterwards it inspects the new addresses in Search Console, so you see whether Google has found and indexed them.
Approvals involved
Worked out from the tools this recipe uses.
gsc_get_advanced_search_analyticsSearch analytics with filtersNonewordpress_list_postsList posts or pagesNonewordpress_list_redirectsRedirectsNonewordpress_create_redirectAdd a redirectApprovalwordpress_delete_redirectRemove a redirectApprovalgsc_batch_url_inspectionInspect several URLsNone
What you get
A restructure with a written map of every address that mattered, and old links that keep working. Search traffic can still move for a while after a restructure, so compare clicks by page in the weeks after.
Related recipes
- Content · about 25 minRedirects for pages you renamed or removed, and 410 for products gone for goodSend old addresses that still get visits to the right page with a 301, answer 410 for products you will never sell again, and approve each one.
- SEO · about 20 minRewrite search titles and descriptions for pages people see but rarely clickFind the pages Google shows often but few people click, and get new search titles and descriptions to approve in your SEO plugin.
- SEO · about 20 minA focus keyword for each key page, chosen from its real Google searchesSet the focus keyword in your SEO plugin from the searches each page really gets clicks for, instead of a guess made when it was written.
Try it on your own site
Install the plugin, add SAR to your AI app and paste the prompt. Free to start.