Member Avatar for Otir

Because the organization is changing name following a merger, the websites of both legacy organizations will need to be consolidated into one without losing the prior seo of each original web pages. I understand that I will need to use redirections and modifications in the DNS, but apart from that, I do not even know how to start planning the migration.

Can someone help me understand what I will need to do and plan? Thank you in advance for your help.

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A short, practical migration plan tailored to a two-site consolidation (the merger scenario in this thread). ’s pointer to migration guides and ’s checklist are good starting points; this addendum fills gaps and corrects one risky suggestion (see robots.txt note). The goal is a tested URL-to-URL mapping, server-side permanent redirects, verification in webmaster tools, and a monitoring/rollback plan so prior SEO signals transfer with minimal disruption. (developers.google.com)

Do this in stages: inventory all old URLs, create a single CSV mapping old -> new, and implement per‑URL 301s (avoid redirecting everything to the homepage). Example server rules (adjust for your host):

# Apache (.htaccess) per-page example
Redirect 301 /old-page.html https://newdomain.com/new-page.html

# Nginx wildcard preserving path (entire domain)
server {
  listen 80;
  server_name olddomain.com www.olddomain.com;
  return 301 https://newdomain.com$request_uri;
}

Quick redirect test (should return 301 and Location header):

curl -I -L -s https://olddomain.com/old-page.html

Use an automated crawler to validate every mapping and find chains/loops (Screaming Frog or equivalent). Fix chains so every old URL points directly to its final new URL. (developer.mozilla.org)

DNS / Search Console and timing: lower DNS TTL well before the cutover to speed propagation, provision TLS for the new domain, verify both old and new properties in Search Console, submit the new sitemap, and use the Change of Address process for Google when ready. Keep redirects in place for at least a year and prefer to keep them indefinitely where possible. Do NOT block the old site with robots.txt or site-wide noindex while redirects are active — that prevents crawlers from seeing the redirects. (developers.cloudflare.com)

Monitoring & follow‑up: track organic traffic, index coverage, and 404s in Search Console and analytics; prioritize outreach to high-value referring sites to update links; update internal links and canonical/hreflang tags on the new site; expect ranking fluctuations for weeks and plan a rollback path in case of major issues. Use server logs plus crawl reports to confirm Google is following the redirects and that crawl volume is shifting to the new domain. (developers.google.com)

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Member Avatar for Otir

Thank you so much for the guidance, I really appreciate it!

Member Avatar for bijutoha

Welcome Otir, Hope a beautiful journey for your success.

Member Avatar for Zueas

If you want to merge the 2 sites in 1, you should:
1) Make also a consistent structure for them. I mean that the hierarchy of sections and subsections should be sustained.
2) Make the per page redirects, It means if you have the page on the old site, you should set the 301 redirect into the new one.
3) Close the indexation for the old site in robots.txt. Also, remember that you shouldn`t delete the pages of the old site from index as a there weight of the pages should transfer from the old to new pages in 2-3 months.
4) Create the sitemap for new domain.

Member Avatar for Otir

Thank you Victoria for the plan. This will help me understand better all that I have to do.
I need to learn a lot about all this. I am a bit intimidated, and it is very helpful to have these indications to start working with a good method. Thank you!

Member Avatar for Zueas

If you have laso any questions - you're welcome. Also, I'd like to dee here the results of migration of the site to the new domain, as here are a lot of users that have the same problem and your results will help them to see the whole state of affairs from the start))

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