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Migration and rescue

Getting it out of there without losing what you had

Changing platform frightens people for exactly one reason: the fear of vanishing from Google on Monday. A hand-made redirect map prevents it, and here is how.

Quote Fixed, within two working days

There are three ways people arrive here. The platform fee went up again and no longer makes sense. Whoever built the site stopped answering two years ago and nobody has the logins. Or the site works but takes four seconds to open and loses half the people on the way in.

In all three the fear is the same: that changing it will make you disappear from Google. It is a reasonable fear, because that is exactly what happens when somebody migrates without mapping the old URLs. It is also entirely avoidable.

Before anything is touched we pull the list of every address Google currently knows about your site, and each one has to have a written destination before the new site goes live. That list is the work; the rest is building the website.

What it includes

  • An inventory of what exists

    Every indexed URL, which ones get visits, which have links pointing at them from outside, and which are surplus. Before anything moves.

  • 301 redirects mapped one by one

    Each old address points at the new one that genuinely corresponds to it. Not all to the home page: Google treats that as a deletion, and it is the mistake that sinks migrations.

  • Copy and images rescued

    We bring across what you already have written, including the pages you had forgotten existed and that still bring people in.

  • Domain and email in your name

    If the domain is registered to whoever built your site, we get it back. It is the dullest and most important part of the whole job.

  • Speed and accessibility as standard

    The new site is born fast and WCAG 2.1 AA compliant. Moving a problem from one platform to another is not a migration.

  • Traffic before and after

    We compare the three months before with the three months after, URL by URL. If something dropped, it is visible and it gets fixed.

How it is done

Two to four weeks, and on switchover day nothing moves until the map is closed.

  1. Inventory and redirect map, reviewed with you before anything is built.

  2. We build the new site at a private address, with the rescued content improved where it needed it.

  3. We publish with the redirects already live, and tell Google the same day with the new sitemap.

  4. We watch the following four weeks: 404s, pages losing position, and broken links from outside.

What decides the price

A migration is quoted on the size of the redirect map, not on how many pages you can see. A fifteen-page site is an afternoon of inventory; a shop with a catalogue is hundreds of URLs to pair up one by one, and that is where the work is. We look at your site and give you the number within two working days, with the real risk said out loud.

  • How many URLs Google knows

    Not how many pages you have: how many are indexed. It is usually more, and each needs a written destination before launch.

  • Whether there is a catalogue

    A shop multiplies the map by the number of listings, and each listing with filters and variants generates URLs that also have to be mapped.

  • Whether the domain is in your name

    If whoever built your site holds it, it has to be recovered. That is a registrar process and sometimes takes a couple of weeks.

  • How much has to be rescued by hand

    Wix and Squarespace do not let you export, so content comes out page by page. It is inside the price, but it is what moves it.

Get a quote How we quote

Who it is for

  • Anyone paying a monthly platform fee that no longer pays for itself.
  • WordPress sites nobody updates that are throwing security warnings.
  • Businesses whose developer vanished and who have access to nothing.
  • Sites that work but load slowly and lose people before they see anything.

Who it is not for

  • If your current site works well and loads fast, leave it alone. We will say so even though it means turning down work.
  • If all you want is a new design, that is a redesign and nothing needs migrating.
  • If the content is the problem, moving it does not fix it: it relocates it.

Questions about migration

If your question isn’t here, write to us and we’ll answer it. Contact

Will I lose rankings on Google?

With the redirects done properly, the normal pattern is a slight dip for two or three weeks and a full recovery afterwards, often higher because of the speed improvement. What sinks a migration is redirecting everything to the home page, or redirecting nothing, which is why the map is made first and reviewed with you.

What if the domain is not in my name?

We get it back. It is a process with the registrar and sometimes takes a couple of weeks, but it nearly always works. It is in fact the single best reason to do this now rather than when you urgently need the domain.

Does my old site stay up meanwhile?

Yes. The new one is built at a private address and the switch happens at a chosen moment, picked to land in your quietest hour. There is never a day without a website.

What happens to my email?

Email moves with the domain and we test it before changing anything. Losing email during a migration is a classic mistake and an afternoon of preparation prevents it.

Can you get me off Wix or Squarespace?

Yes. They do not let you export the site as it stands, so the content is rescued page by page. That is part of the job and it is inside the price.

Send us the address

Give us your website address and we will tell you what needs rescuing, how many redirects it takes and what the real risk is. Before you buy anything.

Or directly
hola@appnweb.site
Monday to Friday, 09:00 – 18:00 (CET)

Send us a message

What you sell, who buys it, and what you’d like to happen.

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