🔍 Why Migrations Cause 404 and Indexing Issues
When you migrate a website to a new domain, platform, or URL structure, search engines and visitors may encounter broken pages (404 errors) and indexing delays. This happens because old URLs no longer resolve to active pages, and search engines need time to discover and re-crawl your new URL structure.
Common causes include:
- Changed URL slugs — Page URLs were altered during migration without redirects in place.
- Missing 301 redirects — Old URLs were not mapped to their new destinations.
- Outdated XML sitemaps — Sitemaps still reference old URLs or are missing new ones.
- Broken internal links — Links within your content still point to old URLs that no longer exist.
📊 Step 1: Identify Issues After Migration
After migration, the first step is to identify 404 errors, broken internal links, and pages that are not indexed. You can check Google Search Console's Coverage and Page Indexing reports to see which URLs Google has dropped or cannot index. Review server access logs or your CMS's redirect-manager to find old URLs still receiving traffic but returning 404 status codes.
Compile a prioritized list of issues so you know exactly what to fix first — start with your highest-traffic pages and most important internal links.
🛠️ Step 2: Fix 404 Errors on Your Website
These fixes must be applied on your website server or CMS. No additional payment is required — these are standard SEO tasks you can handle yourself or with your web developer.
The most common and effective solutions are:
- Set up 301 redirects — Map each old URL to its new corresponding URL using a permanent redirect. This preserves link equity and automatically sends visitors to the correct page.
- Update internal links — Replace any links pointing to old URLs with the new destination URLs across your site.
- Update your XML sitemap — Remove old URLs, add the new ones, and submit the updated sitemap in Google Search Console.
- Restore deleted pages — If a page was accidentally removed during migration, restore it or redirect it to the most relevant alternative page.
Work through the issues in priority order. Start with your highest-traffic pages and most important internal links.
🚀 Step 3: Submit URLs for Re-Indexing
Once your redirects and fixes are live, you can accelerate the re-indexing process. You can request re-indexing directly in Google Search Console for individual high-priority URLs by using the URL Inspection tool and selecting 'Request Indexing.'
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.