If you're moving an established website to Podpage (or between any two services), the big worry is losing the SEO history you've built up with Google. The good news: with a few steps, you won't. This guide applies to any website move, not just to Podpage.
What is SEO history?
Google crawls the web constantly, following every link on your site (yourdomain.com/contact, yourdomain.com/about, and so on) and indexing each page. When someone searches for your podcast, Google can send them not just to your site, but to the exact page that's most relevant.
That index of your pages — and how well they rank — is your SEO history.
Why moving websites can confuse Google
A new website service usually organizes pages differently. A contact page at yourdomain.com/wp/contact on WordPress might become yourdomain.com/contact on Podpage.
Until Google catches up, it keeps sending people to the old address. When it finds a page that no longer exists, it removes that page from its index — and you want all your pages in the index.
Set up 301 redirects for your important pages
A 301 redirect tells Google a page has permanently moved to a new address. Instead of dropping the old page from its index, Google updates it — keeping your SEO intact (as long as the new page has the same content).
301 Redirects are available on the Pro plan and above.
- In your dashboard, go to Search Optimization → 301 Redirects.
- Click New Redirect.
- Enter the old path and the new path. A path is everything after your domain name — for example, redirect /wp/contact/ to /contact/.
- Click Save.
Podpage now automatically redirects anyone who visits the old link — including Google. Repeat for every page that matters to you. Within a week or so, you should see the change reflected in Google search. For more detail, see Setting up 301 redirects.
Make sure Google has your sitemap
A sitemap lists every page on your new site so search engines can find them all. Podpage generates your sitemap automatically and points search engines to it in your robots.txt file — nothing to set up.
Monitor the change in Google Search Console
Google Search Console shows you what Google sees when it looks at your site. Set it up for any website you care about — you'll watch Google discover your new pages and honor the redirects from the old ones. You can also submit your sitemap there directly.
Tip: Losing SEO isn't something to worry about when moving websites, as long as you set up redirects for the pages that matter.