PeakLeadsWebsite moves
Why is my old website still showing on Google?
Google still has the addresses of your old website on file, and it keeps showing them until it revisits each one and finds out what happened to it. If the old site is still live on an old host, an old domain or a subdomain, Google will keep finding it. The fix is a permanent (301) redirect from each old address to the new page that replaces it, and a plain 404 or 410 for pages with no replacement. If the domain changed as well, keep the old one renewed and redirecting, and tell Google with the Change of Address tool in Search Console.
You paid for a new website or a redesign, yet when you search your business name the old site is still there, sometimes with its old prices. This post covers why that happens, what each old address should do now, which of Google's tools help, and the tidy-up that is easy to forget.
It does not cover getting a new site found in the first place. That, and setting up Search Console, is in Will my new website show up on Google?
Why does Google keep showing the old pages?
Because the old pages are still out there, or because nothing has told Google where they went. Often both.
Google does not wipe its records when a new site launches. It works through your old addresses one at a time as it recrawls them, on no fixed timetable. Google's guide to moving a site says a move is only complete once Google has visited every old and new address at least once.
Three things keep old pages around for longer:
- The old site is still running, whether on an old domain, on hosting the previous designer still pays for, or on a subdomain nobody switched off. While those pages load, Google can keep showing them.
- There are no redirects, so nothing tells Google that each new page replaces an old one.
- Directory listings, old Facebook posts and possibly your own Business Profile still link to the old addresses, so Google keeps being sent back.
One kind of leftover is normal. After a domain change, Google says it is very likely to show the old address now and then, even once the new pages are indexed, and that this fades on its own. If tapping it lands you on the right new page, the redirect is working.
How do you redirect the old website to the new one?
Page by page, with a permanent redirect from each old address to the new page that does the same job. Say you are an electrician in Centurion: the old page about compliance certificates should send visitors, and Google, to the new one.
Ask for a 301, the permanent kind, set up on the server. Google's redirect documentation explains why: a permanent redirect gets the new page shown in search results, while a temporary one, such as a 302, keeps the old page showing. Visitors usually cannot tell the two apart, so ask which kind was used.
Before anyone sets up a redirect, make a list: old address in one column, new address in the other. Start with the pages that got the most visits and the ones other sites link to, then work through your old sitemap. Include images and PDF downloads such as price lists, which Google says should move the same way.
If your new website is still being built, make the list before launch day. If it launched months ago, it is not too late: old links reach the right page the moment the redirects are on, and Google catches up as it recrawls.
Why not send every old page to the homepage?
Google advises against it, and it strands your customers. Its site-move guide says redirecting lots of old addresses to one unrelated page, such as the new homepage, can confuse people and might be treated as a soft 404. That is Google's term for a page it treats as missing even though the server says all is well. So Google may decide your old borehole pump page has gone rather than moved, and the customer who tapped an old link to it has to start hunting from the homepage.
The one exception is a merge. If a few thin suburb pages were folded into one page for the area, redirect them all to that page. Google's guide says that is fine.
Pages with no new version, such as an expired winter special or a service you dropped, should return a 404 (not found) or a 410 (gone). Google removes addresses that return either code from its index and treats the two the same, so do not agonise over which. Give the 404 page your normal menu and phone number, but make sure the server still sends a real 404 code. Google's advice on soft 404s sets out when to redirect a page and when to let it go.
What if your domain name changed too?
Keep the old domain, keep it redirecting, and tell Google about the move with the Change of Address tool in Search Console.
Google's help says to use the tool once the redirects are live. You need to own both the old and the new property in Search Console, under the same Google account. Run the tool for the old domain both with and without the www, and have both versions verified, because a request for one does not move the other. If only the page addresses changed and the domain stayed the same, you do not need the tool at all: redirects and an updated sitemap are enough.
Do not let the old domain lapse to save on the renewal. Once a lapsed domain is released, someone else can register it, and every directory listing, old quote and bakkie door carrying that address would send your customers to whatever they put there. Google's site-move guide says to keep redirects for as long as possible, and its Search Console help recommends paying for the old domain for at least a year, to stop others buying it and using it for malicious purposes. We would keep it for as long as that address is painted on anything you own.
If the old domain or hosting is in a previous designer's name, nobody on your side can add redirects until you have the logins. Getting them back comes first, and who owns your website explains how to check whose name each one is in and what to do if the designer will not hand them over.
Can you ask Google to remove the old website?
Only for a while. Search Console's Removals tool hides a page from Google's results, but Google's help page for it is blunt: "A successful request lasts only about six months." After that, the page can come back if it is still live. Google also lists tidying up after a site change as a job the tool is not for, because old pages that return a 404 drop out as Google recrawls them.
Save it for emergencies, such as a former employee's cellphone number on an old contact page, and then delete that page or put it behind a password.
It also only works on a site you own in Search Console. If the old site sits on hosting you cannot get into, ask whoever controls it to take the pages down. Once they are gone, Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool lets anyone ask for the result to be updated, owner or not.
What else still points customers at the old site?
Plenty. Google's site-move guide says to update your own links and ask other sites to update theirs, because redirects are slow for visitors. Go through this list once:
- The website link on your Google Business Profile, plus the booking link if your category offers one. You can edit both from Google Search or the Maps app.
- Your Facebook and Instagram pages, and any other social profiles.
- Directory listings and supplier pages. Keeping your details consistent everywhere is part of the citation work in SEO.
- Email signatures, quote and invoice templates, and any PDFs you send customers.
- Google Ads and Meta ads, which should point straight at the new pages.
- Your sitemap. Submit the new one in Search Console so Google learns the new addresses.
Should you just switch the old website off?
Not until the redirects are in place. Switch it off first and every old address in Google and in every directory leads to an error page. Google then drops those pages as missing instead of following them to their new homes. In Google's guide, turning on the redirects is the first step of the move itself.
Deleting old pages and hoping Google notices fails the same way. The pages fall out of the results in the end, but every link pointing at them leads nowhere.
Where does Peak Leads stand on this?
On sites we build, technical SEO is in place from the day the site goes live, not added afterwards, as our web design page sets out. When we do SEO on a site you already have, technical problems get fixed rather than listed in a report.
We would also rather you did not rebuild for the sake of it. A site that keeps its addresses has no old pages to chase. Not every site needs replacing, so ask whether yours does before you pay for a new one.
Whoever builds your next site, ask before work starts what happens to each old address on launch day. A good builder answers with a list.
How do you find and fix the old pages yourself?
Start on your phone.
- Search Google for site: and your old web address, with no space, for example site:youroldname.co.za. Google says the list is not always complete, but it is a good start.
- Tap each result. The right new page means that address is sorted. The new homepage means it needs a better redirect, unless it was the old homepage. The old page itself means the old site is still live somewhere. An error page is fine only if there is no new page for it.
- Write your two-column list, with "none" where a 404 is the right answer.
- Send it to whoever looks after your website and ask for permanent redirects, plus the Change of Address requests if the domain changed.
- Update the website link on your Business Profile today. It is the quickest fix on this page.