Move a WordPress or Squarespace site to Replit without losing your rankings

6 steps, in order.

1. 01

   List every address the old site has

   Start with the sitemap, then add what the sitemap misses: pages in Search Console's performance report, old blog posts, landing pages from past ad campaigns and image files that get traffic. Google's site move guidance names sitemaps, server logs and analytics as the places to look.

2. 02

   Map each old address to one new address

   Write the map down before anything is built. Keep the same address wherever you can, because an unchanged address needs no redirect at all. Where a page is merged or renamed, point it at the single new page that answers the same question, not at the home page.

3. 03

   Carry over what Google reads, not just what people see

   Titles, meta descriptions, headings, structured data, image alt text and internal links all move with the page. Each new page should name itself as its own canonical address, and internal links should point straight at the new addresses rather than through a redirect.

4. 04

   Redirect permanently, on the server

   Google recommends server side permanent redirects, 301 or 308, and says to keep them for as long as possible, generally at least a year. Avoid chains: an old address should land on its new one in a single hop.

   • Pick one host, with or without www, and permanently redirect the other to it. Two hosts that both answer can be indexed as two copies of every page.
   • Test the whole map against the new site before the switch, not after.

5. 05

   Point the domain without breaking email

   Replit asks for an A record and a TXT verification record at your registrar, and says the verification record must stay in your DNS for as long as the domain is connected. Change only the records the site needs. Leave the MX and other email records exactly as they were, and write them down before you start in case anything is overwritten.

6. 06

   Tell Google, then watch

   Submit the new sitemap in Search Console. For the next few weeks, check the pages report for indexing changes and the performance report for searches that drop, and fix any address that returns an error or lands somewhere unhelpful.