How to build a redirect map for a website migration

By Shaheer Malik · Google and platform docs checked on 28 October 2026

Quick answer: A redirect map is a list of every URL on the old site with the address it should go to on the new one. Build it before any design work: collect every old URL from the sitemap, analytics, Search Console and the CMS, mark each one keep, redirect or drop, write permanent redirects straight to the final page, test every row, and keep the redirects for at least a year, as Google advises.

What a redirect map looks like

One row per old URL. A spreadsheet is enough; what matters is that every address the old site has ever served is on it, and every row has a decision.

Step 1: list every old URL

Google's site move guide starts here too: map the old URLs to the new ones. No single source has them all, so I combine these:

• The XML sitemap. The pages the old platform says exist. Often incomplete, but a good start.
• Analytics. Every page that had a visit in the last year, including ones missing from the sitemap.
• Google Search Console. Pages with impressions and the pages other sites link to. These carry the most value.
• The CMS or an export. Every post, page and collection item, drafts excluded. WordPress exports a WXR file; Webflow exports each collection as CSV.
• Existing redirects. The old site's own redirect list, so links that were redirected once keep working.
• Server logs, if you have them. Google lists them as a way to find URLs that were recently requested.

Merge the lists, remove duplicates and anything with a tracking query on the end, and sort by traffic. The pages at the top are the ones you cannot afford to get wrong.

Step 2: decide keep, redirect or drop

Every row gets one of three decisions:

• Keep. The page survives at the same address. Nothing to redirect, and the safest outcome, so keep addresses wherever the new site allows.
• Redirect. The page survives at a new address, or its content is merged into another page. One permanent redirect, straight to the final page.
• Drop. The page has no equivalent and no traffic or links worth keeping. Let it return 404. Google removes indexed URLs that return a 4xx.

Merging is fine. Google says redirecting several old pages to one page is reasonable when that page has taken over their content. What it warns against is pointing many unrelated pages at one destination such as the homepage, which it may treat as a soft 404.

Step 3: write the rules, specific before general

Most moves need far fewer rules than rows. A pattern rule covers a whole folder, such as every blog post moving from one path to another, and single rules handle the pages that do not fit a pattern. Write the single rules first and the wildcards after, because several platforms read the list in order and stop at the first match.

From each platform's own documentation, read on 28 October 2026. Framer's Basic plan has no redirects at all, which is why every move to Framer runs on Pro.

301 or 308: permanent is what matters

Google's redirects documentation treats 301 and 308 as permanent and 302, 303 and 307 as temporary. A migration needs permanent redirects, which tell Google the new page should replace the old one in search. Which permanent code you get depends on the platform: Webflow's redirect list is labelled 301, Squarespace's URL mappings take a 301 or 302 code, and Framer's own site answers its redirects with 308. Any permanent code is fine.

Server-side redirects are best. Google reads an instant meta refresh as permanent too, and says to use a JavaScript redirect only when neither is possible, because it may never see it if the page fails to render.

Step 4: test every row before and after the switch

A redirect map is also the test plan. Each old URL should answer with a permanent redirect whose destination answers 200, in one hop. On a staging domain this catches mistakes before launch; on the live domain it proves the switch worked. From a terminal, one URL at a time:

curl -sI https://www.example.com/about-us/ | grep -iE "^(HTTP|location)"

For a whole list, a short script or a crawler that reads URLs from a file does the same job. Any row that answers 404, 302, or a redirect to another redirect goes back to step 3.

Step 5: after the switch

• Update internal links. Point menus, footers and links inside your own content at the new addresses, so visitors and crawlers skip the redirect altogether.
• Submit the new sitemap. Add the new sitemap in Search Console and remove the old one, as Google's site move guide advises.
• Check canonicals. Each new page should name itself as canonical, not an old address.
• Watch Search Console. Expect some movement: Google says rankings fluctuate during a move and that most pages of a small or medium site move within a few weeks. Fix any new 404 with a redirect.
• Keep the redirects. Google says generally at least a year, and suggests keeping them indefinitely for people who still use old links.
• Change of Address, only if the domain changes. Google's tool is for moves between domains or subdomains. A move to a new platform on the same domain does not need it.

These come from Google's site move guide and its status code reference, both read on 28 October 2026.

Seven mistakes that cost rankings

• Sending everything to the homepage. Google says many old URLs pointed at one unrelated page can be treated as a soft 404. Redirect to the closest equivalent, or let the page go.
• Temporary redirects by accident. A 302 tells Google the move may be reversed. Cloudflare Pages uses 302 when no code is written, so write the code on every rule.
• Chains. Old redirects that point at pages which now redirect again. Google's crawlers follow up to 10 hops, but every hop is slower for people. Point each old URL straight at its final page.
• General rules above specific ones. Webflow runs rules in the order they were created and Squarespace reads them top to bottom. A broad wildcard placed first catches URLs meant for a specific rule.
• Forgetting files. PDFs and downloads that other sites link to are URLs too. They need a new home and, where the platform allows, a redirect.
• Overwriting the old list. A Webflow CSV import replaces every existing redirect. Export the current list first and import one file with everything in it.
• Cancelling the old site too soon. Keep the old platform until every row of the map has been tested on the live domain.

The URL patterns each platform leaves behind

Every platform shapes its addresses differently, which decides how many pattern rules a move needs:

• WordPress: posts follow the permalink setting, from ?p=123 to dated paths, with archives under /category/ and /tag/.
• Webflow: collection items live under the collection's URL, such as /post/your-post.
• Squarespace:blog posts follow the blog's post URL format, and a format change only applies to new posts, so one blog can hold several patterns.
• Wix: blog posts sit under a post prefix that can be renamed but not removed.

Each move's page lists them in detail: WordPress to Framer, Webflow to Framer, Squarespace to Framer and Wix to Framer.

Or have it done as part of the move

On every migration I build this map first, before any design work, and test it on the live domain after the switch. The move runs on the website redesign sprint: $1,999 fixed, 14 days, for a site of up to about 25 pages, with the old site live until you approve the new one and 30 days of support after launch. Larger sites are quoted separately.

Redirect map questions

Keep exploring

• Website migration to Framer, the hub
• Website redesign in 14 days, $1,999
• Migrating to Framer, the guide
• Is Framer good for SEO?
• AI visibility score, to check the new site once it is live

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