Plan your SEO migration to Carrot

Use this checklist when moving an existing website to a Carrot site. Rankings may shift for a few weeks while Google re-crawls.

Chat with us and we’ll help you plan the move. Open the dashboard help drawer’s Support tab to start.

You’ve put work into your site’s search visibility. It’s understandable to be cautious about a move.

Before switching your domain

1. Make a list of your important old URLs, especially pages receiving search traffic or linked from other websites. Record their content, page titles, and descriptions so you can compare the replacement pages.
2. With permission to edit site content, build the corresponding pages on your Carrot site. Open your site, check the account and site name, then select Content to open Pages. Keep existing URL paths where practical.
3. Review each replacement page’s content and on-page SEO. These edits happen in the page editor; dashboard SEO reports do not edit your pages. Use the on-page SEO guide for that work.
4. For each changed path, write down the relevant replacement URL. Set up 301 redirects on Carrot for requests that will reach the new site. Avoid sending unrelated old pages to the homepage.

If you’re also changing domain names, arrange forwarding from the old domain with its hosting provider before switching. Carrot’s path rules cannot catch requests that still reach another host. Keep control of the old domain while those redirects are needed.

Switch and check

When the replacement pages and URL map are ready:

1. Follow Connect your custom domain to make the switch.
2. Open each important old URL using the public domain. Confirm that it reaches the intended page without a missing-page error or redirect loop. Fix incorrect mappings in Redirects, checking the site name first.
3. Check links within your new site so they lead directly to the replacement pages.
4. Connect Google Search Console for the new site and check its sitemap.

Check: Your important old URLs reach the right live content, and the sitemap uses the intended public domain. Continue monitoring Search Performance and Google’s Page Indexing report for issues after the move.

If you can’t resolve a broken Carrot destination, use the help drawer’s Support tab with the old URL and intended new URL. For the broader move process, see Google’s site-move guidance.