Moving your dealer website without losing search rankings

Changing website or provider is a good moment to fix what has been holding you back. It is also the moment a dealer is most likely to lose search rankings and enquiries without noticing. Most of that loss is avoidable, and the work is mostly a careful list.

Why a move can cost you

Over the years, search engines, marketplaces, forums and old emails have collected links to your web addresses. When you move, many of those addresses change. If someone follows an old link, or Google revisits it, and finds a “page not found” error, that visitor is lost and the trust the page had built up goes with it. The fix is to make sure every old address leads somewhere sensible.

1. List the addresses you have now

Before anything changes, write down the pages on your current site. Your sitemap (often at /sitemap.xml) is a good start. Google Search Console shows which pages get seen in search, and your analytics show which ones people visit. Put them in a spreadsheet, and mark the ones that matter most: your home page, stock search, your main vehicle pages, finance, part-exchange, contact and any articles that bring in visitors.

2. Map every old address to a new one

Next to each old address, write the page that replaces it on the new site. Then set up a permanent redirect, known as a 301, from one to the other. A 301 tells browsers and search engines “this page has moved here for good”.

• Point each page at its closest match, not everything at the home page.
• Old vehicle pages that are long sold can point at the matching stock search, such as your used vans or your motorcycles.
• Avoid chains, where one redirect leads to another and then another.

3. Keep your domain

Your domain name, such as www.yourdealership.co.uk, carries most of your history in search. Keep it if you possibly can. Check that it is registered in your business’s name and that you have the login, not just your old provider. If you must change domain as well, Google Search Console has a change of address tool to tell Google about the move.

4. Bring across the content worth keeping

Look at your list again. Articles, guides and pages that still bring visitors deserve to come with you, ideally at the same address or redirected to their new one. Check the titles and descriptions buyers see in Google too, so a page that did well keeps its wording. Pages that are out of date, thin or never visited can be left behind, as long as their old addresses still redirect somewhere useful.

5. Check carefully after the switch

The first few weeks after a move are when problems are cheapest to fix.

• Test your most important old addresses yourself. Each should land on the right new page.
• Submit your new sitemap in Google Search Console and watch its reports for pages that cannot be found.
• Click through the new site looking for broken links, missing images and forms that do not send.
• Send yourself a test enquiry from every form, and make sure it reaches the right person.

It is normal for positions to move about for a little while as search engines catch up. Keep an eye on it and fix what you find, rather than reacting to every change.

6. Update your listings

Finally, update the places that link to you. Your Google Business Profile, marketplace adverts, social pages, directories and email signatures should all point at the right pages. If your phone number, hours or address changed with the move, change them everywhere at the same time. Our guide to local search for dealers explains why consistency matters.

How MotoVend handles it

If you are coming from another provider, our team helps you bring your stock across and point your old web addresses at your new pages. Every MotoVend site has its own MotoVend address from the start, so you can build and check the new site before switching. You connect your own domain with one CNAME record on the www address, SSL is set up for you, and the change can take up to 24 hours. After that, renaming a page adds a redirect automatically. More on the help available.