Fixing Broken Links After a Site Migration

A site migration — whether you’re moving to a new domain, restructuring URLs, or switching platforms — almost always creates broken links. Here is how to find every 404 and apply the correct 301 redirects to recover your SEO rankings fast.

Updated June 2, 2026 · 8 min read

Quick answer: After a migration, use FixLinks AI to crawl your new site and detect every broken URL. Review the AI-suggested 301 redirect destinations, apply them in bulk, and submit your updated sitemap to Google Search Console. Act within 24 hours to minimise ranking impact.

Why migrations always create broken links

Even a well-planned migration creates broken links. Common causes include:

  • New URL structure — changing from /blog/post-name to /post-name, adding or removing /category/ prefixes, or switching from numeric to slug-based URLs.
  • Domain change — moving from an old domain to a new one without redirecting every page individually.
  • Platform switch — migrating from Blogger, Squarespace, Joomla, or another CMS to WordPress, where URL conventions are different.
  • HTTPS migration — moving from HTTP to HTTPS without redirecting all HTTP URLs to their HTTPS equivalents.
  • Content consolidation — merging pages or categories that leave behind orphaned URLs.

The SEO cost of migration broken links

When Google re-crawls your site after a migration and finds hundreds of 404s, it:

  1. Stops passing link equity from any external backlinks to those old URLs.
  2. May de-index the old URLs, reducing your total indexed page count.
  3. Wastes a significant portion of your crawl budget on dead pages instead of discovering your new content.

The result: rankings drop, organic traffic falls, and recovery takes weeks or months if broken links are not addressed immediately. See our guide on how broken links hurt SEO for the full picture.

Step-by-step: fix broken links after migration

  1. Run a full site crawl on the new site — Use FixLinks AI to crawl every page of your migrated site and identify all 404 errors.
  2. Match old URLs to new destinations — Review the AI-suggested redirect destinations for each broken URL and confirm or adjust them.
  3. Apply bulk 301 redirects — Apply all redirects in one click. They go live immediately on both Apache and Nginx.
  4. Update your XML sitemap — Submit your updated sitemap to Google Search Console so Google re-crawls the new URLs faster.
  5. Monitor Search Console for remaining 404s — Check the Pages Coverage report weekly for the first month to catch any broken links that were missed.

Using FixLinks AI for bulk migration redirects

Manually adding redirects for a 200-page migration takes hours. FixLinks AI compresses the process:

  1. Run a crawl immediately after the migration goes live.
  2. Review the list — each broken URL shows its source page and an AI-suggested destination based on your new site’s content.
  3. Adjust any suggestions that need refinement, then click Apply All.

The redirects write to your server’s configuration directly and work on both Apache and Nginx. For WooCommerce migrations, see our dedicated guide: fixing broken links on WooCommerce.

Don’t forget external backlinks

Internal links are easy to audit, but external backlinks are easy to overlook. If other websites link to your old URLs and those URLs now return 404s, you are losing the link equity from every one of those backlinks. A proper 301 redirect on each old URL recovers that authority — that is why individual page redirects matter, not just a blanket domain redirect. See how to set up 301 redirects in WordPress.

Post-migration monitoring checklist

  • Week 1: check Google Search Console Pages report daily for new 404s.
  • Week 2–4: monitor organic traffic in Google Analytics for unexpected drops by page.
  • Month 1: run a second FixLinks AI crawl to catch any broken links created by the migration you missed in the first pass.
  • Month 3: compare indexed page count in Search Console before and after — it should be similar or higher once Google processes your redirects.

Bulk-fix your migration broken links in one click

FixLinks AI crawls your new site, finds every 404, and uses AI to suggest the right 301 redirect for each one.

Download the free plugin

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to fix broken links after a migration?

Fix them as fast as possible — ideally the same day or within 24 hours of the migration going live. Every day with broken links means lost crawl budget and link equity bleeding away. Google may de-index the old URLs within days if it sees them returning 404s.

Should I redirect my old domain to the new one?

Yes, always. Set up a 301 redirect from the root of your old domain to your new domain, and individual 301 redirects for each old URL to its new equivalent. A blanket domain redirect is the minimum — individual page redirects preserve link equity for your most important pages.

How do I know if my migration caused broken links?

Run a crawl with FixLinks AI immediately after migration. Also check Google Search Console within a few days — it will start reporting 404 errors as Googlebot crawls the old URLs. Compare your total indexed pages before and after the migration as a quick health check.