Why do rankings drop after an HTTPS or domain change done “correctly”?
- Published November 6, 2026
- Linked from 1 answer
- In a cluster of 7
Because every page still has a new URL, and Google has to recrawl each one, follow its redirect and move its signals before the new address ranks as the old one did. Doing the move correctly removes the avoidable causes of lasting loss; it does not guarantee that every ranking returns, and it does not make the transition instant. Google’s site-move guide says to “Expect temporary fluctuation in site ranking during the move”, and that applies to a clean move as much as a messy one.
What correct setup protects, and what it cannot
| A correct move protects against | A correct move cannot prevent |
|---|---|
| Stranded signals from old URLs left without redirects | The time Google needs to recrawl every old and new URL |
| Errors for visitors and Googlebot on old links | Movement in rankings while signals are moved over |
| Duplicate old and new versions competing | The gap between pages moved early and pages reached later |
| Lost links, since redirects carry visitors and signals to the new URLs | Changes in crawl rate while Google adjusts to a new host or domain |
The last row has its own note in Google’s documentation. On moves that change hosting without changing URLs, Google explains that crawl rate is set from signals about the site, and those signals change when the hosting changes, so crawling can fluctuate for a while.
Checks that separate settling from a fault
- Every old URL redirects once, permanently, to its exact new equivalent. Spot-check by crawling the old URL list.
- The new site is open to crawling, with no robots.txt block or noindex carried over from testing.
- Canonical tags, internal links and sitemaps use the new URLs, so they agree with the redirects.
- For a domain change, a Change of Address request has been filed in Search Console for the old site, as Google’s guide asks.
- hreflang annotations, if you use them, point to the new URLs.
If all five hold, a dip is probably the move being processed; if one fails, fix it before waiting any longer. If the dip has not recovered once Google has recrawled the moved URLs, compare queries and pages before and after the move, since content changed alongside it, a competitor or an update can also be involved. For how long a correct move takes to settle, see how long to expect a traffic dip after a migration. Keep the redirects in place, because a correct move that dips and returns is behaving as it should.
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