How to migrate your website to Framer without losing SEO

Quick answer: To move a website to Framer without losing SEO, keep your URLs wherever you can, map every old URL that changes to its new home with a 301 redirect, carry over titles, meta descriptions, headings and structured data, then submit the new sitemap and watch Google Search Console daily for the first few weeks.

Most rankings lost in a migration are not lost because of the new platform. They are lost because pages quietly disappear, URLs change without redirects, or the metadata that Google relied on never makes it across. Framer handles the technical basics well: it serves prerendered pages, generates a sitemap, and gives you per-page SEO settings. What it cannot do is know which of your old pages earned traffic and links.

This guide walks through the migration in the order we would run it: inventory, mapping, rebuild, launch day, and the weeks after.

Why rankings drop after a website migration

Google ranks individual URLs, not your brand as a whole. When you rebuild a site, every URL that changes or vanishes is a page Google has to rediscover, re-evaluate and reconnect to the links pointing at it. A short dip while Google recrawls is normal. A long slide usually comes from one of these:

• Old URLs that now return a 404 instead of a redirect
• Redirect chains, where an old URL hops through two or three addresses before landing
• Pages that kept their URL but lost their title, meta description or main heading
• Content that was trimmed during the redesign, so the page no longer answers the query it ranked for
• Internal links that still point to old URLs and rely on redirects
• A staging setting, such as noindex, that was never switched off

Each of these is preventable with a bit of preparation before you publish.

Before you build: inventory what you already have

Export every URL that matters

Start with a full list of your current URLs. Pull them from three places, because each one catches pages the others miss:

1. Your current sitemap
2. A crawl of the live site with a tool like Screaming Frog
3. The Pages report in Google Search Console, filtered to the last 12 months

Add a column for clicks, impressions and backlinks per URL. The pages with real traffic or links are the ones you protect first.

Record the SEO details of each important page

For every page that gets traffic, save the current title tag, meta description, H1, main headings and any structured data (JSON-LD). Screenshots of the top pages help too. When the new design changes a headline for style reasons, you will want to know what the old one said.

Decide what stays, merges or goes

A migration is a good moment to clean up. Thin pages, outdated announcements and near-duplicate posts can be merged into stronger pages or retired. The rule is simple: if a page has traffic or links, it either keeps its URL or redirects to the closest matching page. Nothing with value should land on a 404.

Map every old URL to a new one

Keep URLs identical where you can

The safest redirect is the one you never need. If your blog lives at /blog/post-name today, set up the Framer CMS so posts keep the same path. If your service pages sit at /services/branding, mirror that structure. Changing URLs for cosmetic reasons is the most common self-inflicted migration problem.

Build a redirect map for everything that changes

Create a simple spreadsheet with two columns: old URL and new URL. Every changed or retired URL gets a row. Point each one at the most relevant new page, not the homepage. Redirecting everything to the homepage is treated much like a 404 by Google, so the ranking value does not carry over.

Framer has a redirects setting in the site settings where you add old and new paths, including wildcard patterns for whole sections such as an old blog folder. Check which Framer plan your site needs for redirects before launch day [CONFIRM: current Framer plan that includes redirects], so you are not discovering a plan limit with a live site.

Avoid chains and loops

Each old URL should redirect once, straight to its final destination with a 301. If your old site already had redirects, update them so they point to the final new URL rather than stacking a new hop on top.

Rebuild the SEO layer inside Framer

Page titles, descriptions and headings

Every Framer page has its own SEO settings for title and description. For CMS collections, connect these fields to CMS properties so each article or case study gets a unique title and description rather than a shared default. Keep one H1 per page and keep the heading order logical. Designers sometimes pick heading levels for visual size, so check them before launch.

Structured data

If your old site used schema markup for your organization, articles, FAQs or products, add the same JSON-LD to the new pages through Framer's custom code settings. Rich results that disappear after a migration are often just missing schema.

Images and alt text

Rebuilt pages often come with new images. Give each meaningful image descriptive alt text and keep file sizes reasonable. Framer optimizes images on its side, but oversized source files and heavy video backgrounds still slow pages down.

Internal links

Update the links inside your content, navigation and footer so they point to the new URLs directly. Redirects are a safety net for outside links, not a substitute for clean internal linking.

Content parity

Compare each rebuilt page with the old version. If the old page ranked for a question and the new page no longer answers it, the ranking will follow the content out the door. A redesign can shorten copy, but keep the parts that matched search intent.

Launch day checklist

Run through this list on the day you switch the domain:

• Connect the custom domain and confirm both the www and non-www versions resolve to one preferred version
• Confirm no page that should rank is set to noindex, and that any staging password is removed
• Test your top 20 to 50 old URLs by hand and confirm each returns a 301 to the right page
• Run a fresh crawl of the new site to catch 404s, missing titles and duplicate descriptions
• Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console
• Request indexing for your most important pages through URL inspection
• Check that analytics and any conversion tracking fire on the new pages

If you are moving to a new domain as well, use the Change of Address tool in Search Console after redirects are live. Changing platform and domain at the same time adds risk, so split them into two steps if your schedule allows.

The first eight weeks after launch

What to watch in Search Console

Check the Pages report for new 404s, redirect errors and pages marked "Crawled, currently not indexed". Compare clicks and impressions for your top pages against the same period before launch. A dip in the first two to four weeks is common while Google recrawls. A page that is still falling after a month usually has a specific cause: a missing redirect, a lost heading, or thinner content than before.

Fix issues page by page

When a page slips, compare it with your saved inventory. Did the title change? Did a section of copy disappear? Is the old URL redirecting to the right place? Most recoveries come from restoring what was lost rather than adding something new.

Update outside links you control

Social profiles, directory listings, email signatures and partner pages that link to old URLs should be updated to the new ones. Redirects will catch them, but direct links are cleaner.

When to bring in help

A small marketing site with a handful of pages is a manageable DIY migration with the steps above. It gets riskier when you have a large blog, multiple languages, years of backlinks, or a site that drives most of your inbound leads. In those cases a redirect mistake can cost months of traffic.

Our team is an Official Framer Expert and we build client websites in Framer, including the redesign, CMS setup and the SEO work that keeps existing rankings in place. If you are planning a move and want a second pair of eyes on your redirect map or launch plan, tell us about your site and we will let you know where the risks are.

If you would rather hire someone directly, our guide on how to hire a Framer expert for your startup covers what to ask before you sign. And if the migration is part of a bigger rebuild, the SaaS website redesign process article walks through the full plan from audit to launch.

Summary

A Framer migration keeps its rankings when you treat SEO as part of the build rather than an afterthought. Inventory your pages, keep URLs where possible, redirect everything else with single 301s to relevant pages, rebuild titles, descriptions, headings and schema, and watch Search Console closely for the first two months.

Planning a move to Framer and want it done without losing the traffic you have built? Get in touch with our team and we will help you plan the migration.