TL;DR: Switching dental website companies puts rankings at risk when addresses, titles, or pages Google already uses are dropped without a plan. Start by confirming the practice owns the domain and can export the pages, images, and forms. Keep every URL that already ranks, and where an address has to change, point the old one at the new one with a server-side 301. Then watch Search Console for 90 days, because Google says a move can fluctuate while it recrawls the site.
Who owns the domain, and who owns the pages?
The domain is the name patients type, and it is controlled at the registrar, the company where the name was purchased. Log in there, or ask the current company for the login, and check that the registrant is the practice, not the vendor. If the vendor is the registrant, transfer the name into an account the practice controls before you cancel anything. The pages, photos, and wording are a separate question, and the contract is the document that answers it. Read the clauses on ownership, cancellation, and what you are allowed to take when you leave.
Google does not decide who owns a website. It indexes the URLs it can crawl. If the practice cannot log in to the registrar, or cannot download the pages, the move waits until that access exists. Do that check before you give notice, so the current site is not turned off while the name is still in someone else's account.
What should you export before the old site comes down?
Make the list while the current site is still online. You want every public URL, the text on those pages, the images and any files a patient can download, and the forms, including the address each form sends a message to. You also want the Google Search Console property and the analytics the practice uses, because those accounts hold the history you will compare later. If the website company also runs the practice email, write down the mail settings before any DNS change, so the inbox keeps receiving mail.
- Registrar login, and the registrant name on the domain.
- DNS access, or a copy of the current records.
- A full URL list, from the sitemap and from Search Console.
- Page copy, images, and files such as PDFs.
- Forms, and where each submission is delivered.
- Search Console and analytics access.
- The titles on pages that already receive visits.
Store that export somewhere the practice controls, not only inside the vendor dashboard. A screenshot of the home page is not a substitute for the files. You will need the words and the images if a page has to be rebuilt, because a later site can only keep what you still have.
How do you map URLs and set 301 redirects?
Google's site-move documentation asks for a map from each current URL to its new address before anything launches. If a page can keep its address, keep it, because bookmarks, directory listings, and existing links already point there. A move that only changes the host, and leaves every URL the same, is a different job from a redesign that renames pages. Google's guide treats a hosting change that keeps the URLs as a different starting point from a move that changes addresses.
When an address has to change, use a server-side permanent redirect, an HTTP 301 or 308, from the old URL straight to the final new URL. Google's redirect documentation says a permanent redirect is a signal that the new URL should be the one shown in search. The site-move guide adds that 301 redirects do not cause a loss of PageRank, and it says to avoid a chain of hops on the way to the final page. Send each old address to its final destination in one step.
A redirect does not replace the page. If the title and the substance that ranked are dropped, the new URL has less for Google to associate with the old query. Carry the page forward, and redirect only where the address itself must change. The same attention to pages that already rank is part of how a replacement site is designed.
Which titles should stay?
Google builds the title people see in search from several sources, and the title element is one of them. It can choose different text when a title is vague, repeated on every page, or out of step with the heading. If a page already earns visits for a query, leave the title that describes that page in place unless you have a clear reason to rewrite it. A new slogan pasted onto every page is a common way to throw away a title Google was already using.
Give each page its own title, written for that page, in the same language as the page. Google's title guidance says boilerplate titles make it hard to tell pages apart, and that repeating keywords in the title can look spammy. The visible heading and the title element should describe the same page, so Google is not choosing between two different stories.
What should you check in Search Console?
Verify the Search Console property before the move, and confirm the verification still works if the site is copied onto a new host. Google's site-move guide says to verify the versions of the site you actually use, and to submit a sitemap of the URLs you want crawled. The sitemaps report shows how many of those submitted URLs have been indexed, and the Index Status report is the broad view of what is in or out. Save the Performance report before you switch, including the queries and pages that were getting clicks, so you have a baseline.
After the switch, inspect a sample of important URLs, including one that redirected, and see whether Google fetched the final page. Look for old URLs that return an error, and for redirects that land on the wrong page. Check that the sitemap you submitted lists the URLs you want found, not the ones you retired. Do this in the property that matches the hostname patients use.
What does 90 days of watching look like?
Google says a significant change can bring ranking fluctuation while it recrawls the site, and that a medium-sized site can take a few weeks or longer before new URLs replace old ones in results. There is no fixed crawl schedule. For 90 days after launch, compare Performance with the baseline you saved: queries, pages, and clicks. A specific position is not something the data, or any vendor, can promise.
Look for titles that changed without a decision, and for pages that used to get clicks and then drop out of the report. Inspect those URLs first. Write down what you find each week, so a dip is a fact you can trace rather than a feeling. If a redirect is wrong, fix the map, then use URL Inspection to ask Google to recrawl the final URL.
When a studio handles the move
The practice can work this checklist, or hand the move to a studio. Rainey Dental Partners keeps the URLs that already rank, writes a redirect map when an address has to change, and watches rankings for 90 days after launch. Designing a new site usually takes four to six weeks from the signed agreement, the practice owns the site and the domain from day one, and the design fee is $3,999, paid once. Hosting for the site you already have is a separate choice: it is optional and month to month, and while you host with the studio the plan includes SEO and unlimited updates.
Questions
Who should own the domain when you switch website companies?
The practice should. Check the registrar before you cancel, and move the name into an account the practice controls if a vendor is the registrant. Google indexes URLs. It does not hold the domain for you.
Will a 301 redirect keep my Google rankings?
A 301 tells Google the page has moved, and Google says permanent redirects do not cause a loss of PageRank. It is not a promise that every query stays in the same position. Keep the URL when you can, and when you cannot, redirect the old address straight to the page that replaces it.
How long should I watch rankings after a website move?
Plan on 90 days. Google says a medium-sized site can take a few weeks or longer to show the new URLs, and fluctuation during a recrawl is expected. Compare Search Console Performance with the numbers you saved before the switch.
What should I export before I leave a website company?
Export the URL list, the page copy, the images and files, and the forms, including where each form sends its message. Export access to Search Console and analytics as well. Do this while the current site is still online.
Sources
These three pages were opened on October 19, 2026. The notes above on URL maps, 301 redirects, PageRank, title links, and Search Console follow them. If a Google page later says something different, that page is the one to follow.
- Google Search Central, "How to move a site": developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes
- Google Search Central, "Redirects and Google Search": developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects
- Google Search Central, "Influencing your title links": developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link
The consult is thirty minutes. Bring the address of the current site if you have it. We will say whether the next step is a move of the site you have, or a new design.