{"id":687,"slug":"rule-keep-migration-redirects-12-months","title":"RULE: Keep migration 301 redirects in place for at least 12 months; never less than 180 days (Google's explicit floor)","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["seo-content","migration-mechanics","redirect-mapping"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** All 301 redirects implemented during a WordPress migration remain in place for **at least 12 months**. Never less than 180 days under any circumstances.\n\n**Why (Google's own framing):** *\"Maintain the redirects for at least 180 days — longer if you still see any traffic to them from Google Search.\"* (Google Search Central, Change of Address documentation.)\n\n**Why (operational, GreenGeeks migration checklist):** *\"Cutting redirects after 30 or 60 days. Google can take much longer to reindex external backlinks. Industry standard is 12 months minimum.\"*\n\n**How to apply:** the migration build includes redirect retention as a contract clause. Charge for redirect maintenance after the 12-month window as a separate line item if the client wants to extend.\n\n**Mistake to avoid:** \"we'll clean up the redirects\" as a tidying task at 30/60/90 days. External backlinks survive longer than internal crawl patterns; cutting redirects too early destroys recovered traffic.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"redirect-map-deliverable-spec","title":"Redirect map deliverable spec — CSV of old→new URL with notes; sources are XML sitemap + Screaming Frog + GSC + Ahrefs/Semrush","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"migration-hidden-killers-catalogue","title":"Migration hidden-killers catalogue — the seven failure modes that appear in every post-mortem","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"cutover-pattern-low-risk-same-domain","title":"Low-risk cutover pattern for same-domain CMS migration — 2-week pre-flight, DNS TTL 300s, monitor 48h, keep WP firewalled 30 days","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T21:24:18.420Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T21:24:18.420Z"}