Domain migration wrecked traffic. Two months later.

liamcopy

Two months ago, I migrated my transport site to a new domain.

Changed the trademark. Rewrote some pages.

Traffic? Gone. Halved. Average position dropped from 6.7 to 12.3.

Technically, everything should be fine:

301 redirects from every old page
No 404s
Google's indexing the new site
Same page structure

But the old backlinks still point to the old domain. Most are out of my control.

So my first question: is this just a domain authority transfer delay? Or is something else going on?

Second: I was planning a programmatic SEO push - a few hundred landing pages for popular routes. but if Google doesn't trust the new domain yet, is that a terrible idea?

I've got three actions on the table:

Link building - outreach to industry blogs and directories
Link to TrustPilot, Google Business, set up social accounts
Programmatic SEO - new pages

Which one should I prioritise right now? Or all three at once?

Because right now, the silence from Google is deafening

olivia-roas

Two months is a long time to be bleeding traffic. Done plenty of migrations myself, and a few things can absolutely be true at once - but the biggest mistake is treating this as purely a backlink/authority transfer issue.

if you changed the brand and content alongside the domain, Google sees an entirely new entity. That's not a simple URL swap - it's a re-evaluation from scratch. Don't assume the 301s alone will carry you through.

first thing: separate the migration fallout from the content/ranking collapse. ask yourself:

Did every old URL map 1:1, or did you consolidate/change pages?
Did title tags, headings, internal links, and copy change on the drops?
Are the losing queries the same ones that had impressions before, or has Google shifted what it associates with the site?
Is the drop site-wide or isolated to pages where you rewrote content?
Did branded search tank because of the trademark/name change?

on programmatic pages - do not launch hundreds right now. That's a trap. You'll be flooding a domain Google still doesn't trust, muddying the signals even further.

My order of operations:

clean up the migration signals first. update every link you control - citations, GBP, directories, footer, about/contact info, schema, socials. make it painfully obvious that old brand = new brand.
rebuild link signals. not random guest posts - legit industry directories, local transportation citations, partnerships, supplier pages, trade associations. and chase down every important backlink you can to get them updated to the new domain.
only then touch programmatic SEO. Start small - your most valuable routes, with genuinely useful content, not just thin city swaps.

social profiles help with entity consistency but don't expect them to fix the traffic drop alone.

stabilise the migration first. Rebuild the brand and link signals second. then roll out programmatic pages carefully once you've got a clean baseline

brandvoice

Two months is still brutal-you're in the thick of that migration hangover, and it honestly f*cking hurts. I've been through this pain myself, and when you changed domain, brand, and content all at once, you've basically got three separate fires to put out.

Before you even think about scaling anything, I'd do a ruthless audit. Go URL by URL in GSC and see if those old top pages actually map 1:1 to equivalent intent pages on the new site. i've seen clean 301s completely tank because the destination page subtly shifted topic or turned into something more commercial. The user feels that drift.

my order would be: first, fix those mappings and content gaps. Second, reclaim old links wherever possible. Third-only then-think about rolling out programmatic pages. Launching hundreds of new pages while the core move is still unstable just muddies the signal more.

Social profiles are nice for legitimacy, but they won't move the needle here. focus on the technical mess first.

leadgen

Oh, I've been through this exact nightmare a couple of years ago. Took three months to get anywhere near back to normal.

first thing - get that new URL fixed on every third-party site you can think of. It's a grind but absolutely necessary. then tackle your Google Business Profile. Change the URL there, but brace yourself - they might suspend you. Happened to a colleague, took weeks of appeals to sort.

Finally, you've got to get back into link building. No shortcuts there. It's the long road back

noahcontent

Did you set up 1-to-1 301 redirects for every URL? Swapping city names across location pages without unique content and proper local signals will tank your rankings. i've seen this kill traffic - make each page genuinely distinct with local relevance baked in. that's the only way to recover

nightowl

Domain authority is a red herring here. What you've described - altering content whilst shifting domains - is like trying to swap the engine and repaint the car at the same time. Google has no idea which change broke things, so it takes the safest route and drops you.

There could be deeper structural issues too - broken internal links, messy canonical tags, redirect chains. Without seeing the site it's hard to pin down, but that simultaneous change is almost certainly your root cause.

splittester

I would absolutely pause those programmatic pages for now. A domain migration plus brand and content shake-up at the same time is like trying to re-paint a house while it's still settling-you're going to see cracks everywhere for a while. First, make absolutely sure every single old URL maps cleanly to its best new counterpart-no broken bridges. Then push link outreach to update the strongest backlinks, those are your little trust signals glowing through the noise. Social profiles are lovely for brand perception but they won't move search much right now. Focus on the foundation first.