SEO for M&A Migrations: Moving Large Sites at Scale “Without” Losing Visibility

Lightning talk at Google Search Central Live Deep Dive Europe 2026, Barcelona (1 October 2026).

When one company buys another, the acquired website has to fit into the buyer's site. The redirects are the easy part. This talk is about the part that decides whether the migration works: the map, the list of every old URL and where it goes on launch day, and the decisions behind each row.

Three parts: what to settle before you map a single redirect (negotiate, clean house, rank by business, warm the destination, set expectations); how to turn every row of the map into a decision with a name on it, and how to do that at scale with a similarity score that proposes but doesn't decide; and the three checks after launch that a 200 OK can't tell you: route, answer, enquiry.

Data point: median recovery after a domain migration is 304 days (SALT.agency, 1,052 migrations, June 2026). The illustrative row shown on stage is an example; the context and decisions come from a real acquisition project.

The full M&A migration guide, with the process checklist, the mapping template and the scripts, is at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bqmdZF2BzKsPbal1MmkD6e41V0JHt8pT?usp=drive_link.

David Carrasco Pamies, SEO consultant and founder of Magnify, Barcelona. magnify.ing · linkedin.com/in/david-carrasco-pamies

Transcript

1. Search Central Live Deep Dive 2026 Lightning Talk SEO for M&A Migrations: Moving Large Sites at Scale “Without” Losing Visibility David Carrasco Pamies SEO Consultant | Founder @ Magnify
2. An entire website. One .product line .
3. There are no complex migrations.
4. There are no complex migrations. There are complex people .
5. Four kinds of migrations
6. Four kinds of migrations 1. Absorbed
7. Four kinds of migrations 2. Kept apart
8. Four kinds of migrations 3. Merged
9. Four kinds of migrations 4. Plugged in
10. 01 Before the map
11. Before you map a single redirect 01 Negotiate 02 03 04 Clean house Rank by business Warm the destination
12. …set .expectations .
13. 02 The map
14. The failures are .decisions in disguise.
15. URLS AWAITING A DESTINATION 7,687 In the mapping file
16. Can I work offline? Old URL /offline-crm/ Approved destination /sales/offline/ Must survive Offline answer + demo request Approval Product lead Acceptance Answer present + lead received
17. Mapping at scale STEP COVERAGE Similarity Score Proposes a destination The gate A human question
18. Old URLs become the test list
19. 03 After the map
20. 200 (OK) responses across the new domain prove .nothing .
21. The map is the only thing that knows it’s .wrong .
22. Three checks 01 Route 02 Answer 03 Enquiry
23. The moved content has its own baseline .
24. MEDIAN RECOVERY IN DAYS 304 Dan Taylor · SALT.agency · 1,052 migrations · June 2026
25. Broken routes. Blocked pages. Action now .
26. Formerly X, now part of Y.
27. The .reputation travels with the authority.
28. What survives ? Who approves ? What proves it?
29. The M&A checklist
30. Protect the reason people came .
31. Lightning Talk Thank you David Carrasco Pamies