Skip to content

Search PixyScan

SolutionsSite migration

Move your site without losing pages

Scan your old site to get a full list of its pages. Scan again after the move to find broken redirects, missing pages and new problems before they cost you visitors.

app.pixyscan.com/w/…/s/…/crawlability
The Crawlability screen, showing robots.txt rules and sitemap coverage side by side.
Common problems

Does this sound familiar?

If this sounds like your week, read on. Below is how PixyScan helps.

  • Your redirect map is a spreadsheet nobody has checked against the real site.
  • Nobody has a full list of the old URLs, so pages could vanish unnoticed.
  • Weeks after launch, traffic is down and nobody knows why.

How PixyScan helps

How PixyScan helps

Each card is a real screen in the app: what you see there and what you do with it.

  1. 01

    A full list of the old site

    The Pages screen lists every URL with its status code, click depth and whether it is in your sitemap. Export it before you change anything.

  2. 02

    Redirect problems found

    The crawler follows every redirect to its end. Chains with several hops and loops are flagged with every URL involved, so you can point each one straight at its target.

  3. 03

    See what broke after launch

    Scan after the move and again as you fix things. The Changes screen shows New, Resolved and Still open problems, and which pages were added or removed.

Getting started

Get started in 3 steps

  1. Step 1

    Before: scan the old site

    Scan the whole site and export the Pages list (Hobby and above). That is your record of every URL before the move.

  2. Step 2

    During: scan staging

    Add staging as its own site, with HTTP Basic Auth or custom headers if it is protected. Fix redirect chains, loops and broken links before launch.

  3. Step 3

    After: scan daily

    Scan your live site daily for the first few weeks. The Changes screen shows new problems the day they appear.

Worth knowing

  • Filter pages by whether they are in your sitemap, and find pages nothing links to.
  • See your robots.txt rules and sitemaps side by side on the Crawlability screen.
  • Scan a password-protected staging site with HTTP Basic Auth or custom headers, stored encrypted.
  • From Hobby up, export page lists as CSV, XLSX or JSON to build your redirect map.
  • With Search Console connected, launch from CI/CD (Basic) and the deploy is marked on the clicks trend. If Google clicks drop sharply in the 3 days after, PixyScan alerts you.

What it doesn’t do

  • It does not write redirect rules. It gives you the URL list and checks the redirects you set up.
  • No Google Analytics data. From Basic, Google Search Console shows clicks and impressions by page before and after the move, and next to each page's problems.
  • The Changes screen compares scans of one site. If your domain changes, compare the two exports yourself.
Which tier fits

Start with Hobby

Hobby ($19 a month) adds scan comparison and exports, the two things a move depends on, and 2 sites so old and new can sit side by side. Choose Basic ($39 a month) if either version has more than 5,000 pages, to see Google Search Console clicks before and after the move, or to launch from CI/CD with a traffic-drop alert: it scans 10,000 pages at a time and holds 5 sites.

FAQ

Questions you might have

Can it compare the old and new site side by side?

Only if the domain stays the same, because Changes compares scans of one site. If the domain changes, export both page lists and compare them.

Will it create the redirect map?

No. It gives you the full URL list to build it from, then finds problems in your redirects, such as chains, loops and broken targets.

Can it scan a password-protected staging site?

Yes, with HTTP Basic Auth or custom headers in Settings → Crawl. They are stored encrypted. A site behind a login form cannot be scanned.

Can I keep staging out of my live site's history?

Yes. Add staging as its own site, and its scans stay separate.

Will it tell me if search traffic drops after launch?

Yes, if you launch from CI/CD (Basic and above) with Search Console connected. If Google clicks in the 3 days after the deploy fall at least 25% below the same days of the previous 4 weeks, you get an alert, about a week later. It needs at least 100 clicks on those days normally, and earlier data for the same site, so a move to a new domain cannot be compared. It shows a drop, not its cause.

See what is wrong with your site

Add your site and get your score, your to-do list and a fix guide for every problem. Free for one site and 500 pages a month. No card, no time limit.

No card needed · Nothing to install · Cancel any time