What happens to my old website and its Google rankings?

Your old pages

Google knows your old page addresses, like /services/anxiety or /about-us. When we're confident which new page says the same thing, we send visitors and Google there automatically (a permanent redirect), so the standing your old pages earned carries across.

Your old blog posts and pages

Before you switch, we read your current site for blog posts and pages we didn't rebuild. Your 10 most recent posts and up to 5 other pages come with you: they're copied to your new site a few minutes after your address goes live, at the same addresses they had before, so links people already have keep working. They aren't in the preview until then.

To choose what comes over, open Your website and click Choose what comes over in the panel about your old site. Anything left behind sends visitors to your blog or home page instead of a missing page.

What to cancel, and when

1. Wait until your setup screen says your address is live, and check it in your browser.
2. Cancel your old website plan (for example Squarespace, Wix or WordPress hosting) if you like.
3. Keep paying for the address itself. It's often a separate yearly charge. If it lapses, your address stops working.
4. If your email came with the old hosting plan, sort that out first. See why.

www or no www?

Both work. Your site uses whichever your old site used, and the other one sends visitors to it.