Google has updated their site move recommendations for those who are moving sites to new domains, to https or to a new URL structure.

The new recommendations are specifically about when to move a site at once and when to do it in steps or phases.

The new section reads:

• Decide how you will move your site — all at once, or in sections:
  • Small or medium sites: We recommend moving all URLs on your site simultaneously instead of moving one section at a time. This helps users interact with the site better in its new form, and helps our algorithms detect the site move and update our index faster.
  • Large sites: You can choose to move larger sites one section at a time. This can make it easier to monitor, detect, and fix problems faster.

This is actually a question that comes up quite frequently, especially for larger sites that are planning to make a site move but are hesitant about possible repercussions if things do not go according to plan.

It is interesting that they say medium sites should be moved all at once, although medium size is in the eyes of the beholder.  It is great that Google is officially recommending large sites move in stages.  This will help many webmasters to save them from themselves when doing undertaking major moves without affecting rankings for longer than a few weeks.

H/T Jamie Alberico