Case study: moving a 22K-member forum under /forum - rankings

Real case study: we moved a 22,000-member forum from the root domain to /forum while relaunching the root as a product home. Here's exactly what we did to Google — and what happened:

1. 301 map first — every old forum URL → /forum/... with permanent redirects (2,671 redirects absorbed in month one).
   
2. bburl + canonicals — one canonical home per page, no duplicates.
   
3. Sitemap resubmission — new sitemap-index submitted in Search Console within 24h.
   
4. Robots hygiene — blocked admin/cache/member areas, allowed thread/forum pages.
   
5. Monitored 404s — weekly sweep; every new 404 got a redirect or page.
   

Result: zero traffic cliff, rankings transferred, and the root home started ranking for product queries.

Audit your own site free with our SEO X-Ray (25+ checks, 0–100 score) — or hire the team that did this at DF Studio.

Questions about your own migration? Ask below 👇

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Good read while having my morning chai ☕

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Bookmarked. You always find the good stuff.

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