Website migration - is your new website SEO ready?
In this post, I take a closer look at one of the most important disciplines in search engine optimization: migration.
But what exactly is migration? Why is a successful migration crucial for your SEO? And how do you do it in practice?
Read along and learn more.
What is SEO migration?
When you build a new website or move an existing one to a new domain, in SEO terms it's called migration. In short, migration is the art of ensuring that the SEO value from an existing website is carried over to a new one.
When it comes to SEO, migrating a website is not always straightforward. There are many things to consider before moving a domain. Thorough research, planning, execution and monitoring must be done to ensure that you build and maintain visibility on Google.
Remember, SEO migration is there to prevent losses in website traffic, rankings and conversions. By implementing the right migration strategy, you will ensure that your website maintains - and even improves - its organic rankings and traffic.
What should you consider when migrating?
Your website has most likely spent a long time building its status and visibility on Google, resulting in you being found for the right keywords and terms.
When you change your URLs, content or just give your website a total makeover, you are simultaneously changing Google's perception of your website, which also affects the metrics associated with your rankings. The goal for any type of migration is to avoid as much traffic loss as possible.
What happens if you don't perform an SEO migration correctly?
In short, you risk losing your search engine rankings - and thus traffic, inquiries and leads.
Below is an example of what can happen if you don't perform your SEO migration correctly. As the graph from Google Analytics shows, organic traffic has dropped drastically in the post-migration period.
The migration was done in December and as you can see, traffic started to drop from mid-December.
The reason for the drop was that no-index tags had been dropped on the blog pages, resulting in Google not being able to read them. The error was quickly discovered and in January, traffic started to increase again as Google was allowed to index the pages again.
This is a textbook example of what happens when you don't have your migration directives in order - more on that later in the post.
How to: SEO migration of your website
Now you know what a migration is and why it's so important - so far so good. But how do you perform it in practice? I'll explain that in the following.
1) Choose a good date
Think about what date suits you and the traffic for your website. Choose a date and time when traffic and engagement is typically low - and preferably a day when your web team and server managers are in the office.
As tempting as it may be, avoid scheduling it on a Sunday night - something might go wrong and you won't be able to communicate and coordinate with other departments.
Aim to migrate in the afternoon or early evening - that way you can work on troubleshooting in the morning when traffic is light, just in case.
2) Back up!
Remember to make a backup of your current website!
If something goes wrong, you can always go back to the old version of the site and hopefully you'll have gained insight into what went wrong so you can fix it on the second try.
3) Create a local website to test on
A local - or offline - version of your website is a duplicated version that users cannot access. This is where you can test changes to your new site.
By creating an offline version of your website, you give your web team plenty of time to see how the new content will look on the website, how it performs, and time to implement 301 redirects before the real version goes live.
That way, you don't have to worry about broken links and sitemaps after the site goes live.
4) Crawl your site before migration
Use an SEO tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website to get a full URL and content list. You can use this list to fix errors on your offline version, but also to keep track of old URLs that require redirects.
5) Redirects: Review your current site - what should be included?
The best thing you can do to keep track of your redirects before and after migration is to create a redirect map. This will ensure that your old URLs have correct redirects to the new ones and that internal links are also updated. Review your redirect map before and after you implement to make sure your redirects are working!
Here is an example of what a redirect map could look like. This is a small website to be migrated - therefore the list of redirects is quite manageable. For large websites and webshops to be migrated, the document will be much more extensive.
Basically, you need to create a column with the old URLs and a column with the new URLs. The file type will depend on your CMS and developer preference. Most often it will be a CSV file that you need to upload.
If you use WordPress as your CMS, you can use the "Source URL" and "Target URL" commands to name the columns with old and new URLs respectively. This way you can upload the CSV file directly into the WordPress redirection tool - and avoid having to upload your redirects manually.
If you run a Shopify store, you can do the same trick by using the "Redirect from" and "Redirect to" commands.
6) Create a custom 404 page
It may happen that redirects slip out or some links break when the new site is launched. In this case, it would be a good idea to create a "catchy" 404 page that helps visitors find the front page instead. Without a set-up 404 page, the user will land on a blank page where they cannot navigate to the front page - and then they will most likely leave your website = higher bounce rate.
Below is the 404 page on the website of SEO giant Moz. Besides being creative, it also offers the ability to navigate further around the page.
7) Update My Business, Bing places and other places with links to the website
If your entire domain needs to be updated and there are any changes to your domain name, remember to update your Google My Business profile and other places where your website URL could appear.
If you have multiple offices with multiple Google My Business profiles, remember to update them too - especially if each location has its own URL, for example: www.ditdomæne.dk/dinlokation or yourlocation.yourdomain.com.
Remember that Google My Business is a powerful local ranking factor!
8) Update the sitemap
Once you have all your new URLs in order, you can create a new - or update the old - sitemap, which can then be linked to your website. Your sitemap will usually live at the URL www.ditdomæne.dk/sitemap.xml or www.ditdomæne.dk/sitemap_index.xml.
Then upload your new sitemap to Google Search Console to help the search engine understand the changes made to your new website. This will in turn help Google index the new site faster.
READ: What is a sitemap?
9) Tell Search Console that you are changing domain
Search Console has another smart feature: the Change of Address Feature, which tells Google that you have changed your domain and where the new domain can be found. You should do this as soon as you have changed your domain.
10) Update robots.txt
The robots file tells different search engine crawlers which pages or files on the website to crawl or not to crawl - the file is typically located at the URL www.ditdomæne.dk/robots.txt(see for example Nike's robots file, which has a fun feature if you scroll down a bit).
Remember to update the document so Google knows which parts of the website to crawl. You'll also want to include the new sitemap here so that Google and other search engines can find it more easily.
11) Avoid discarding the old domain!
If you switch domains, keep the old domain so you can ensure that all backlinks pointing to the domain are redirected properly! Letting go of the domain could mean that someone else can take it over and therefore you could lose all your backlinks.
12) Do a crawl on the offline server and when the site goes live
Both before and after the new site goes live, you should do an SEO audit to make sure all pages, content, links, tags and other content are in place.
SEO audit checklist
Use Screaming Frog to do a crawl to check:
- 4xx pages
- 3xx pages
- Cracked images/video
- Missing meta tags
- Duplicate content
- No or incorrect canonical tags
- Pages with "no index".
Check out Google Analytics
- Check that Analytics and Tag Manager are installed correctly on the website and are actually collecting data
- Mark dates in analytics via annotations.
Test the site on mobile
- Take out your phone and try out the website! Check that the layout, design and features are all working. You can also use Google's mobile-friendly test tool.
Check that integrations work
- Not only Analytics and Tag Manager, but also CRM, marketing integrations, eCommerce, etc.
Is your social media updated?
- Go to all your social media profiles and check that all links point to the right place
Want us to help you with your SEO migration?
Want help with SEO and migration? To summarize, SEO migration is definitely not an easy task. It takes time, detailed research and planning to succeed. It can be challenging to get your head around, which is why we are ready to give you a helping hand.
Do you need advice from an experienced SEO agency that can help you get your migration done safely? Send us an email today at seo@amplify.dk or call us on +45 70 60 50 28!
FAQ - Website migration
Does website migration affect my SEO?
What is SEO website migration?
If you're building a new website or moving an existing one to a new domain, you're doing a migration. An SEO migration is all about performing the migration without losing valuable Google rankings.
Can I ruin my SEO by migrating?
Unfortunately, you can. That's why it's a good idea to have an SEO agency on your side when you begin your SEO migration.
Gain deeper insights
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