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A badly executed site migration can have disastrous consequences for search rankings and traffic. Changing the domain name, if necessary, or implementing HTTPS is undoubtedly a wise business decision. Businesses should, however, be aware of how search engines will react to site migration. The organic search ranking of a company can suffer if it is not handled properly.
This blog is for you if you're in the middle of a site migration and want to do it smartly without losing any traffic. Read all the way to the end to avoid any issues during site migration and to save money on quality traffic and leads.
Pointers To Keep In Mind While Implementing Site Migration
A professional SEO company can make recommendations for site migration to businesses or individuals, which are also discussed below. If you've already purchased SEO packages or any other service from an SEO agency and are in the middle of the SEO process and need a site migration, they can help you. However, if you want to perform a site migration on your own, there are a number of factors to consider, some of which are listed below:
1. Think If Migration Is The Right Choice
It's important to remember that site migration always results in a temporary loss of traffic. Google takes time to process the change and update its database. Migrating a website with care can reduce traffic fluctuations. Google will eventually treat the new site the same as the original. This is, however, the best-case scenario.
It's important to remember that site migration has few SEO benefits. They don't get rid of penalties from search engines. It's not worth it if you're migrating your website for the sake of improving your SEO. However, there are some circumstances in which a site migration is considered advantageous:
- When a site migrates, links and presses are generated.
- If this is the case, the site must be converted to an HTTPS version. (This is likely the only instance where a site migration should result in some SEO benefit.)
- For the purpose of rebranding.
2. Test Before Migrating
Always test your migration on a test server before putting it into production. Before releasing the migration to the public, double-check that the redirects are working and that all other parameters are correct. If you don't thoroughly test the migration, it could knock your website's rankings back weeks, forcing you to double down on your recovery efforts.
3. Crawl The Website Before Migration
A smooth migration can be ensured by crawling with the help of a crawler tool like Screaming Frog and saving the crawl for later.
Make sure you have a complete list of URLs from the old website so nothing gets lost in the transition. With this opportunity, any crawl errors and redirects can be identified. Ideally, during migration, remove or replace any links that lead to 404 pages. (A 404 error message is displayed by a browser when it is unable to locate or locate the requested page on a website.) If the page does not exist, users will see this error.)
If necessary, orphan pages (pages with no links) and external links should be updated. For a smooth migration, you'll need to be on top of your link game.
4. Migrate Only During Low Season
There is a noticeable drop in traffic after a site migration. Just make sure it's a one-time dip. Every business has a high point and a low point during the year. You should try to migrate your site during the low season of the year. The point is to lose traffic when your business is already small enough that it won't have a significant impact on you.
5. Set A Bar For Analytics
You can measure and compare your traffic by having a copy of your analytics before and after migration. You can easily identify which pages lost traffic during migration using a tool like Google Analytics.
However, pay attention to pages with a lot of links and a lot of traffic. You don't want these pages to lose their traction as well. The loss of traffic on these pages indicates that the authority hasn't been properly transferred after the migration.
6. Make sure your links are in order.
The URL structure of the old and new sites should be identical. If you change it, do so during the migration process; otherwise, Google may consider your site to be new. Also, don't migrate and change URL architecture at the same time because you won't be able to tell if a drop in traffic is due to the migration or the URL architecture. Maintaining the same URL structure also facilitates smooth transitions from old to new pages.
Too many page and link deletions may signal to Google that the website isn't the same after all. Instead of pointing to the old site, all HTML links should point to the new one. To change your domain name without changing the folder structure, simply perform a search and replace operation. This should allow you to easily transfer your links.
7. Solve Duplicate Content Issues
Duplicate content issues can arise during migration. As a result, keep the following suggestions in mind:
- Duplicate content is created if both versions of the URL go live. Only one version of the page should be available at any given time.
- URLs should be redirected from IP addresses.
- Ensure that the website's HTPP or HTTPS version is available at all times. The URL of your website should be synchronized and appear as such on Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
- Self-canonicalization should be used to eliminate any duplicate content. This is the process of adding a canonical tag to the main page. Although the main page may contain duplicate content pages, canonical tags ensure that Google only refers to or displays the main page when performing a search query. This eliminates any issues with canonicalization or content duplication.
8. Do Keep A Thorough Check On Your Removed Pages
During migration, never remove any pages. If you do need to remove some pages for branding reasons, follow these steps:
- Make a list of all the pages and make sure that the old pages are not redirected to the new site.
- All links on pages should be removed.
- Then, delete the old site's pages and redirect 404.
- Set up a redirect and replace all links to point to the new page if you have a suitable replacement. However, only do so if the new page's message or content is identical to that of the old page.
- Never ever redirect removed pages to the home page. If you don't have a suitable replacement, a 404 redirect should suffice. Always include a custom 404 page to make it easier for users to navigate your website and to find something useful if they land on a page that doesn't exist.
9. Submit Your Sitemaps
Always keep your old sitemap and add the new one to Google Search Console. Request that Google crawl the old sitemap, and when it redirects, the entire process speeds up.
10. Don’t Give Up Control Over Old Domain
Never give up control of an old domain unless you intend to sell it. Page by page, the old domain must redirect to the new one. All inbound links earned by the old site will be lost if the redirects are removed.
As a result, even if Google stops indexing the website, you should never relinquish control of your old domain.
11. Keep A Check On Analytics After Migration
Always double-check your numbers for a few weeks after migration. Conduct a thorough analysis of the traffic on your pages, highlight pages, and so on. If you suspect that specific pages are losing traffic, perform a crawl error or linking error analysis on those pages.
Change the old links to the new ones. Keep an eye on your most linked pages in terms of external link count and authority. Authoritarian pages have a significant impact on rankings and traffic. Keep an eye on them at all times. A tool like SEMrush can detect a significant change in traffic and also examines your rankings for target keywords. It also describes how quickly the new website is being indexed. Finally, mark critical dates in Google Analytics during migration to investigate the root cause of any issues that may arise.
12. Verify That Google Search Console Is Set Up
Because a new domain creates a new property in Google Search Console, you'd need to create a new property for the new site. Check that it is properly configured with HTTPS rather than just www. Technically, you should submit both the old and new sitemaps in order to send a convincing message that the old website has been redirected to the new one.
The following step is to update the address in Google Search Console. The new website is then crawled and indexed by Google. Finally, before submitting, double-check that your redirects, links, and canonicalizations are error-free.
13. Manage PPC And Update Other Platforms
You must update your PPC campaigns (if you have any) to point to the correct new website. If your PPC ads are still pointing to the old website, you may experience attribution loss in Analytics as a result of the redirect.
Similarly, update all of your social media profiles, bios, and other information to promote your new website. All old links should be updated and linked to your new website.
14. Redirect Your Top Performing Inbound Links
You should contact the most authority websites that link to yours. It is critical to notify them of the migration and request that they update the link to point to the new website.
Certainly, not everyone will, but those who do can help Google recognize your site migration faster.
You don't have to do this for every link because it would take too long. However, from authority sites, you must contact them and, if possible, request a redirect.
Note: Google will most likely not index all of the new website's pages, but if your new website does not have the same indexed pages as your old website after a month, something is wrong.
15. Get A Final Check Done
Examine the site to ensure that there are no 404s or 301s. A 301 redirect is simply a permanent redirect that gives the redirected page full link authority. At this point, all of the links should direct to a working page. Instead of a redirect, internal links should go directly to the correct page.
Check the status of your old URLs. Using a tool like Screaming Frog for this purpose would be beneficial. All of these links should be directed to the new website. If you do come across a 404, make sure there are no links. If you come across a link, set up a redirect right away.
Finally, determine whether or not external URL redirects are functional. Ensure that external URLs are never 301 or 404.
Conclusion
Site migration is a complicated process that should be approached with caution. If done recklessly, you may experience a significant, long-term drop in traffic. However, if done correctly, you will still experience a temporary traffic drop, but long-term damage will be avoided and you will receive the benefits as expected. Site migration usually necessitates some caution.
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 A Complete Guide.webp)
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