In the last article here on the blog we talked about digital rebranding, emphasizing how important planning and awareness of strategic goals are when going through a brand image change.
The same paradigm applies to SEO migration, i.e., the structural change of a site that, if done correctly, makes it possible to neither lose rankings nor decrease organic performance.
Therefore, in this article we will address the topic of SEO Migration of a website: we will try to understand what it is, what are the situations that require a migration (and in which it might not be necessary), and most importantly, what are the risks involved in doing it with little attention to detail and few technical skills (spoiler: there are many!).
SEO migration: what it is and what it is for
SEO migration is the set of technical activities that are carried out when putting a site online, with the aim of not compromising performance and not losing positions and trust.
When talking about SEO migration, one must first keep in mind that sites are periodically and cyclically analyzed by search engines, in addition to being visited by users who generate impressions and traffic to the site.
The interactions that these two actors generate with the site result in a score, an evaluation of the quality of the proposed content, namely:
- Trust: search engines assign a value that measures the authority of a site based on user perception and interaction, as well as the quantity and quality of backlinks. This value is consolidated and updated over time, precisely based on the dynamics that the site moves and undergoes;
Placements: getting placements can also be considered a consequence to a search engine evaluation, because if the content manages to exhaustively cover the user’s search intent it is rewarded and placed high in the SERPs receiving visibility.
Making changes to one’s site can be a threat to the stability of these two metrics because structural changes can change the balance gained over time: changing the structure of one’s site, making – for example – mistakes in redirects, can cause a sharp drop in organic traffic and a decrease in trust.
So, brands that decide to make a redesign to their site or that decide to change the domain name, or that still want to change the hosting platform, should be aware that all changes pose a potential threat to the balance gained.
Man forewarned…
Migrating a site: when you might need it
So we have understood what we are referring to when we talk about SEO Migration, but we still need to explain when this type of activity is necessary.
SEO migrations of websites may be required in several situations. Among the most common ones are:
- Changing urls: it is common to need to change the urls of the pages of one’s site to optimize readability (for example, by reducing the length or inserting keywords), to correct errors in c urls, or to update dates when obsolete.
Changing the domain name; - Merging multiple content: if there are multiple pages related to the same topic, it is possible that they “cannibalize” each other on the same SERPs. It then becomes necessary to merge them into a single page;
Site redesign: site redesign that changes the appearance of the site often results in the removal or modification of content, and therefore requires a migration activity; and
Security protocol change: when switching from http to https all site urls are changed; - CMS change: often, when sites grow in volume in terms of visitors and functionality, it may be necessary to switch to a CMS that is appropriate in terms of functionality and performance.
Thus, there are several reasons why you might want to go ahead with an SEO migration. The truth, however, is that migration is not always the best solution!
SEO migration: why it is important not to get it wrong
Imagine you are returning from a long and intense trip, say to Morocco, during which you carefully selected souvenirs to take with you on your return. Among them is a small bottle of precious Moroccan argan oil, the search for which has cost you money and time!
You finally return home and opening your suitcase you realize that the precious oil is no longer inside the bottle, but is scattered throughout your suitcase and has ruined all your belongings.
That’s it, at best you’ll take a deep breath and start trying to salvage what can be salvaged, wondering why you didn’t think of securing the flask and its contents more carefully before your trip.
The dynamics may look different, but that’s exactly the feeling you get when you make mistakes during an SEO migration: having lost, through carelessness, a valuable thing that took you time and money in the past and will take you more now that it’s lost.
What do you lose when you make mistakes during a migration?
- Placements
- Organic traffic (and thus visits)
- Authority (trust)
- Conversions
- But most importantly, Profits!
How to perform an SEO site migration and not lose profits
We could start by saying that the best way to perform an SEO migration is not to do it.
As we have seen, the needs that lead to wanting to migrate one’s site are several. Often, however, the best solution lies in being able to find solutions of less impact, which allow us not to risk losing the gained positions on search engines and their trust.
In case migration turns out to be indispensable, three basic principles should be kept in mind:
- PEOPLE: Relying on those who are competent is always better than improvising experts;
- TOOLS: Having access to specific tools allows us to better organize and implement the work;
- OBJECTIVES: Prioritizing and planning activities is essential to be able to avoid making mistakes.
Even a migration performed to perfection could still generate slight negative declines in organic placements, which tends to be recovered over time, however.
In our experience at Instilla, it has often happened to us to help “come back to terra firma” those who chose to take stormy paths of migration on their own, causing disastrous scenarios in terms of page performance and organic traffic collection.
Through these experiences, we have learned that nothing is lost forever, as long as we act fast!
In particular, ecommerce businesses migrating and ranking for many transactional or commercial keys need to keep in mind that losing positions on ultra-competitive SERPs such as these represents a regression that can only be recovered if the changes occur within the short term.
With this in mind, we can now identify three macro phases of a website’s SEO migration.
FIRST PHASE OF SEO MIGRATION: PREPARATION
In the very first phase, it is necessary to gather as much information as possible to map the current state and not “lose pieces” during the operational phase of the migration. It is equally important to define the timeline within which to define the plan of action to proceed without leaving out important elements.
We list the essential steps:
- Mapping of existing urls (and subsequent identification of addresses that will remain and those that will not);
- Mapping existing backlinks;
- Mappatura delle immagini (anche queste possono ricevere backlink);
- Assessment of the technical performance of the new site;
- Creating redirect rules to associate old pages with new ones;
- Creation of the new sitemap.xml and robots.txt file to allow Google to index the content and analyze it for ranking;
- Mapping of placements with related keywords, so as to monitor their evolution in the next stages;
- Setting the 404 page on the new site to help users continue browsing properly;
- Analysis and creation of new headings and meta tags;
- Correcting any critical issues before the new site goes online;
- Technical audit of the new site.
You can turn to competent teams and/or use crawling tools such as Screaming Frog to perform these tasks.
SECOND PHASE OF SEO MIGRATION: MIGRATION DAY
The second phase of the migration is where the risk of making mistakes is highest, because you will be putting in place all the necessary practices to migrate the information and content from your old site to the new one.
At this stage you need to make sure that:
- Put the new site online, keeping the old one still live. You could also set up and test redirects in the new site in staging before going online;
Enable all redirects; - Make sure all backlinks point to the new site, because despite the redirection rules much “link juice” may be lost;
- Send the new robots.txt file, notifying Google that the new site has gone online;
- Connect Google Analytics and Google Search Console consoles;
- Scan the new site to check for errors;
THIRD PHASE OF SEO MIGRATION: MONITORING
This is it! The site is online and, if everything has gone smoothly so far, this phase will (theoretically) be the quietest, but also the most unpredictable.
The monitoring phase in fact in SEO migration may bring to light some inconsistencies for which it may be necessary to go through all the technical verification steps again. In order to do this, it is essential to:
- Check the Google Analytics and Search Console consoles periodically (even daily in the early periods) for regular tracking.
- Once you have ascertained that there are no errors using a crawler, submit the new sitemap, both of the old and the new site.
- Tracking placements, which tended to have lost positions, to be able to target strategies for their recovery.
At this stage, the goal is to keep the performance of the new site as similar as possible to that of the old one and possibly modify and adapt the SEO strategy to improve search engine performance.
Read also: Google MUM and the new potential of online information
Conclusion
You now have all the tools to figure out if you really need an SEO migration. If (despite the premises) you still think a migration is necessary for your e-commerce or website, our advice is to turn to SEO experts so that you can complete it properly and without any risk!
