Migrating your website to a new domain, platform or host is a piece of cake these days. However, it is crucial to follow a comprehensive migration checklist to ensure a smooth transition. Utilizing Google Search Console can help monitor the migration process by tracking site indexing status and diagnosing potential issues.
Many hosts and domain providers offer tools or services to help you with the process. But if your current site is ranking well and getting organic traffic, you need to take extra precautions to protect your rankings during the migration.
Why Migrate a Website?
There are many reasons why you might want to migrate your website. Maybe you’ve changed hosts and need to move your site to the new server. Or maybe you’re switching platforms, like from WordPress to Shopify. Or you’re rebranding and want to move your site to a new domain to reflect the change. Regardless of the reason, understanding the migration process and the importance of detailed planning is crucial to ensure a smooth transition and minimize SEO impact.
How Can Website Migration Affect SEO Rankings and Traffic?
The technical part of migrating a site is usually easy, but there are some critical SEO factors you need to pay attention to so you don’t lose rankings. Using tools like Google Analytics is essential for tracking critical metrics such as traffic, rankings, and conversions during the migration.
If you don’t do it right, your new site won’t retain the SEO value your old site has built up. Search engines need to be able to find and index your new site. Without a careful approach, your high ranking pages will drop and you’ll get less organic traffic and search engine visibility.
Maintaining search engine rankings during the migration is crucial. Factors like site performance and speed directly influence user experience and these rankings.
But by following a detailed process, you can give your new site the best chance to keep its SEO and not lose your rankings.
Website Migration SEO Checklist
To make sure your new site performs well, here’s an SEO migration checklist to help you through the process. Additionally, consider using Bing Webmaster Tools for submitting XML sitemaps and monitoring indexation.
1. Audit Your Current Site and URL Structure
Before you make any changes, perform a full site crawl to audit your current site. This will help you understand your site’s current structure, content, and SEO performance so you have something to compare to post-migration.
It is also crucial to update internal links during the migration process to prevent broken links and ensure proper navigation. Tools like ScreamingFrog can help identify internal links that need updating, maintaining SEO integrity throughout the migration.
Use SEO tools to gather data on key metrics like page rankings, traffic, backlinks, and site structure. This data is important so nothing is lost during the migration and to measure the impact once it’s done.
2. Fix Existing Errors and Internal Links (Optional)
Your audit of the old site may reveal broken links, orphan pages or outdated content. While it’s tempting to fix these errors before migration, doing so will muddy the waters when you measure the impact of the migration.
If you fix too much before the move, it will be hard to know if ranking fluctuations are due to the migration or the site clean up. Decide carefully if now is the right time to do a site overhaul or if you should migrate first and do changes later. Using a staging site for testing changes before the migration can help identify potential issues and ensure a smoother transition.
3. Timing of Migration
Choose the right time to do the migration. The best time to migrate is during a low traffic period for your site. Use your analytics to find the slowest times of the day or periods of the year where traffic naturally dips. This will help minimize the impact of any temporary ranking drops that may happen during the switch. Additionally, ensure you have a post-migration checklist to verify everything functions correctly and to avoid potential pitfalls that could harm your site’s SEO performance.
4. Pre-Launch Site Checks with Google Search Console
Before you go live with your new site, make sure everything is working. Many platforms allow you to set up a staging or development version of your new site where you can test it thoroughly before launching. Check for broken links, URL redirects, URL structure, and if all content and metadata are transferred correctly.
Creating and submitting an XML sitemap is crucial for faster indexing and performance. By doing this before going live, you can avoid big SEO problems that will arise if not fixed ahead of time.
5. Post-Launch Monitoring
Once your new site is live, the work isn’t done. You need to monitor its performance to make sure it keeps the SEO of your old site. This is where your initial site audit will come in handy. By comparing data before and after the migration, you’ll be able to see any big traffic or ranking changes.
Watch out for metrics like organic traffic, ranking positions and potential issues like broken links or redirect errors. If needed, fix the problems as soon as possible to prevent big ranking drop.
Website Migration SEO
Site migration doesn’t have to be complicated but it does require planning and execution, especially if you want to keep your SEO and organic traffic. By following this checklist and taking the right precautions before, during and after the migration, you can avoid common mistakes and make your new site perform better.
Using a website migration checklist is essential to ensure a smooth transition and maintain or improve your search engine visibility.
A well planned migration will not only safeguard your SEO but also an opportunity to improve your site overall. Properly managing the process will pay off in terms of retaining your rankings and a smooth transition for both users and search engines.