SEO migration is one of the most complex and often underestimated operations for those working in the digital field. It requires specific technical skills to safeguard the reputation built over the years and the incoming traffic of a website, after the publication of its new version.
In this article, we will illustrate all the implications of SEO migration and the correct procedure to implement it effectively.
If you want us to take care of it, we’ll be happy to do so. We are experts in SEO migration!
What is SEO migration and what is it for
As we mentioned, when we talk about SEO migration, we “mean the” set of practices to be carried out on a site during publication, in order to ensure the maintenance of its performance in terms of organic traffic.
Essentially, those who decide to improve their site by making substantial changes and therefore have to upload the new version in place of the previous one need to do an SEO migration.
While these dynamics offer great opportunities related to the “upgrade developed, on the” other hand, they constitute a trap that must be avoided.
An improved and high-performing site that has lost its reputation on search engines is a site that has to start its SEO work practically from scratch. A real nightmare!
The SEO work developed on a site is extremely valuable and must be safeguarded. Web pages, in fact, acquire value and credibility in the eyes of search engines over time. Therefore, if you are working on a new version of your website, you must absolutely ensure that the SEO value of your pages is correctly passed on to the corresponding pages of the site you will put online.
In this article, in addition to learning the correct procedure for implementing a flawless SEO migration, we will illustrate a list of errors to absolutely avoid.
When is SEO migration necessary
There are multiple circumstances in which SEO migration is necessary, discover them with us:
After a graphic restyling aimed at updating the layout
- Following a domain change or the merger of two different domains
- When changing CMS
- After changing the security protocol from HTTP to HTTPS following the purchase of an SSL certificate
- In response to modifying the site architecture: this happens when you decide to change the URLs of pages or the categories to which they are associated
- When proceeding with the unification of desktop and mobile versions
If you find yourself facing one of these circumstances, this article is for you! So, continue reading to discover how to perform a correct SEO migration and how to avoid the most common mistakes.
7 common mistakes to avoid during SEO migration
There are multiple errors that can be made during the migration of the SEO baggage from your previous site to the updated one. In the following lines, you’ll discover the most frequent ones with us! These are issues that can truly undermine the usability of your web pages, so pay close attention to all phases of the procedure we’ll see later, trying not to incur these problems:
1. Incorrectly configured Robots.txt
Make sure to make all resources of your site accessible to search engine crawlers. The “disallow” command must indeed be used carefully because if applied to pages or parts of the site, it prevents Google’s bot from crawling and indexing your content. So, if you haven’t paid attention to this aspect and have recorded a drop in traffic, check your robot.txt files and verify the presence of resources disabled to the eyes of search engines.
2. Loss of URLs and metadata
Unfortunately, during a site migration, URLs and metadata, such as title tags and meta descriptions, can be lost, causing significant damage to your SEO ranking. We advise you to pay close attention to this aspect and proceed by mapping all this data through effective online tools capable of scanning your web pages and finding the information to be preserved. Metadata recovery can also be done through your site backup, which should always be prepared before starting the migration procedure. Alternatively, you will need to restore the data manually.
3. Deterioration of Page Speed
Google’s PageSpeed Insights allows you to monitor your page speed after site migration, offering suggestions for optimization. This scan is essential to verify that your site, even after the “update, ensures an” excellent user experience for your visitors.
4. Failure to Update Internal Links
For better navigation and user engagement, it’s good practice to enrich site content with internal links for further reading. This allows visitors to stay on your site longer, appreciating the completeness of the “informational offer and building loyalty. Therefore, if you’re migrating your site, you’ll likely have numerous internal links to monitor. It’s possible that these connections won’t update automatically and will continue to refer to old URLs, causing extreme deterioration in navigability and” site abandonment by potential customers. So always ensure that all internal links are correct and functioning!
5. Non-Functioning or Corrupted Redirects
The topic of redirects is very delicate because a mass redirect can be really harmful to your SEO. Therefore, before migration, it’s good to have a defined plan for managing these dynamics. This will avoid unpleasant surprises. In short, always ensure that redirects lead to related and relevant content without diverting everything to the homepage. Consider that if redirects don’t work, part of your traffic will be lost and you’ll face the dreaded 404 error.
Moreover, optimal management of 301 redirects will allow you to maintain functioning connections with external sites that linked to yours. If this doesn’t happen, you’ll have to contact the site owners and ask them to modify the link.
6. Loss of Multimedia Content
An aspect not to forget concerns the verification of URLs belonging to images or videos contained on your site. You’ll need to manage redirects well if the web pages have undergone URL changes. Paying attention to this aspect will allow you to safeguard traffic coming from such content and is even more critical if you own an e-commerce site.
7. Issues with the New CMS or Hosting
The “last point concerns very technical issues related to the success of SEO migration. It can happen that changing CMS or hosting causes a worsening of traffic, due to firewalls blocking Google’s spiders and preventing them from correctly scanning your content. To overcome these problems, the optimal procedure is to carry out tests, before migration, with the” aim of verifying that performance does not decrease in the face of new settings.
The Procedure for Effective SEO Migration in 12 Steps
Now that you’ve discovered the errors to avoid in terms of SEO migration, you’re ready to learn all the steps of the procedure to follow.
Take all the time you need to do the migration and correctly implement the procedures, don’t fear a delay in launching because haste could lead you to potentially serious errors. If Google should announce an update to its algorithms, hold off and wait for everything to stabilize before doing your migration.
When you’re ready, make an updated backup of your site in its current state, this will allow you to recover any data if necessary.
Let’s look at all the actions to take step by step for a correct SEO migration:
1. SEO Scan and Audit
Scan the previous site and the site you have developed. You need to save the URL structure and data, as well as the pre-migration metrics in terms of organic traffic, positioning keywords, and user-related numbers. This will allow you to compare post-migration performance and detect any malfunctions.
2. Create a Redirect Map
If you’re modifying URLs, plan for redirect management with a mapping of the previous URLs and the correct ones.
3. Create a List of All Indexed Pages
Map the comprehensive list of pages indexed in Google Search and Google Images.
4. Monitor Backlinks
Monitor the current list of backlinks to ensure these valuable links are not lost following the migration.
5. Correct Old Errors
Check for errors on the old site, correcting them if necessary before migration. This includes corrupted backlinks or internal errors.
6. Optimize the New Site
Ensure that the site you’re about to overwrite is already optimized for Google with the required metadata present. During the migration phase, make sure there are no variations in these contents and that they are identical to the original version.
7. Create an Effective Sitemap
Monitor the perfect functioning of the new site’s sitemap.xml and submit it to Google Search Console to make scanning your web pages easier and faster once the migration is done.
8. Updated robots.txt File
Update the robots.txt file with the new sitemap and ensure all your resources are available to Google’s spiders.
9. Implement 301 Redirects
Once you’ve implemented all the steps seen so far, you can start redirecting from the previous URLs to the new ones, ensuring that everything happens in the “desired order and that the correspondences are correct at the end of the” operation.
10. Request New Indexing of the New URLs
By accessing Google Search Console, you can request indexing of all pages on the website – both new and old – so that Google correctly acquires the redirects.
11. Test Everything for a Couple of Days
After the migration, conduct an additional test on the redirects to ensure everything is functioning correctly.
12. Ensure You’re Fast
Monitor the speed of the new site’s pages and compare all performance metrics with the previous configuration to identify any errors and corrective actions to be implemented.
Conclusion
In this article, you’ve discovered everything you need to know before implementing an SEO migration. You’ve learned about the main mistakes to avoid and the steps to perform this procedure safely and efficiently.
As you’ve certainly realized, the level of expertise and technique required to handle an SEO migration must be very high to avoid losing the reputation acquired in Google’s eyes. That’s why entrusting experts is definitely the best and safest choice.
If you’re looking for professionals capable of supporting you in this process, we are certainly the partner for you! We are an expert SEO agency, capable of efficient and highly functional SEO migrations.
Contact us for a free consultation.
