Website migration can be an intricate and time-consuming process with numerous moving parts, leaving room for mistakes to happen along the way. With careful planning and pre-launch testing in place, however, you can reduce its effects on traffic volumes.
Integration of all stakeholders into the process is of the utmost importance; this will prevent confusion and ensure everyone understands their respective responsibilities. To learn more about SEO during web migration, click here.
1. Create a strategy
Before embarking on any migration process, it’s vitally important to establish an actionable strategy and define your objectives. This means determining what needs to be moved as well as who might be affected by any changes that occur – SEO specialists should be involved early on as part of this plan.
Assuring any changes are implemented with minimal loss of visibility will ensure they can be successfully implemented. For instance, access should be restricted on the old site while migration takes place and lifted only when your new website is ready for public launch.
Additionally, it’s essential that you collect an inventory of pages you plan on migrating from your legacy website in order to identify which are of highest value when considering factors like traffic, conversions and rankings.
2. Create a timeline
Website migration involves changes in structure, design, platform and location for various reasons – such as rebranding your domain name or switching over to HTTPS to increase data security.
No matter the reason for undertaking your project, it is imperative that your team has enough time and resources to complete it successfully. Setting out a timeline will help ensure everything proceeds as planned; testing should begin as early as possible to catch any errors before they negatively impact website performance; additionally you could consider conducting a marketing campaign to publicise it before launch day.
3. Create a site map
SEO during web migration can have an enormously negative impact on SEO, so it is critical to handle them with care. Whether switching from HTTP to HTTPS or revamping your design, make sure that you take enough time and care when planning and executing the transition process.
One of the key steps in web migration preparation is creating a site map. This ensures all existing URLs are appropriately redirected during migration, and no pages go uncovered during transition. There are various tools available that can assist with this, including sitemaps and content inventories.
When creating a site map, be sure to involve all parties affected by its migration such as developers, designers, copywriters and SEOs. Make use of an efficient collaboration tool like Miro to make sure everyone has up-to-date information and can access project resources easily.
4. Test your site
Once you’ve collected all the data required for migration, testing can begin. Tests should take place in an environment which does not index into search engines to detect issues that could threaten both SEO rankings and user experience. This allows for maximum efficiency during web migration testing.
Key metrics to watch out for include:
Planning ahead and taking your time when making a web migration can have a significant impact on its performance, so it is wise to follow these steps to make sure traffic doesn’t decrease during transition and that search engine optimisation remains optimised after launch – helping attract and keep more visitors.
5. Complete the migration
Identify and eliminate duplicate content during the migration process to avoid SEO duplicates from emerging after your site migration. A tool like Clearscope or Ahrefs’ Content Gap solution can assist in this effort to quickly optimise content prior to moving it over. To learn more about SEO during web migration, click here.
Migrating websites doesn’t need to be difficult; with careful planning and execution, the process can be completed without impacting search engine visibility.
Be sure to closely track progress and perform SEO audits regularly after the migration in order to ensure its success, keeping your brand in its optimal form for maximum online performance. Best wishes!