Successfully migrating your website to SEO
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 4:56 am
When we talk about website redesign or migration , we mean: "substantial changes to a website that can significantly affect its visibility in search engines: tree structure, design, technology, CMS, content, domain, URL, etc.".
Even though these changes are part of the life cycle of a website, they are not without risks. Redesigning or migrating your website without impacting SEO must be properly prepared.
So, to help you mitigate these risks, find in this article the key steps to successfully migrate your website SEO .
How to successfully migrate your website SEO. In the photo we see a computer with a drawing of a rocket taking off with the word SEO.
Why migrate and/or redesign your website?
The process of redesigning a website involves completely modifying an existing website.
For what reasons?
Adapt the site to a new medium (e.g. make it responsive so that it is accessible on mobile devices);
Update the design to make it more attractive, more modern;
Add new features to improve user experience;
Improve site performance (loading time, image optimization, etc.)
Etc.
The migration process , on the other hand, involves making major changes to the technology or its hosting . In other words, doing a website migration can be likened to a “move.”
Reasons to migrate a site include:
Choosing a new CMS or framework, to improve the performance, security, and even the functionality of your site;
HTTPS migration , in order to guarantee the security of Internet users’ data and navigation;
Moving to a new host that is more flexible, more agile and sometimes more efficient in terms of site loading speed;
Etc.
Succeed in your redesign project and achieve your SEO objectives
Download the support
What are the SEO challenges of a website redesign or migration?
As with any major change, redesigning or migrating to a new website impacts SEO strategy . However, these processes can improve the user experience of visitors.
Other criteria, such as an attractive interface or page moj database loading speed, are also favored by Google. (Also read our article on tools for measuring site performance ). As a result, switching to a faster host could boost your SEO in the long term. Since the search engine must first reindex it, it is normal to observe a drop in organic traffic in the short term.
Before starting, it is essential to have a structured, effective and rigorous SEO migration plan , to:
Do not lose the user coming from SEO, but also from various other acquisition channels, by showing them a 404 page,
Do not serve URLs that are inaccessible to Google's indexing robots,
Simplify Google indexing update with 301 and 410 redirects,
Maintaining constant SEO traffic during radical changes to a website,
Transfer the theming, seniority and popularity of an old version to a new one,
Semantically group your new website.
What are the risks of a website migration?
The SEO migration of your website is a delicate operation. To maintain its SEO, it is imperative to know the risk factors of a migration:
Loss of metadata (Title tags, Alt tags, meta descriptions, etc.) can lead to a drop in traffic in the medium to long term;
Slower page load speed, if you are doing a full site migration or moving to a new server;
Managing broken internal links or 404 errors: Before migrating, make sure that all your links point to an existing page on your website;
A redirection to old pages, which can present a significant risk for the positioning of your website on search engines;
Incorrect URL structure: Even small changes to the URL structure of your pages can result in broken links , especially if your sitemap has been drastically reorganized;
The technical quality of your HTML/CSS code: a lower quality of your new code will lead to difficulties in indexing your site;
Changes in position in the tree structure that can affect key pages and therefore generate a loss of traffic.
What are the different checkpoints for an SEO migration?
The different points to follow to successfully migrate your website. In the illustration, we see a website under renovation with a crane behind the drawing of a computer
As you can see, successfully migrating your website SEO is not an easy task. To avoid causing your pages to suddenly fall in Google's results ranking, here is a list of points to check .
Pre-launch a website migration
Plan the migration and compare your current site
Lack of planning, underestimating the scope of work, and insufficient expertise are mistakes to avoid when migrating a site .
Collect data for reference and analysis purposes
Using various analytics tools, such as Google Analytics and Semrush, perform a site audit to check its overall health, monitor rankings, and assess content quality.
Make a copy of your site
So that you can test and review any changes you make, you will need a copy of your website, uploaded to a new server.
Block access to your new site before the migration is complete
Prevent Google from indexing the new version of your site until you have completed the migration. Otherwise, it may appear on the SERP and compete with the existing version.
Check Google's access to your new site
Add your test subdomain's temporary hostname to Google Search Console , and use the coverage report. This will also ensure that JavaScript can be crawled and indexed.
Check if the newly acquired domain has not been penalized by Google
Go to the Manual Actions report to view the site history and make sure there are no issues. Google's recommendations can be a great help here.
Map new URLs
Create a list of current URLs
First you need a list of URLs from your existing site to match with your new site. To do this, identify the most important pages on your site, in terms of content, traffic, and links.
Search for URLs that require redirects
Is the structure of your URLs changing? You need to match the old ones with the new ones to determine whether or not a 301 redirect is necessary.
Even though these changes are part of the life cycle of a website, they are not without risks. Redesigning or migrating your website without impacting SEO must be properly prepared.
So, to help you mitigate these risks, find in this article the key steps to successfully migrate your website SEO .
How to successfully migrate your website SEO. In the photo we see a computer with a drawing of a rocket taking off with the word SEO.
Why migrate and/or redesign your website?
The process of redesigning a website involves completely modifying an existing website.
For what reasons?
Adapt the site to a new medium (e.g. make it responsive so that it is accessible on mobile devices);
Update the design to make it more attractive, more modern;
Add new features to improve user experience;
Improve site performance (loading time, image optimization, etc.)
Etc.
The migration process , on the other hand, involves making major changes to the technology or its hosting . In other words, doing a website migration can be likened to a “move.”
Reasons to migrate a site include:
Choosing a new CMS or framework, to improve the performance, security, and even the functionality of your site;
HTTPS migration , in order to guarantee the security of Internet users’ data and navigation;
Moving to a new host that is more flexible, more agile and sometimes more efficient in terms of site loading speed;
Etc.
Succeed in your redesign project and achieve your SEO objectives
Download the support
What are the SEO challenges of a website redesign or migration?
As with any major change, redesigning or migrating to a new website impacts SEO strategy . However, these processes can improve the user experience of visitors.
Other criteria, such as an attractive interface or page moj database loading speed, are also favored by Google. (Also read our article on tools for measuring site performance ). As a result, switching to a faster host could boost your SEO in the long term. Since the search engine must first reindex it, it is normal to observe a drop in organic traffic in the short term.
Before starting, it is essential to have a structured, effective and rigorous SEO migration plan , to:
Do not lose the user coming from SEO, but also from various other acquisition channels, by showing them a 404 page,
Do not serve URLs that are inaccessible to Google's indexing robots,
Simplify Google indexing update with 301 and 410 redirects,
Maintaining constant SEO traffic during radical changes to a website,
Transfer the theming, seniority and popularity of an old version to a new one,
Semantically group your new website.
What are the risks of a website migration?
The SEO migration of your website is a delicate operation. To maintain its SEO, it is imperative to know the risk factors of a migration:
Loss of metadata (Title tags, Alt tags, meta descriptions, etc.) can lead to a drop in traffic in the medium to long term;
Slower page load speed, if you are doing a full site migration or moving to a new server;
Managing broken internal links or 404 errors: Before migrating, make sure that all your links point to an existing page on your website;
A redirection to old pages, which can present a significant risk for the positioning of your website on search engines;
Incorrect URL structure: Even small changes to the URL structure of your pages can result in broken links , especially if your sitemap has been drastically reorganized;
The technical quality of your HTML/CSS code: a lower quality of your new code will lead to difficulties in indexing your site;
Changes in position in the tree structure that can affect key pages and therefore generate a loss of traffic.
What are the different checkpoints for an SEO migration?
The different points to follow to successfully migrate your website. In the illustration, we see a website under renovation with a crane behind the drawing of a computer
As you can see, successfully migrating your website SEO is not an easy task. To avoid causing your pages to suddenly fall in Google's results ranking, here is a list of points to check .
Pre-launch a website migration
Plan the migration and compare your current site
Lack of planning, underestimating the scope of work, and insufficient expertise are mistakes to avoid when migrating a site .
Collect data for reference and analysis purposes
Using various analytics tools, such as Google Analytics and Semrush, perform a site audit to check its overall health, monitor rankings, and assess content quality.
Make a copy of your site
So that you can test and review any changes you make, you will need a copy of your website, uploaded to a new server.
Block access to your new site before the migration is complete
Prevent Google from indexing the new version of your site until you have completed the migration. Otherwise, it may appear on the SERP and compete with the existing version.
Check Google's access to your new site
Add your test subdomain's temporary hostname to Google Search Console , and use the coverage report. This will also ensure that JavaScript can be crawled and indexed.
Check if the newly acquired domain has not been penalized by Google
Go to the Manual Actions report to view the site history and make sure there are no issues. Google's recommendations can be a great help here.
Map new URLs
Create a list of current URLs
First you need a list of URLs from your existing site to match with your new site. To do this, identify the most important pages on your site, in terms of content, traffic, and links.
Search for URLs that require redirects
Is the structure of your URLs changing? You need to match the old ones with the new ones to determine whether or not a 301 redirect is necessary.