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A website migration takes place whenever you make major changes to your website, such as altering its URL, domain name, and architecture, or switching to a new CMS (content management system) platform.
Yet, for SEO experts, the term ‘website migration’ often sends a shiver up the spine.
This is because one tiny mistake can cause issues like broken links and missing content, both of which are bad for SEO.
Also, it takes time for search engines to realize that you’ve made changes to your site, so there may be dips in traffic and search rankings immediately after completing a migration.
Here’s a typical horror story.
A company spends months and thousands of dollars restructuring its website, only to experience a steep drop in organic traffic and search engine rankings.
Whether you’re redesigning your site architecture in-depth or switching to a new domain, a successful migration requires rigorous planning to avoid negative impacts.
The good news is there are steps you can take to ensure a successful website migration with little to no adverse effects.
In this article, we’ll equip you with the ultimate website migration checklist to keep your SEO intact, so stay tuned!
What Is Website Migration?
Major changes to your website’s structure, domain name, server, and platform qualify as website migrations.
However, minor tweaks and changes don’t constitute a site migration.
This is because the changes must drastically affect search engine visibility to fall under the website migration umbrella.
That’s the main reason why SEO professionals fear the migration process—it can easily lead to a huge loss of traffic and may cause your website to lose crucial keyword rankings.
For example, let’s say you have a series of landing pages that rank on page one of Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages). They’re your most important pages and constantly bring in traffic and new leads for your business.
Yet, you need to migrate to a new CMS if you want your website to survive since you’re using an extremely outdated platform.
After the migration, you notice that your landing pages lost their rankings and aren’t even showing up on Google due to an issue with Googlebot (or because of one of the many other problems that can occur during a migration).
This is only one of the real hazards that can happen to organizations attempting website migrations.
That’s not to say that migrations don’t have their place. In fact, at times, a site migration may be your only course of action to save your business – such as moving from an outdated CMS with limited capabilities to WordPress.
There are lots of reasons why you might need to undertake a site migration, so let’s take a look at them all.
Type of Website Migrations
Since there are many types of website migrations, we’ve grouped them together into the following categories:
- URL-based migrations
- Platform and structure migrations
- Content and design migrations
Let’s examine the types of migrations that fall under each umbrella category.
URL-Based migrations
First, let’s start with the different types of migrations that involve making changes to your URLs.
Protocol migrations
What it is: This migration involves changing the protocol of your website’s URLs from HTTP to HTTPS.
Why it’s important: HTTPS is a secure protocol that encrypts the data transferred between the server and a browser. Google has also clarified that they prefer websites to use the HTTPS protocol, so it’s an SEO factor, too.
Impact: You’ll enjoy improved security and potentially higher rankings since HTTPS is a ranking signal.
Subdomain migrations
What it is: The subdomain refers to the ‘www.’ segment of your URLs. Instead of subfolders, subdomains act as ‘mini-websites’ that are helpful for containing pages that have their own inner pages, such as blogs, online stores, and support hubs.
Why it’s important: You may need to change your subdomain if you’re creating a version of your website in a different language (or many different languages). Subdomains are also helpful for organizing blogs and online stores, however subfolders are better for SEO.
Impact: Subdomains can simplify website architecture (like keeping your online store separate from your main site), but they aren’t the best for your SEO. This is because Google tends to view subdomains as separate websites, which can throw off your rankings. So, if you can help it, opt to use subfolders instead.
Domain name migrations
What it is: Your domain name is the original name you chose for your website.
Why it’s important: Domain name changes are usually related to rebranding, but they can have an impact on your user experience, too. If your domain name is too long or doesn’t relate to your brand enough, you may confuse your users.
Impact: If your company name and branding change, you’ll likely want your domain name to reflect that too. Having a concise domain name that sticks in users’ minds will increase your chances of generating more traffic (since they’ll know how to reach you online).
Top-level domain migrations
What it is: The top-level domain (TLD) is the ‘.com’ portion of your URL. A top-level domain change would be switching from a ‘.com’ to a ‘.net’ or ‘.org.’ Adding or removing a ccTLD (country code top-level domain) is another alteration you can make, such as adding ‘.au’ for new URLs (or old URLs), in Australia.
Why it’s important: Your TLD impacts the level of trustworthiness your site has on search engines. Certain TLDs like .edu and .gov carry more clout and authority than others. For example, .biz and .tk are two shady and untrusted TLDs.
Impact: To have the best impact on your SEO, you should use a trusted domain like ‘.com’ for any commercial business. Avoid shadier TLDs like .biz, .tk, and .ai.
Platform and structural migrations
Next, let’s look at migrations related to your website’s CMS and structure.
Here are some reasons why you might consider migrating to a new CMS:
- It takes too long to publish content
- It no longer generates revenue for you
- It has limited support for mobile devices
- It can’t integrate with crucial marketing tools
These are all signs you’ll benefit from switching to a more robust CMS. Switching platforms will likely change your URL structure and design due to technical issues and limitations. The result will likely be a website that looks similar to your old site but has noticeable differences.
Also, any changes to your site’s navigation, internal links, and taxonomy are considered structural migrations.
That could be as simple as adding breadcrumbs to your navigation bar or as complex as completely redefining the way you structure your website.
Content and design migrations (UI & UX)
Significant changes to your content will affect your visibility on search engines, especially if it’s on a large scale. That includes:
- Major rewrites
- Consolidating and pruning old pages and new pages
- Changes to a large number of meta descriptions and page titles
- Hiding content
- Removing duplicate content
Lastly, do you plan on making significant tweaks to your technical SEO, such as improving load times and adding 301 redirects to 404 pages?
If so, you’re planning a design migration.
This type of migration also includes changes to site functionality (interactive forms, internal search, blogging, etc.).
Anything that contributes to the look and feel of your website (including media) falls under this category. So, if you plan on giving your website a massive makeover – be prepared for an impact on your SEO.
A Thorough and SEO-Friendly Website Migration Checklist
Step #1: Create a detailed roadmap for the migration
The first step is to design a roadmap that outlines the entire migration process.
You’ll want to actively involve your stakeholders and team members when devising your roadmap. You can use project management software such as Asana to make things easier.
That will make assigning each team member their tasks for the migration effortless. Project management software is also great for visualizing each aspect of the process and setting individual deadlines.
If you don’t have access to software, you can use a simple Gantt chart.
During the planning phase, it’s also wise to pick a date for the launch.
This will give you an ultimate goal to work toward and will dictate the deadlines for each task. When selecting a date, you’ll need to leave plenty of time for:
- Redesign and approval
- Any necessary development work
- Content creation and updates
- Search engine optimization migration
- Tasks for the day of launch
Step #2: Benchmark your current SEO performance
Next, you need to analyze all your SEO metrics to know where you currently stand.
That way, you’ll be able to measure the impact of the migration. If you don’t take this step, you’ll have no way of knowing whether the migration negatively affected your search rankings or not.
As a bonus, you’ll also identify weak areas that need fixing during this process.
For the purposes of this guide, we’ll be using Ahrefs to measure your current SEO performance.
Analyze organic traffic
Go to Site Explorer: Enter your website’s URL into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.
- Navigate to Organic Search: In the left-hand menu, click “Organic Search” under the “Organic Search” section.
- View Organic Traffic: This section will show you the total estimated organic traffic your site receives. You can view this over different time frames to understand your current performance.
Analyze keyword rankings
- Navigate to Organic Keywords: In the “Organic Search” section, click on “Organic Keywords.”
- View Ranking Keywords: Here, you’ll see a list of keywords your site currently ranks for and their positions in the search results.
- Sort and Filter: You can filter this list to focus on the top-performing keywords or those ranking on the first page of Google. This will help you track any potential changes in rankings post-migration.
Analyze backlink profile
Go to Backlinks: In the left-hand menu, navigate to the “Backlinks” section under “Backlink Profile.”
- View Backlink Overview: Here, you can see the number of backlinks, referring domains, and the growth of your backlink profile over time.
- Check Referring Domains: Pay special attention to the quality and number of referring domains, as these are crucial for your site’s authority.
Analyze Top Pages
Under “Organic Search,” click on “Top Pages.” This will show you the pages on your site that drive the most traffic, the number of keywords they rank for, and the estimated traffic they bring in.
Step #3 Create a backup of your old site
Before you start working on the migration, create a backup of your website in its current state. If the migration goes haywire, you can simply revert to your old site to avoid costly downtime.
It’s also smart to keep an unaltered version of your website around if you need to work out any kinks during the migration.
Sit down with your team to create a rollback plan in case the worst should take place. Doing this allows you to work on your migration stress-free, knowing you still have a functional version of your old website if needed.
Step #4: Create a staging site for making changes
Even with a backup, creating a staging site is still wise. This is a duplicate of your old website, which you will use as your operating table.
Since it’s only a copy, there’s no harm in making mistakes or experimenting with it. As a result, you can experiment with new designs, plugins, and even a full site migration without worrying about breaking something users can see.
That turns the pressure off during migration and grants your developers lots of freedom to experiment and get creative.
A staging site will give your developers plenty of time to review the content and test the new site’s functionality. You’ll also get the chance to use 301 redirects before going live.
Without a staging site, you’d have to change the URLs in internal links and XML sitemaps numerous times, both pre and post-launch. That’s inconvenient and time-consuming, so creating a staging site is well worth the trouble.
While you’re working on the site migration, you don’t want your staging site to compete with your old site on Google. If Google locates duplicate versions of your website, it won’t know which to index and rank – which will hurt your SEO.
You should tell Google (and other search engines) not to index your staging site while working on it.
The easiest and most reliable way is to use the robots.txt file for the test site. It’s crucial to remember to unblock access once you launch the website—or Google will still ignore it. Also, make a personal note that the staging site is blocked so that you’ll remember to unblock it before the launch date.
Step #5: Crawl your old website and monitor the log files
You can use a platform like Screaming Frog to do an in-depth crawl on your website. It will provide a comprehensive report of any errors found, which you’ll want to address ASAP.
Your staging site or environment is where you are going to initially make the changes to your website. Therefore, it’s a good idea to crawl it along with your main website to see if the new site will throw up any issues.
Step #6: Register both the old and new versions of your site on Google Search Console
It’s crucial not to forget to register your old and new websites on GSC. Doing so is fairly straightforward and usually involves copying/pasting a code into your CMS.
Why bother with registering both websites?
It’s because you want to know that Google has visibility of your website. GSC will let you see all the indexed pages on file and any errors during crawling. For whatever reason, sometimes errors occur during discovery, crawling, and indexing.
If Google can’t index your website, it won’t appear on its SERPs. That’s why you’ll always want to know that Google can index your URLs – as it will help you avoid drop-offs in traffic and rankings.
Step #7: Create a redirect map
After you use Screaming Frog (or another crawler) on your site, you’ll want to compile data on your web pages from a few different sources to determine their strength SEO-wise. We recommend using:
These three tools will give you detailed analytics on how optimized your URLs are for search engines. This data will help you prioritize content, 301 redirects, and more for your site migration. It will also help you discover which pages you need to update, consolidate, or remove.
From there, you should create a redirect map.
What’s that?
A redirect map is a crucial document that outlines how each page from your old website will redirect to the corresponding page on your new site. This ensures that users and search engines are directed to the correct content after the migration, preserving your SEO equity and user experience.
How to create a redirect map:
- Document All Current URLs: Start by exporting a list of all the URLs from your old site. To get a comprehensive list, you can use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Google Search Console.
- Map corresponding new URLs: For each old URL, identify the new URL to which it should redirect. If the content is being consolidated or removed, determine the most relevant new page for the redirect.
- Plan for 301 redirects: Use 301 redirects for all URLs. A 301 redirect tells search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new location, transferring the SEO value of the old page to the new one.
- Test the redirects: Before going live, ensure they work correctly. Tools like Screaming Frog can simulate a crawl of your redirects to identify any errors or redirect loops.
Document the redirect map: Record all old and new URLs and their redirect status. This documentation is vital for ongoing SEO monitoring and troubleshooting.
Step #8: Create a new XML sitemap
Once all your new URLs are ready, you should create a new XML sitemap that you attach to your website and then upload it to Google Search Console.
Why is this necessary?
It’s because the sitemap helps search engines discover your service, product, and business pages so they can index them and rank them in the SERPs.
If you upload a new sitemap as soon as your site goes live, Google will notice your changes quicker than if you didn’t. It’s another technique that combats the SEO dropoff involved with website migrations.
This guide will teach you how to create and properly format an XML sitemap.
Step #9: Create a redirect map
After you use Screaming Frog (or another crawler) on your site, you’ll want to compile data on your web pages from a few different sources to determine their strength SEO-wise. We recommend using:
These three tools will give you detailed analytics on how optimized your URLs are for search engines. This data will help you prioritize content, 301 redirects, and more for your site migration. It will also help you discover which pages you need to update, consolidate, or remove.
From there, you should create a redirect map.
What’s that?
A redirect map is a crucial document that outlines how each page from your old website will redirect to the corresponding page on your new site. This ensures that users and search engines are directed to the correct content after the migration, preserving your SEO equity and user experience.
How to create a redirect map:
- Document All Current URLs: Start by exporting a list of all the URLs from your old site. To get a comprehensive list, you can use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Google Search Console.
- Map corresponding new URLs: For each old URL, identify the new URL to which it should redirect. If the content is being consolidated or removed, determine the most relevant new page for the redirect.
- Plan for 301 redirects: Use 301 redirects for all URLs. A 301 redirect tells search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new location, transferring the SEO value of the old page to the new one.
- Test the redirects: Before going live, ensure they work correctly. Tools like Screaming Frog can simulate a crawl of your redirects to identify any errors or redirect loops.
Document the redirect map: Record all old and new URLs and their redirect status. This documentation is vital for ongoing SEO monitoring and troubleshooting.
Step #10: Create a new XML sitemap
Once all your new URLs are ready, you should create a new XML sitemap that you attach to your website and then upload it to Google Search Console.
Why is this necessary?
It’s because the sitemap helps search engines discover your service, product, and business pages so they can index them and rank them in the SERPs.
If you upload a new sitemap as soon as your site goes live, Google will notice your changes quicker than if you didn’t. It’s another technique that combats the SEO dropoff involved with website migrations.
This guide will teach you how to create and properly format an XML sitemap.
Step #11: Go for a responsive design for mobile devices
In today’s age, Google focuses on mobile-first indexing. That means Googlebot will take a look at the mobile version of your site before looking at the desktop version.
Not only that, but Google prefers a responsive design. In other words, it’s best not to have two versions of your site but one version that displays flawlessly on desktops and mobile devices. If you aren’t sure how mobile-friendly your website is, you can use Google Lighthouse.
Step #12: Migrate or add a new schema
Schema markup is a standardized format for structuring data on your website. It includes specific tags or “properties” that help define specific elements of your content – such as events, products, reviews, or blog posts.
How does schema factor into website migration?
Schema’s primary use is to help website crawlers better understand the content on a web page. If you don’t have schema on your website, you should strive to include it.
Structured data is how Google qualifies content to appear in rich snippets like featured snippets, AI Overviews, and knowledge bars. So, if you don’t have schema on your website, you’re missing out on these golden SEO opportunities.
If you have an existing schema on your old website, migrate it to the new one.
Post-Migration Monitoring
Step #13: Update your backlinks and robots.txt file
You don’t want to lose the backlink equity you built up on your old website. You’ll want to run a backlink checker to discover all the links pointing to your site. From there, reach out to each link so they can update the backlinks to point to your new site.
This is a rather involved process that will take some time. As such, it’s wise to designate one of your team members to focus entirely on tracking backlinks and handling the outreach.
You’ll need to retain control of your old domain until all your backlinks get updated. Otherwise, someone else can claim the domain and steal your backlink equity.
If you have an extensive website containing pages you don’t want indexed on search engines, you’ll need to create a new robots.txt file. If you don’t have any pages that you don’t want to appear in the SERPs, you won’t need to worry about it.
Step #14: Conduct a Thorough SEO Audit Before and After Launch
Once all the website migration checklist items are complete, it’s time to perform an in-depth SEO audit of the new website to ensure everything is in its right place.
That includes ensuring all URLs, pages, content, links, and tags are accounted for and in the correct spot. Run a crawl, check Google Analytics, and test your new website on mobile before initiating the launch.
Even after the launch, you’ll want to perform another audit. That will ensure that everything is still working post-migration.
After that, it’s about measuring your performance results post-launch. Keep a close eye on your organic search traffic, rankings, page speed, and engagement metrics.
You can use The HOTH’s free Google Ranking Checker to ensure you keep your rankings. If you notice your ranks falling, you’ve got some work to do. In a nutshell, you’ll want to monitor your progress, ensure your success, and make additional tweaks when necessary.
Choose The HOTH for Managed SEO and More
We’ve covered a lot in this extensive guide, so here’s a quick recap:
- Website migrations take place whenever you make major changes to your website’s structure or platform.
- There are different types of website migrations, such as URL migrations, content migrations, and platform migrations.
- There are a series of steps you can take to ensure a seamless website migration that limits the amount of negative impacts on your search rankings.
If you don’t have an internal team to complete the website migration checklist, we recommend contacting experienced professionals like us.
If you’re ready to focus on your SEO, we’re here to help. Please don’t wait to schedule a call with our experts. Also, with HOTH X, we can fully manage your campaign to ensure simple SEO success.
It was a very informative blog about checklists to preserve SEO efforts during a website migration. Gained a lot of insight from it. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing your ideas. 15 checklist perfect