Tips on how to run a profitable web site migration from begin to end

A web site migration can really feel like packing up your total home and transferring throughout the nation. There’s a lot to maintain observe of, and also you don’t need to lose any useful possessions (or, on this case, search engine marketing progress) alongside the way in which. 

When carried out proper, a web site migration is an opportunity to enhance web site efficiency, improve person expertise and increase search presence.

Nevertheless, with numerous transferring components and a number of groups concerned, having an organized plan is important for a clean transition. 

To nail it, you want a rock-solid plan and a dedication to doing issues proper.

On this article:

What’s a web site migration?

A web site migration refers back to the course of of creating main modifications involving a web site. 

This would possibly embrace transferring a web site to a brand new area or internet hosting supplier, switching to a unique content material administration system (CMS) or merging a number of web sites into one.

Why is search engine marketing necessary in web site migrations?

Some individuals might marvel what search engine marketing has to do with transferring a web site. 

A web site migration with search engine marketing constructed into it might protect rankings, keep away from visitors loss, retain hyperlink fairness, enhance person expertise and uncover new alternatives to enhance the location. A web site migration with out search engine marketing is laced with assumptions and poor selections and might result in a near-death visitors loss.

For instance how, when carried out proper, search engine marketing constructed right into a web site migration can massively influence search efficiency, see the picture under. 

After this shopper’s web site migrated about mid-April 2023, they skilled the next outcomes when evaluating February 2023 to August 2023:

• A 455% enhance in day by day visitors.
• A 78% enhance in prime 10 rankings, with the highest three rankings going from 8,081 to 13,591.
• Zero SERP options to 1,496 SERP options.

Getting ready on your web site migration

Earlier than you bounce into the deep finish, take the time to plan: 

• Outline your objectives and goals. No matter your web site migration objectives, doc them and the steps wanted to make them a actuality. Get particular and make your targets measurable. It will assist information your efforts and offer you a transparent solution to consider success post-migration.
• Conduct an intensive search engine marketing audit. A radical search engine marketing audit assesses the location’s strengths and pinpoints areas for enchancment. A part of this includes monitoring your web site’s present rankings, visitors ranges and engagement metrics utilizing instruments like Google Analytics, Google Search Console and others.
• Provide you with a challenge plan. Map out an in depth challenge plan. Break the migration into phases, assign roles and duties and set reasonable deadlines. (Don’t neglect to construct in time for testing and troubleshooting. Migrations not often go off and not using a hitch, so planning for the sudden is vital.)

Google offers some further greatest observe suggestions for managing a web site transfer, together with splitting your transfer into smaller steps, altering just one factor at a time and timing the transfer to coincide with lower-traffic occasions. 

Dig deeper: 12 search engine marketing pitfalls to keep away from throughout a web site platform migration

Managing and optimizing the brand new web site construction and content material

How individuals and serps entry your content material, and what sort of content material you publish are each necessary to your search engine marketing program transferring ahead.

Web site construction

A well-organized web site construction enhances person expertise and helps serps perceive the relationships between your pages.

Take into consideration the way you would possibly restructure and streamline your web site’s navigation for the relaunch. 

It will require having a look at your goal key phrases and mapping them to the navigation and content material. 

Group associated content material collectively in a logical hierarchy, making it straightforward for web site guests and serps to seek out precisely what they want.

I name this search engine marketing siloing, and the advantages embrace:

• Creating person expertise can lead to extra time spent on the web site.
• Serving to serps decide relevance, which positions the location for rating for goal key phrases.

The objective is to have the highest of every silo (navigational class) be based mostly on the extra generic key phrases and to construct a hierarchy of subpages that help that key phrase matter.

The image above exhibits a pattern construction for search engine marketing siloing on a fictional energy instruments web site. 

The principle classes are cordless energy instruments, electrical energy instruments and gas-powered instruments. The supporting subpages are proven beneath.

Content material

Now onto the content material that fills the pages in your web site. As you head right into a web site migration, it’s an ideal alternative to make enhancements.

The objective is to make sure the standard of your content material if you relaunch. 

Listed here are some suggestions as you overview the content material in your web site:

• Evaluation top-performing webpages and be sure you prioritize these. For pages that aren’t performing, determine in the event that they want a rewrite, have to be merged or 301 redirected.
• Assess the content material with some tips in thoughts, reminiscent of Google’s E-E-A-T rules and its recommendation on useful content material. 
• Evaluation all content material to make it possible for it’s evergreen and thorough. If it may be up to date, do it. If total matters are outdated, flag these to do a 301 redirect on them in a while. 
• Contemplate merging a number of pages on the same or identical matter into another in depth information on the subject. (Don’t neglect to 301 redirect URLs later).
• Be certain that your new web site’s content material is optimized on your goal key phrases. Optimize titles, headings, meta descriptions and physique content material. 
• Deal with duplicate content material points. Duplicate content material can occur for a number of causes, together with trailing slashes on URLs, CMS issues, content material that’s too comparable, boilerplate content material and extra. 

If you could add new content material earlier than the location migration, think about using AI content material instruments for effectivity—however watch out to comply with search engine tips. 

See my article on tips on how to survive the search outcomes if you’re utilizing AI instruments for content material.

Bettering person expertise

Previous to a web site migration is an effective time to evaluate person expertise elements in your web site and make any changes transferring ahead. 

Evaluation Core Internet Vitals

• Google’s Core Internet Vitals deal with the responsiveness, pace and interactivity of a web site. Benchmarking and seeing what could also be improved in your present web site is an effective step earlier than relaunching a brand new web site.
• Google offers extra insights in a assist file right here, and you’ll view the Core Internet Vitals report in Google Search Console. Prioritize changes based mostly in your accessible sources. 

Cellular-friendliness

• Guaranteeing your web site is optimized for cell means issues like having a responsive design, touch-friendly navigation, creating and formatting content material with cell readers in thoughts and far more. 

Bettering accessibility

• Evaluating and enhancing accessibility in your web site can guarantee your web site is usable for individuals with disabilities.
• The gold normal for complying with accessibility is W3.org’s Internet Content material Accessibility Pointers (WCAG). Prioritize minimal necessities first.

Enhancing safety

• Some issues you are able to do to enhance the safety of your web site are evaluating your server / internet hosting supplier (this can be a purpose on your web site transfer anyway), implementing HTTPS and updating software program, plugins and authentication protocols. 

Managing hyperlinks

Correctly mapping and redirecting URLs is important for sustaining search engine marketing worth throughout a web site migration. With out cautious planning, you danger shedding hyperlink fairness. 

Create an in depth spreadsheet that lists each previous URL and its corresponding new URL. This redirect map will function a blueprint for implementing 301 redirects and making certain no pages are misplaced within the transition.

Remember to account for modifications in web site construction, URL naming conventions and content material consolidation. A radical redirect map is your greatest protection in opposition to damaged hyperlinks and misplaced search engine marketing worth.

Work together with your improvement group to make sure that redirects are configured accurately: 

• Avoid redirect traps like utilizing short-term 302s as an alternative of everlasting 301s, creating messy chains or loops and forgetting that URLs are case-sensitive.
• Previous to launch, totally check your redirects to make sure they’re working as supposed. Use instruments just like the SEOToolSet (full disclosure, that is my firm’s search engine marketing software program) or Screaming Frog to crawl your previous URLs and confirm that they’re being correctly redirected to the right new URLs.
  Pay particular consideration to your most necessary pages, reminiscent of your house web page, top-level classes and high-traffic weblog posts. 

Mapping your 301s is only one a part of managing your hyperlinks earlier than a web site migration. That is additionally time to overview your inbound hyperlink profile. 

Eliminate any hyperlinks that won’t serve your web site nicely transferring ahead and establish new hyperlink alternatives for the location.

Monitoring technical search engine marketing

Monitoring all features of technical search engine marketing earlier than and through a web site migration is significant for web site well being and search engine visibility. 

Listed here are some duties to verify off your record:

Evaluation design modifications

• Adjustments to web site design can influence search engine marketing–one instance is the coding facet of constructing a web site. Evaluation design plans to ensure they help search engine marketing goals.

Audit your monitoring instruments

• Verify that Google Analytics monitoring is accurately configured. Shifting to GA4 may be difficult, contemplate hiring analytics consultants if crucial.
• Additionally, guarantee Google Search Console is configured on your web site. 

Again up your present web site

• As a precautionary measure, again up your total web site – particularly the XML Sitemap. Belief me, you want this. Obtain all photographs and different sources, and save a replica of your database if related.

Set up a check atmosphere

• It’s frequent observe amongst internet builders to create a separate testing atmosphere to experiment with modifications earlier than making them stay.
• Guarantee that is arrange and that serps are blocked from indexing this staging space.

Validate structured knowledge

Evaluation metadata

• Guarantee titles and meta descriptions are distinctive with authentic content material and are accurately optimized. 

Evaluation robots directives

• Recheck the setup of your robots.txt file to make sure it’s accurately blocking or permitting entry as supposed. 

Create and handle sitemaps

• Develop a brand new HTML sitemap to help customers in navigating the brand new web site easily.
• To some, this subsequent level could appear counterintuitive, nevertheless it’s necessary: The second the brand new web site is stay, submit the previous XML sitemap you archived earlier. This causes the major search engines to seek out your redirects immediately. 

Perform launch day duties

• On launch day, crawl the web site to establish and resolve any rising points immediately, reminiscent of crawl errors.
• Beneficial instruments embrace SEOToolSet’s web site spider, Lumar and Screaming Frog. You can too use the assorted testing options in Search Console. 

Managing post-launch actions

You’ve made it via the location migration course of, however the work isn’t over but. Retaining an in depth eye in your web site’s efficiency within the weeks and months following the transfer is necessary. 

Testing

Step one in post-migration testing is to conduct a complete overview of your web site’s performance. 

This implies testing each web page, hyperlink, kind and have to make sure that every little thing is working as supposed. 

Give your web site an intensive once-over by specializing in these very important areas:

• Navigation and inner linking.
• Varieties and phone pages.
• Ecommerce performance (if relevant).
• Cellular responsiveness and usefulness.
• Integrations with third-party instruments or providers.
• Web site pace and responsiveness.

As you check, make observe of any points or errors you encounter and prioritize fixing them based mostly on their influence on person expertise and web site efficiency. 

Watching key metrics

Together with your monitoring instruments in place, it’s time to watch your web site’s efficiency and natural visitors ranges. 

Preserve an in depth eye in your day by day and weekly visitors in Google Analytics. It’s regular to see some short-term fluctuations after a migration, however in case you discover a sustained drop in natural visitors, it’s time to research additional.

One other key metric to watch post-migration is your web site’s key phrase rankings and total search visibility. Use search engine marketing instruments like Ahrefs to trace your rankings for goal key phrases and monitor any modifications over time.

Enhancing person expertise

Past performance, it’s necessary to take a holistic take a look at your web site’s person expertise and engagement post-migration. 

Are guests discovering what they want simply? Are they participating together with your content material and changing on the charges you count on?

You need to use your analytics instruments to dive into behavioral metrics reminiscent of objective completions, bounce charges and extra.

When you discover a drop in conversions or engagement, dig deeper to establish potential points or roadblocks. 

Is there a selected web page or step in your conversion funnel the place customers drop off? Are there sure person segments or visitors sources which can be underperforming?

Contemplate reviewing the next areas that will want person expertise enchancment:

• Bettering navigation and web site construction.
• Optimizing content material structure and readability.
• Enhancing calls-to-action and conversion factors.
• Guaranteeing mobile-friendliness and responsiveness.
• Including participating visible parts and media.

You need to use issues like warmth maps and surveys to get inside your guests’ heads. Search for tendencies and sticking factors, then use that knowledge to fine-tune your web site’s person expertise. 

Repeatedly refining

When you’ve accomplished a profitable web site migration, the true journey begins. 

You’ll proceed to maintain an in depth eye in your web site, run checks and make tweaks to make sure that it’s at all times acting at its greatest and delivering an distinctive person expertise.

With a dedication to enchancment, you may make sure that your migrated web site survives and thrives in its new house for the lengthy haul.