Winning SEO when doing Web Migrations

How to effectively migrate your site in complex scenarios without losing your rankings and traffic? Like when doing a rebrand? Take a look at the steps to follow and tools to use to validate your Web migration from an SEO perspective.

Transcript

1. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Winning SEO when doing Web Migrations
2. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Moving sites, like moving houses, can be painful #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
3. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Both require a lot of work… You want to take your belongings with you without leaving, breaking, losing anything important You want to update your details, to refer and be found in your new address You want to correctly reorganize your belongings in your new location fast #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
4. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti …that can be shockingly similar, right? You want to take your belongings with you without leaving, breaking, losing anything important You want to update your details, to refer and be found in your new address You want to correctly reorganize your belongings in your new location fast URLS 301-REDIRECT URLS LINKS & CONFIGURATION UPDATE #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
5. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Without proper SEO planning & validation Web migrations can have terrible consequences BEFORE AFTER
6. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Like when you move and forget to label all the boxes and then can’t find your toilet paper #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
7. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Although losing your organic traffic after a Web migration is a potentially more business critical situation and is also shockingly common #webmigrations at #yoastcon by @aleyda from @orainti https://www.sistrix.com/blog/migration-migrations-migraine-site-move-fears-are-not-well-founded/
8. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti However, both can be exciting if you’re moving to a better place… #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
9. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Like when you take the opportunity to throw what you don’t need and better organize your clothes in a bigger closet #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
10. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Or when you improve your site optimization for better results when doing the Web migration
11. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Over the years I’ve found is mostly about tackling these common reasons for Web migration failures Lack of a clear Web migration goal Lack of Flexibility to make changes Lack of support to make changes Leaving Important Pages out Migrating pages erroneously Moving to non-optimized new pages destinations
12. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Notice how half of these are not technical related but have to do with appropriate project planning Lack of a clear Web migration goal Lack of Flexibility to make changes Lack of support to make changes Leaving Important Pages out Migrating pages erroneously Moving to non-optimized new pages destinations
13. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti And how the technical related ones will tend to intensify with big and higher number of sites Lack of a clear Web migration goal Lack of Flexibility to make changes Lack of support to make changes Leaving Important Pages out Migrating pages erroneously Moving to non-optimized new pages destinations
14. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti I’m not Marie Kondo but today I’ll show you how to avoid them and make your Web migrations to spark joy #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
15. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Start by identifying your moving goal, feasibility and scope to support the process accordingly #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
16. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti What are you looking to achieve with the Web Migration? Redesign Move to HTTPS Rebrand Web Consolidation
17. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Redesign Move to HTTPS Rebrand Web Consolidation The migration will become more complex to support depending on the required move Same URLs Same Domain Different Domains
18. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Redesign Move to HTTPS Rebrand Web Consolidation As well as the focus of your SEO work, that will change given the migration nature 301-redirecting URLs to their relevant canonical Secured URLs Keeping old brand & terms rankings while redirecting to new domain URLs Keeping their crawlability, indexability & content relevance
19. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Like for International Web expansions/ consolidations that will be of higher complexity Geolocalization signals of Web property Geolocated Link Popularity Relevance towards localized search behavior Internal expansion or consolidation Different Domain Name and Type
20. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Given all this, is it necessary, feasible and profitable to move? Is there any other way to achieve the same goal without moving? Are there resources and flexibility to do the needed technical and content changes? Is it going to be profitable given the related costs? What would you need to move and where?
21. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti In some cases it is, like when moving to a stronger domain consolidating international versions ccTLD gTLD
22. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti In others is due to business reasons, like a rebranding that requires a domain move Outdoors outdoors.co.uk Indoors indoors.com/uk/
23. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Avoid chaining many Web migrations (nothing less than 6 months) Avoid implementing multiple Web migrations (eg: many countries versions) to a single new property at the same time Avoid implementing drastic changes in the site architecture or design at the same time when doing the migration If you’re moving many international Websites, start with the less important one to learn from the process https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9370220 If so, it’s critical that you avoid some Web migration scenarios to avoid further challenges
24. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Try to keep it simple! It’s easier to move a box at a time while keeping the previous organization than moving many while doing a reorganization… plan your Web migration accordingly #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
25. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti SEO Design & UX Marketing Development Agree with the project’s stakeholders to secure resources & support based on the expected schedule #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
26. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Once you have secured this… It’s time to start! #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
27. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Let’s work on that international rebranding project #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti outdoors.co.uk indoors.com/uk/ Outdoors Indoors outdoors.co.uk/shirts/ indoors.com/uk/shirts/ … … indoors.com/es/ outdoors.es International Web domain consolidation + Rebrand *Fake Example
28. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Avoid leaving any important page out by gathering all URLs to move #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
29. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Identify which are the affected URLs based on the Web migration scope Page level Category level Site level Redesign, HTTP to HTTPS change, company rebranding, acquisition or Web consolidation Area renaming Product rebranding
30. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Crawl the affected URLs and gather their SEO configuration, rankings & traffic metrics Crawlability Indexability Internal linking Relevance Rankings Traffic Link popularity Speed Geolocation
31. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti You can use desktop crawlers for smaller sites and cloud crawlers for bigger ones Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, OnCrawl, Ryte, Deepcrawl, Botify Desktop Cloud
32. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti As well as looking for any URL attracting traffic, rankings or links within the migration scope Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs, Sistrix
33. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Rankings Traffic Link popularity SSL Certificate Analyze their SEO status to identify what is important to keep or improve in these pages Outdoors outdoors.co.uk Pages Crawlability Pages Indexability Pages Content Relevance Pages Internal linking Pages Speed Pages URL Naming Convention
34. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Integrate all possible URLs sources into your crawl simulation Screaming Frog & Deepcrawl Google Analytics Search Console XML Sitemaps Log Files Backlinks
35. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti This will allow you to identify orphan URLs, and to avoid missing any important page
36. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Including images, or any resource that you might be also serving and needs to be migrated
37. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti You will likely find very old URLs that you might have never heard of though…
38. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti It will be then also an opportunity to clean! #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
39. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Give context to prioritize the actually meaningful pages to redirect and establish rules for the rest #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
40. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Obtain the traffic and queries for which all the identified URLs rank for Screaming Frog, URL Profiler
41. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti You can then put your pages in context with their traffic, ranked queries along optimization status Top Pages Technical Configuration Relevance Popularity Traffic Ranked Queries
42. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Which of these actually spark joy by bringing value: conversions, traffic, rankings & links?
43. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Leave them out Were they typos, didn’t existed, didn’t brought nor can bring rankings, links, traffic? 301-redirect to parent category Did they existed but were not indexable, didn’t brought rankings, links & traffic nor can bring in the future? 301-redirect to new page version Did they existed, were indexable and brought or have potential to bring rankings, links & traffic? Define rules for their migration to give the best search and user experience, based on importance
44. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti This is also a great opportunity to prune your site, and avoid bringing old errors to the new one
45. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti http://bit.ly/contentpruningseo Follow the “should you prune or optimize a page from your site” flowchart
46. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Meaningful pages should be 301-redirected to their new versions where their relevance is kept Indoors Shirts outdoors.co.uk/shirts/ indoors.com/uk/shirts/ Outdoors Shirts Outdoors Indoors 301-Redirects
47. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti If their SEO status is lacking, is then also important to specify what should be improved Thin, Duplicate Content Slow Speed Hierarchical Navigation Relevant Title Page specific, expanded Content Fast Speed Hierarchical Navigation Relevant Title To Keep To Improve 301-Redirects outdoors.co.uk/shirts/ indoors.com/uk/shirts/ Outdoors Indoors
48. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Establishing the configuration changes to be implemented in the new pages versions Old Pages Titles, Descriptions & H1s New Pages Titles, Descriptions & H1s
49. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Including hreflang annotations and geolocation configuration
50. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Defining also the new pages to create to keep the rankings for the old branded queries 301-Redirect Outdoors UK is now Indoors UK indoors.com/uk/outdoors/ Links to Outdoors UK Indoors UK outdoors.co.uk indoors.com/uk/ Outdoors Indoors
51. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti While targeting the transactional and new branded queries with the new ones New Indoors Pages Old Branded Queries Transactional Queries and New Branded Queries Old Outdoors Pages Transactional Queries and Old Branded Queries Bridge Pages for old Outdoors Brand
52. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Verify that you’re not leaving anything out before moving on with the Web migration You will achieve the desired goals with the specified changes You have taken into consideration all the relevant Web properties URLs You have correctly mapped each old URL to a new relevant destination The new URL destinations are correctly configured from a technical perspective The new URL destinations content is relevant to the targeted queries You have correctly established the new “bridge” pages to keep the rankings for the old brand or terms
53. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti It’s time to prepare and test your migration to make sure the defined pages are effectively redirected to their relevant new destinations #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
54. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Before launching, it’s critical to test the migration in a private environment
55. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Validate the changes by comparing first the top old vs. new types of pages in the stage site Pages Crawlability (HTTP Status, Robots.txt) Content Indexability (Canonicalization, meta robots) 301-Redirects SSL Certificate Pages Content Relevance Pages Internal linking Pages Speed Home Page Category Page Sub-Category Page Product Page Main Blog Page Blog Category Page Blog post For Each Page Verify XML Sitemaps GSC Configuration test.outdoors.co.uk test.indoors.com/uk/ Old vs. New Geolocation (GSC, hreflang) Old vs. New content localization Old vs. New link popularity for target market
56. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti List crawl the old URLs to check if the 301-redirects have been set as specified
57. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Look for these common redirects issues and fix them before launching Non-301 Redirects Redirects Loops Redirects Chains Redirects to Non- indexable or Error URLs Redirects to Non- relevant Pages
58. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Crawl the new Web test version to also check if its pages are optimized as specified
59. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti And if the SEO improvements & new pages have been implemented too HTTP status Canonical tags Internal Links Content Indexability Content Relevance #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
60. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Pay specific attention here to the canonicalization and hreflang annotations in international sites
61. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti It’s all working as expected? It’s then time to migrate and verify these again in the live environment #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
62. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Set analytics & search console for the each of the new properties, geolocating each if necessary to their target markets
63. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti If the migration will take a bit, return a 503 HTTP status to tell Google there’s a maintenance https://yoast.com/http-503-site-maintenance-seo/
64. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Do a list crawl of the old URLs to check that they’re 301 redirecting to their new destinations
65. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Look again for and fix any non-301 redirects, loops, chains, or anything going to incorrect URLs
66. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Prioritize to fix high-traffic pages with incorrect redirect behavior
67. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Crawl the new live site and make sure the new pages are accessible & optimized too
68. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Look for URLs that might be blocked, no-indexed, linking or canonicalizing to the old pages
69. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Check again that the key Web migration criteria have been implemented in the live site All the old relevant Web properties URLs have been 301-redirected as specified There are no old URLs left out to be migrated The new URL destinations are correctly configured from a technical perspective The new URL destinations content is relevant to the targeted queries The new “bridge” pages to keep the rankings for the old brand or terms have been correctly launched and are indexable
70. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Once all issues are fixed, submit your new and old URLs XML sitemaps to be re-crawled
71. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti For domains level migrations, submit it too with Google’s Change of Address feature https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en
72. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Check that new site pages are indexed and ranked over time #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
73. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Set a Web monitoring service to get alerts when changes in the new site pages or old redirected URLs are made Little Warden & ContentKing
74. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti To make sure that the old URLs 301-redirects are kept… forever!
75. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Use the Search Console to monitor if the new URLs get indexed and the old ones disappear
76. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Verify which have been included and which have been left out the index & the reason, to fix them
77. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Follow-up & compare the new vs. old locations main queries & pages rankings and CTR using Search Console with Google Data Studio https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/7-handy-seo-tools-functionalities-that-facilitate-a-fast-web-migrations-redesigns-validation/
78. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/7-handy-seo-tools-functionalities-that-facilitate-a-fast-web-migrations-redesigns-validation/ It will allow you to compare directly the ranked queries along their old vs. new pages blending the two properties data sources
79. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti SEOmonitor Follow up w/ your own tracking tools to monitor the evolution for your own targeted queries
80. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti SEOmonitor Check the trend of your top queries for the target markets, organizing them in groups to facilitate analysis
81. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti semrush Track and compare the previous vs. new Websites SERP features too, to identify opportunities to improve the format and structured data usage on content
82. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti SEOmonitor Put your evolution into context by comparing versus your competitors for your tracked terms…
83. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti ... as well as overall old vs. new sites visibility share for mobile and desktop results sistrix
84. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Check for your rankings impact on traffic, conversion & engagement behavior SEOmonitor
85. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Internet Archive Wayback machine’s If the evolution is not as expected, compare non- performing pages with the old ones to optimize further, checking their Wayback Machine copies
86. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti semrush, ahrefs, moz, majestic Request an update to the most authoritative linking sites to go to your new Web pages
87. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Aligning SEO through the Web migration to keep indexability, relevance & popularity Pages Crawlability (HTTP Status, Robots.txt) Content Indexability (Canonicalization, meta robots) 301-Redirects SSL Certificate Pages Content Relevance Pages Internal linking Pages Speed Home Page Category Page Sub-Category Page Product Page Main Blog Page Blog Category Page Blog post XML Sitemaps GSC Configuration Old vs. New Geolocation (GSC, hreflang) Old vs. New content localization Old vs. New link popularity for target market For Each Page Verify outdoors.co.uk indoors.com/uk/
88. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti While taking the opportunity to eliminate whatever doesn’t spark joy #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
89. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti Avoiding the most common Web migration issues… Lack of a clear Web migration goal Lack of Flexibility to make changes Lack of support to make changes Leaving Important Pages out Migrating pages erroneously Moving to non-optimized new pages destinations
90. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti To achieve the desired technical/content/business goals successfully while growing rankings
91. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti If somehow, you can’t do this from the start… don’t worry, I got you covered too bit.ly/crawlingmondays6
92. #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti You’re now ready to move! #webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti