Site Migrations: Managing SEO During Major Website Changes

Site migrations are a critical juncture in a website’s lifecycle, often necessary for growth and improvement but fraught with potential pitfalls that can significantly impact search engine optimisation. Whether you’re changing domains, restructuring your site architecture, or moving to a new content management system, the process requires meticulous planning and execution to maintain and potentially improve your SEO performance.

At Gorilla Marketing, we’ve guided countless businesses through successful site migrations, preserving their hard-earned search rankings and organic traffic. Our team of SEO experts understands the intricacies of various migration types and the best practices to ensure a smooth transition. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into the complexities of site migrations, offering insights and strategies to help you navigate this challenging process while safeguarding your SEO efforts.

What Is a Site Migration?

A site migration refers to any significant changes made to a website that can affect its visibility in search engines. These changes can vary in scope and complexity, ranging from simple URL structure alterations to complete overhauls of a site’s technology stack or domain name.

Common types of site migrations include:

1. Domain changes (e.g., from .co.uk to .com)
2. Protocol changes (e.g., from HTTP to HTTPS)
3. Content management system (CMS) migrations
4. Server changes
5. Site structure or URL changes
6. Consolidation of multiple websites
7. Subdomain to subfolder migrations (or vice versa)

Each type of migration presents unique challenges and requires a tailored approach to maintain SEO performance.

Why Are Site Migrations Risky for SEO?

Site migrations can be perilous for SEO because they involve altering elements that search engines use to understand and rank your website. Some of the primary risks include:

• Loss of backlinks
• Broken internal links
• Changes in URL structure leading to 404 errors
• Alterations in content or meta data
• Temporary downtime during the migration process
• Changes in site speed or performance
• Modifications to site architecture affecting crawlability

These factors can lead to a drop in search engine rankings, decreased organic traffic, and a potential loss of revenue if not managed correctly.

How Can You Prepare for a Site Migration?

Proper preparation is crucial for a successful site migration. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get ready:

1. Conduct a thorough site audit: Before making any changes, perform a comprehensive audit of your current site. This should include:
   • A full crawl of your existing site
   • Analysis of your current rankings and organic traffic
   • Inventory of all URLs, including those not in your sitemap
   • Assessment of your backlink profile
2. Define clear objectives: Establish what you hope to achieve with the migration. Are you aiming to improve site speed, enhance user experience, or consolidate multiple domains? Clear goals will guide your strategy.
3. Create a detailed migration plan: Outline each step of the migration process, including timelines, responsible team members, and contingency plans.
4. Develop a comprehensive redirect strategy: Map out 301 redirects for all existing URLs to their new counterparts. This is crucial for preserving link equity and user experience.
5. Prepare updated sitemaps: Create new XML sitemaps that reflect your post-migration site structure.
6. Set up tracking and monitoring tools: Ensure you have analytics and search console access set up for both the old and new sites.
7. Communicate with stakeholders: Inform all relevant parties about the upcoming migration, including your team, clients, and potentially even Google (through Search Console).

What Are the Key Steps in Executing a Site Migration?

Executing a site migration requires careful coordination and attention to detail. Here’s a breakdown of the crucial steps:

1. Implement 301 redirects: Put your redirect strategy into action, ensuring that all old URLs are properly redirected to their new counterparts.
2. Update internal links: Adjust all internal links to point to the new URL structure.
3. Migrate and update content: Transfer all content to the new site, taking care to preserve or improve meta data, headings, and other on-page SEO elements.
4. Configure analytics and Search Console: Set up tracking on the new site and verify it in Google Search Console.
5. Update external factors: Inform external sites linking to you about the changes and request updates where possible.
6. Submit new sitemaps: Upload your new XML sitemaps to Google Search Console.
7. Initiate crawling: Use the “Fetch as Google” tool to prompt Google to crawl your new site structure.
8. Monitor closely: Keep a close eye on your rankings, organic traffic, and crawl errors in the days and weeks following the migration.

How Can You Minimise SEO Impact During a Site Migration?

Minimising the SEO impact of a site migration requires a combination of careful planning and swift action. Here are some strategies to help maintain your search performance:

1. Choose your timing wisely: If possible, schedule your migration during a period of lower traffic to minimise potential disruption.
2. Maintain site structure: Try to keep your URL structure and site hierarchy as similar as possible to the old site.
3. Preserve content: Avoid making significant content changes during the migration process. If content updates are necessary, consider implementing them gradually after the migration is complete.
4. Focus on speed: Ensure that your new site loads quickly, as site speed is a crucial ranking factor.
5. Implement schema markup: Use structured data to help search engines understand your content more effectively.
6. Leverage caching: Implement effective caching strategies to improve site performance and reduce server load.
7. Monitor and fix issues promptly: Be prepared to address any issues that arise quickly. This might include fixing broken links, addressing crawl errors, or adjusting redirects.

What Common Mistakes Should You Avoid During a Site Migration?

Even with careful planning, it’s easy to make mistakes during a site migration. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid:

1. Neglecting to create a staging environment: Always test your migration in a staging environment before going live.
2. Blocking search engines: Ensure that your robots.txt file doesn’t accidentally block search engines from crawling your new site.
3. Forgetting to update canonical tags: Make sure all canonical tags are updated to reflect the new URL structure.
4. Overlooking mobile optimisation: With mobile-first indexing, it’s crucial that your new site is fully optimised for mobile devices.
5. Ignoring international SEO considerations: If you have multiple language versions or country-specific sites, ensure that hreflang tags are correctly implemented.
6. Failing to update external accounts: Don’t forget to update your Google My Business listing, social media profiles, and other external accounts with your new URL.
7. Rushing the process: A hasty migration is likely to result in errors. Take the time to plan and execute each step carefully.

How Long Does It Take to Recover from a Site Migration?

The recovery time after a site migration can vary significantly depending on the scale of the changes and how well the process was managed. In general, you can expect some fluctuations in rankings and traffic for several weeks after the migration.

Here’s a typical timeline:

Time Frame	Expected Outcomes
1-2 weeks	Initial fluctuations in rankings and traffic
2-4 weeks	Gradual stabilisation of rankings
1-3 months	Return to pre-migration performance levels
3-6 months	Potential improvements in rankings and traffic

It’s important to note that this timeline can be influenced by factors such as the size of your site, the frequency of Google’s crawls, and the overall health of your SEO strategy.

Navigating the Challenges of Site Migrations

Site migrations are complex undertakings that require careful planning, execution, and monitoring to preserve and potentially enhance your SEO performance. By understanding the risks, preparing thoroughly, and following best practices, you can navigate this challenging process successfully.

At Gorilla Marketing, we specialise in guiding businesses through seamless site migrations. Our team of SEO experts can help you develop a comprehensive migration strategy, execute it flawlessly, and monitor your performance to ensure a smooth transition. Whether you’re changing domains, updating your CMS, or restructuring your site, we’re here to help you maintain your search visibility and drive continued organic growth.

Remember, a site migration is not just a technical process – it’s an opportunity to improve your website’s performance and user experience. With the right approach and expert guidance, you can turn this challenging task into a catalyst for SEO success.