In today’s digital age, nearly everyone turns to the World Wide Web to fulfil their entertainment, education, research, and consumer needs. Consequently, businesses of all sizes have started creating websites to respond to the Internet’s increasing popularity or move towards Website Migration.

If your business lacks a website, it’s likely not performing at its best. However, a website can bring many benefits to your business, some of which may not have been apparent before.

Investing in quality web design is one of the wisest decisions you can make. By choosing a professional web designer or web design agency, you’ll unlock numerous benefits that contribute significantly to your business’s growth.

Why Site Migration is Important

The term “site migration” is a broad term employed by SEO experts to describe any situation in which a site undergoes major changes in its surroundings, significantly impacting its visibility on search engines. These changes usually include alterations to the website’s location, platform, structure, content, design, or user experience.

Google’s documentation for site migrations does not delve into great depth, nor does it acknowledge that they can cause substantial revenue and traffic loss. This loss can last from a few days to many months, depending on the extent to which search rank signals were affected and how long it takes the affected business to implement an effective recovery strategy.

Reasons for Website Migration

Here are some scenarios where you might require a website migration instead of a simple redesign:

• Transferring the site’s location from one host to another.
• Changing the CMS platform that your website runs on.
• Altering your domain’s name or URLs.
• Making substantial changes to the site’s structure.
• Stages in Website Migration

Before Website Migration

• Explore the site:

Use a crawler on your website to retrieve URLs and markups, similar to what Google does. This information will serve as the basis for URL mapping and provide an index to reference during the migration.

• Record benchmarks:

Keep track of your website’s analytics data to understand how users currently navigate the site and which pages are the most valuable.

• Create a map of URLs:

If you’re making significant modifications to your website’s URLs, create a spreadsheet to map old URLs to new ones for proper redirection.

• Maintain meta descriptions, titles, and HTML markup:

Ensure consistency in page details during the migration process to manage your website effectively.

• Test the new version on an experimental server:

Conduct tests and mockups online before the official migration to identify any potential issues.

• Choose the appropriate migration date:

Avoid peak times to minimize unexpected interruptions during the migration process.

At the time of Website Migration

• Update your website’s DNS settings:

Coordinate with your IT/web team and hosting providers to point your website to the new server if necessary.

• Launch the migration:

Implement forwarding redirects and make necessary updates to ensure a smooth transition.

• Inspect the new website:

Perform a crawl to verify that the migration has been executed as planned.

• Address missing or duplicate content:

Use crawl reports to identify any issues and make necessary adjustments.

• Check for redirect chains:

Eliminate redirect chains that could impact your website’s performance.

• Ensure Google Analytics and Search Console are operational:

Avoid data gaps by ensuring that analytics tools are up and running on the migration date.

• Annotate the migration date in Analytics:

Create annotations to contextualize data and track performance before and after the migration.

Submit sitemaps:

Upload XML sitemaps to Google Search Console to facilitate crawling of the new website.

After Website Migration

• Monitor performance:

Keep an eye on traffic and performance metrics to identify any issues that may arise post-migration.

• Run site audits:

Use third-party tools to uncover any hidden issues that may impact your website’s SEO.

• Update platforms and backlinks:

Ensure that all platforms and backlinks are updated with the new URLs to maintain consistency.

Conclusion

Website migration can be a time-consuming procedure, but with proper planning, it can be executed smoothly. By following these steps and staying vigilant throughout the process, you can ensure a successful migration that aligns with your SEO efforts and contributes to the continued success of your website. Reach out to AVIANET to help you optimise your website for SEO.