Through the years, changes with SEO and its ecosystem has gone from simple to extreme, extreme to simple and none at all.
We used to think that SEO is just building links and creating spammy blog posts. We often forget about the importance of minor tasks revolving around technical and non-technical optimisations.
So, what if you decided to create a new website, retain your domain, and move on from your old optimised web page? You’ll need a website migration.
It may sound simple. But…
What is Website Migration?
Imagine yourself moving to a new place. What should you do first? You need to notify your family and friends, transfer your utilities, forward your mail to your new address, ensure your belongings are intact, and the list goes on.
When you forget to do one of these tasks, big or small, problems will surely arise over time.
This is what site migration looks like. Creating a new website thinking that it can easily point to your domain without a solid migration plan is a no-no, especially if there are keyword rankings or branding involved. You need to cover all the bases before making the transition to retain all your SEO efforts from your old website.
And…
What is a Website Migration Plan?
You don’t get to transfer to a new place without a solid plan, especially if it is a foreign one. Similarly with website migration, jumping to the new website from the old one is not a task we should bargain. It takes several rules to follow.
Rules are made to be followed, not to be broken.
One mistake and you might lose your hard-earned rankings. Below are some of the factors you shouldn’t miss in your plan to avoid pitfalls down the road:
Website Architecture
As human beings, we always want an assurance with how our houses are built and how comfortable it is to reach every corner of it. Just like when migrating your new website. Sitemap and navigation with proper URL naming is one way to gain an effective site architecture. Easy and clear navigation, better exploration.
Keyword Strategy
Sure, your website architecture is now plotted according to plan. But, how can you say that this is gonna work?
Keywords. Taking from the name itself. Keywords are important in website migration.
Review the pages from your existing website to know what pages are providing value to the users. From this, keyword research, targeting and mapping can be done alongside your sitemap.
URL Mapping
We always notify our family, friends, and service providers whenever we change our home address. Why? Because we don’t want them to be pointed to an old address where no one will answer the door.
That is the logic with URL Mapping in website migration. Once a sitemap is done, we extract all the new URL list, compare them to the extracted existing URL list, and make sure that every page is connected.
A 301 redirection for these pages will be done once the new site is launched.
Link Inspection
Most of the time, some tend to forget to check internal linking after a site migration. This small task can impact search engine and user experience.
Once the new site is up, ensure that all URLs are properly working to avoid broken link issues.
Page Speed Test
You may think of moving to a new location because the old one takes you longer to reach your workplace, mall, church, etc.
Same with your existing website. It may be slow, and creating a new site is exciting and fun. But, one must not forget to create a better version of the old one.
Page speed is crucial for SEO so before you go live with your new website, run a page speed test to address development issues that you can solve beforehand.
I followed these rules, yet launching my new site has failed.
Perhaps, there are other things that you need to consider. Discussing this with a digital marketing specialist should elaborate more of the tasks to be done.
Get a free site audit of your newly launched website or talk to DigitalMaas directly. We are waiting for you!
