When we migrate a website from one web hosting provider to another, it not only affects website performance and uptime but also affects SEO (Search Engine Optimization). We can easily safe our website’s SEO if we follow a website migration checklist.
If you want to migrate your website, then read this article. In this article, we discuss website migration and a website migration checklist.
What is Exactly Website Migration?
You likely know what “migration” means regarding web design. Even so, it can be hard to give a clear description because different people have different ideas about immigration.
Why Would Someone Want to Migrate a website?
Ultimately, people migrate their websites because they have to, not because they want to. You wouldn’t want to complete a migration if your website already works well, but you could use a little TLC to look more modern. Website migration is only done when there is no other choice. You might migrate your website for the following reasons:
Any of these situations would require a website migration on their own. Still, if you plan on significant change, you will probably remake parts or all of your website simultaneously.
How Does a Migration Affect SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be affected by a website migration because it makes big changes to your website. Google will have to re-index your WordPress site if you migrate it to a new server or name. This could cause a short-term drop in organic visits.
Migrations can accidentally break links, cause 404 errors, leave images blank, and cause other issues if they are not done properly. People may leave your site quickly if they see these mistakes. A higher bounce rate can hurt your place in the SERPs.
But in most cases, the long-term effects are greater than the short-term ones. People will probably be able to see your site load faster if you switch to a better web hosting provider. The user experience (UX) of your website will be better after a complete makeover.
In the end, these things will help your site show up higher in search results. If you have a well-thought-out plan ahead of time, your website migration won’t hurt your SEO too much, either.
Website Migration Checklist
To avoid website migration, we can use some techniques before migration. Here is the website migration checklist.
When you migrate your website, traffic will drop because Google needs time to understand the change and update its index. But if you do it right, the migration can help keep traffic from going up and down too much, and Google should finally treat your new website as if it were the old one. Still, it’s essential to know that moving a website usually doesn’t help SEO on its own, and it doesn’t get rid of search engine fines either. Because of this, many SEO experts use website migrations to make changes like simplifying the website’s structure, fixing broken links, getting rid of unnecessary pages, and making the content better. With all of this in mind, when should you think about moving your website? It might be worth it if you need an intense rebranding or if moving will get you news coverage and valuable backlinks. Additionally, switching your website to HTTPS is one of the few things that can help your SEO.
Before migrating a website, you should try everything on a test server. Make sure the links work, and then do all the checks that come next in private before going public. If you try to do everything at once without trying first, you will make mistakes. If the errors are bad enough, they can take your website weeks to fix.
Your traffic shouldn’t go down for good during a well-planned and watched migration, but you should be ready for a short-term drop. But because of this, it’s best to migrate during a slow time of the year if your website’s performance changes with the seasons. It’s never a good idea to migrate a website around during or right before the holidays. Even though you should always try to keep your traffic, if you do have to lose some, ensure it’s when business is already slow.
To avoid losing any URLs during the migration, make a complete inventory of all the URLs on your former website. Take advantage of this chance to identify any crawl mistakes and redirects that may be present on the old website, as these problems tend to accumulate over time. It is unusual to stumble across a website without broken or redirected links. Ensure that links leading to 404 pages are removed or replaced during the transfer process. It is also strongly advised to update links pointing to redirected websites so that they direct users to the final page. This will help to avoid redirecting chains after the migration. Remember that a website crawler may not identify every page on your website. Pages that are not internally linked may not be included in a crawl report. If you can’t identify these pages through records or databases, look for them in your Google Analytics data or with a link explorer. If any orphan pages are discovered, please update your website and give links to these pages throughout the migration process. If orphaned pages are not connected to other areas of your website, they are less likely to obtain search engine traffic.
Make a copy of your Google Analytics data; this information will be required to discover any traffic reduction during the migration immediately. If any traffic is lost, export the Google Analytics data from your new website and compare it to the data from your old website to see which pages have seen a drop in traffic. It is usual for traffic loss to be restricted to specific websites rather than the entire website. After the migration, these pages should be regularly observed because any decrease in traffic could suggest that the authority from your old website was not correctly transferred to the new one. Because these pages contribute significantly to your website’s authority, any losses here may influence its overall performance.
During a website migration, it is critical to have a comprehensive spreadsheet that includes all of the old and new URLs. It is preferable to keep all previous pages on the new website to preserve search engine traffic. Removing pages during the transfer can have a negative impact on results and cause Google to perceive the new website as distinct from the old. It may be tempting to change the URL architecture during a website transfer if there are compelling reasons. This, however, may cause Google to treat it as a completely distinct website. Making these modifications at the same time makes it impossible to tell whether any traffic reduction is the result of altering the architecture or transferring the website. Keeping the same architecture enables easy redirection via regex in the .htaccess file, decreasing server load and simplifying the redirect setup procedure.
Check that all HTML links on your new website point to the correct location, which should be the new website rather than the old one. While it may appear more convenient to leave the links alone because they will automatically redirect to the new URL, it is critical to avoid this temptation. It can not only slow your website speed owing to a higher server load, but it can also harm your page rank. To rewrite the links efficiently, use a search and replace operation on your database, making sure that only text containing URLs is altered. Use this process sparingly to update your brand name and URLs simultaneously.
It is critical to ensure that canonicalization is directed towards the new website rather than the old one for the new website to be properly recognized and indexed. Failure to do so can have severe implications since it may prevent the new website from being indexed. I strongly recommend implementing self-canonicalization for all pages on the new website, excluding those that should be referred to another page. By combining this with redirects, Google will recognize that the new website is intended to replace the old one. It’s also worth noting that sitewide self-canonicalization is always advised because URL parameters might lead to duplicate content, which should always be canonicalized to the parameter-free URL.
Several faults may arise throughout the migration, resulting in duplicate content issues. It is absolutely necessary to be aware of these problems and to practice appropriate precautions. One method for avoiding duplicate content is to publish only one version of a URL. Proper self-canonicalization implementation can help address this issue. Furthermore, it is recommended that redirect rules be set up in the htaccess file so that only one version of a page can be visited. Consistency in linking is also important for avoiding internal link redirection. Other critical tasks include redirecting IP addresses to URLs and looking for folders that lead to the same content, particularly default directories.
Furthermore, ensure that only HTTPS or HTTP protocols are utilized and that only the preferred www or non-www version of the website is accessible; any other versions should be suitably redirected. If your website offers a search function, it is advised that the search result pages be indexed. Finally, enabling self-canonicalization can help prevent duplicate content due to URL query strings.
It was previously stated that it is best to avoid removing any pages during the migration process. However, if particular pages must be removed for branding concerns, please follow these steps:
Redirecting removed pages to the home page (also known as a soft 404) should be avoided. If there is no suitable substitute for a page, a 404 error should be returned. Remember that a 404 error only happens if you have linked to that page.
If someone lands on a page that no longer exists, a custom 404 page makes it easy for them to find something useful on your website.
Conclusion
Website migration can affect the SEO of the website. To protect the website’s SEO, we must follow the website migration checklist. The website migration checklist includes techniques like choosing a web hosting provider, using Sandbox, refreshing all internal links, evaluating your analytics, and more.