SEO Site Migrations
Planning a site migration? Getting it right is critical for preserving your organic search rankings and traffic as well as maintaining a seamless transition for site visitors.
Overlooking SEO best practices during a migration can have serious consequences for your organic performance — but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Our tried-and-true process ensures every detail is handled. Here’s how we do it:
Pre-Migration
Ahead of the migration we will work with your team to prepare…
- Set Key Objectives. Whether you’re redesigning, changing platforms, or moving to a new domain, we’ll define the purpose of your migration and set clear goals like maintaining traffic and improving rankings.
- Audit the Existing Site. We’ll crawl your site to gather all critical SEO data, including URLs, metadata, backlinks, and traffic sources.
- Backup All Data. From content to databases, we’ll ensure everything is backed up, including your sitemap and robots.txt file.
Content and Structure
Next, we focus on keeping your content organized and optimized…
- URL Mapping. We’ll create a one-to-one map of old to new URLs and maintain your existing structure whenever possible to preserve link equity.
- Content Inventory. Together, we’ll decide which content stays, gets updated, or goes, and we’ll transfer all metadata to the new site seamlessly.
Redirect Strategy. Proper 301 redirects are essential—we’ll set them up and test them to ensure there are no errors or loops.
Technical SEO
We’ll ensure the new site is optimized for search engines…
- 301 Redirects We map old URLs to new ones to ensure that search engines have the current addresses for our content.
- Robots.txt and Sitemap. We will update robots.txt and create a fresh XML sitemap.
- Canonical Tags. These will point to the correct versions of your pages to prevent duplicate content issues.
- Structured Data. We’ll migrate and validate all structured data to keep those rich results intact.
- Mobile Friendliness. With mobile-first indexing in mind, we’ll make sure your site looks great and works perfectly on any device.
Performance Optimization
A fast, error-free site is key…
- Site Speed. We’ll optimize images, enable caching, and tidy up your CSS/JS files to boost performance.
- Broken Links. Say goodbye to broken links—we’ll find and fix them before launch.
- Test New Features. Any new functionalities, like forms or search bars, will be thoroughly tested to ensure they work perfectly.
Testing and Launch
We leave nothing to chance…
- Pre-Launch Testing. A staging environment lets us test redirects, links, metadata, and content integrity before going live.
- Launch and Monitor. We’ll schedule the launch during a low-traffic period, monitor server logs, and ensure search engines crawl your new site smoothly.
Post-Migration and Optimization
Once live, we keep a close eye on things…
- Submit New Sitemap. We’ll resubmit your updated XML sitemap and use Google Search Console’s “Change of Address” for domain migrations.
- Monitor Performance. Traffic, rankings, crawl errors—we’ll track it all for 3–6 months post-migration to catch and address any issues.
- Fix Issues Quickly. From 404 errors to incorrect redirects, we’ll resolve problems promptly.
- Communicate Changes. Stakeholders, partners, affiliates—everyone will be informed. We’ll also work on updating external backlinks to point to your new URLs.
- Continuous Improvement. Regular reviews and optimizations ensure your site continues to perform at its best.
Our streamlined process minimizes disruptions, protects your rankings, and lays the groundwork for long-term success. Ready to make your site migration stress-free? Let’s chat about how we can help.