SEO Migration Guide

When creating a new website, there’s always a degree of risk to your organic search engine rankings. Changes like moving content, removing text, deleting or adding pages, and adjusting title tags can all impact your rankings. This SEO migration guide will ensure that your rankings are looked after.

Questions like “Will I lose keyword rankings?” “Are my current keywords effective?” “How can I be sure the new website will be better?” and “What if something goes wrong?” are common concerns.

With careful preparation, it’s possible to prioritise your important traffic-driving keywords and maintain their rankings. By strategically managing the transition, we can help ensure that your new website not only preserves but potentially enhances your SEO performance.

NOTE – it might be good to refer to our list of FREE SEO resources to help with this SEO migration process.

Keyword Research

The keyword research required for an SEO migration project is slightly different from typical keyword research. Instead of focusing on sourcing new keywords for ongoing marketing, the goal here is to identify the keywords that are already driving traffic to your site. This allows us to ensure that the new website either retains or improves upon these valuable keywords.

Using Google Search Console, you can identify which keywords are bringing the most traffic to your website. To do this, navigate to your property in Search Console, then go to Search Traffic → Search Analytics. Download the keyword list into a spreadsheet so you can review and manage them effectively. As you assess each keyword, consider the following:

1. Is this a branded keyword? These are search terms that include your business’s or website’s name. If a keyword is branded, you generally don’t need to worry too much, as a new website on the same domain is likely to retain its ranking with minimal effort.
2. Does the keyword seem irrelevant? Sometimes, you may rank for a keyword that doesn’t relate to your business, possibly due to old content, outdated services, or a blog post. Mark these irrelevant keywords accordingly.
3. Which keywords are the top traffic drivers? It should now be clear which keywords are most effective at driving traffic. I recommend using a traffic-light system: highlight high-traffic keywords in green, medium-traffic in amber, and low-traffic in red.

This thorough approach helps ensure that the new website will maintain or even enhance its search engine performance.

Keyword Analysis

You now have insight into which keywords are currently working for your website and have begun to form a strategy for SEO migration. However, there are still some gaps in your spreadsheet that need to be addressed before you can finalise your action plan.

1. Which web page is ranking on the search results for each keyword? Identify the specific pages on your site that are ranking for each keyword. This will help you understand how your content is performing and which pages are driving traffic.
2. How many people are searching for this keyword? While you already know how much traffic each keyword is bringing to your site, it’s also valuable to understand the true potential of each keyword. Use Google Keyword Planner to calculate the potential search volume for each keyword. This will give you a clearer picture of the opportunities available and help you prioritise your efforts.

By filling in these details, you’ll be better equipped to create a targeted and effective SEO strategy for your website migration.

New Website Sitemap

Now that your keyword research and analysis are complete, you can develop a well-considered strategy for the sitemap of your new website.

The insights you’ve gained allow you to identify the essential pages needed to retain your keyword rankings. Pages associated with keywords marked in red, amber, or green all have a strong case for inclusion in the new sitemap. As you update your proposed sitemap, it’s important to balance these SEO insights with your planned customer user journey.

Remember, this SEO migration exercise is focused on identifying the content that must be included in your new website to prevent any loss of rankings.

Content Attribution

To successfully migrate SEO from one website to another, it’s crucial to understand why a particular page is ranking highly. While many ranking factors come into play, the main variable you can control during a migration is on-page SEO. You’ll need to thoroughly examine the page and its attributes to understand what contributes to its success.

Is the keyword, or a part of it, included in the following?

• The full URL
• The title tag
• The website menu or any other static link on the site
• As an inbound link from other pages on the website
• In any of the H1, H2, H3 headings, etc.
• In the body text
• Image tags

By reviewing these elements, it will usually become clear why a page is ranking well for a specific keyword. This understanding will help you effectively migrate and preserve your SEO performance.

301 Redirects

At this stage, you should have a list of pages that didn’t make it into the new sitemap and a list of pages that will require a URL change. Now, it’s time to prepare your 301 redirects to implement at launch to help with the SEO migration.

1. Redirecting lost pages: Any pages that won’t be included in the new site need to be redirected to suitable replacements, even if they aren’t perfect matches. This ensures that users and search engines are guided to relevant content instead of encountering broken links.
2. Redirecting updated URLs: For pages that will have new URLs, set up redirects from the old URLs to the new ones. This preserves any existing SEO value and helps maintain your site’s ranking and user experience.

By carefully planning and implementing these 301 redirects, you can minimise the risk of losing traffic or rankings during the migration.

Tracking SEO Migration

Even with meticulous planning, SEO migration comes with uncertainties. Competitors might make changes, or search engine algorithms could shift. That’s why it’s crucial to closely monitor your new website after launch. We recommend analysing key metrics daily for the first six weeks to ensure everything is on track.

Here are the key metrics to focus on during your SEO migration:

1. Overall organic search traffic: Monitor the total traffic coming from organic searches to see how your site is performing overall.
2. Organic search traffic to previously high ranking pages: Pay particular attention to the pages that ranked well before the migration. Ensuring these pages retain their traffic is vital.
3. Keyword rankings: Keep a close eye on the keywords that previously generated traffic to your site. Check if their rankings are stable or if any adjustments are needed.

It’s common for your new website to be indexed quickly, and fluctuations in rankings—both up and down—are typical following a launch. This is why it’s important to track these metrics regularly until things stabilise, and to avoid reacting too hastily to early changes.

Have your rankings dropped?

• Check to see if there is a basic SEO or technical SEO issue with website issue.
• Have you completed your on-page SEO checklist?
• Have there been external changes, a Google algorithm change or a competitor launching a new website?