Website migration plan with minimal SEO/Ranking loss
Our team have 10+ years of experience in SEO & Digital Marketing, also helped our clients specially Educational portals/Universities in migrating there website to new one with 100% success in retaining there SEO value.
Why you should have a proper website migration plan?
A website migration plan is crucial for saving SEO (Search Engine Optimization) score during a website migration. Here's why:
- URL Structure and Redirection: During a website migration, URLs often change, either due to a new domain name or restructuring of the website. URLs play a significant role in SEO, as search engines use them to understand the content and rank the website in search results. A migration plan helps ensure that proper redirects (such as 301 redirects) are implemented to redirect the old URLs to the new ones. This preserves the SEO value of the old URLs and prevents broken links, ensuring that search engines can still index and rank the content correctly.
- Content Preservation: When migrating a website, it's crucial to preserve the existing content, including meta tags, headings, image alt tags, and other on-page optimization elements. A migration plan outlines the steps to migrate this content accurately to the new website structure or CMS, ensuring that SEO optimizations are maintained throughout the migration process.
- Keyword Research and Optimization: Website migration provides an opportunity to revisit keyword research and optimization strategies. A migration plan should include keyword analysis to identify high-performing keywords and integrate them into the new website structure and content. This helps maintain or improve search engine rankings and organic traffic.
- Internal and External Link Updates: Links are a fundamental aspect of SEO. During a website migration, it's important to review and update both internal and external links. Internal links should be updated to reflect the new website structure and ensure proper navigation and crawlability. External links pointing to the old URLs should be redirected to the corresponding new URLs to prevent broken backlinks and maintain the website's authority and SEO value.
- XML Sitemap and Search Engine Notifications: A migration plan includes updating the XML sitemap to reflect the new website structure and submitting it to search engines. This ensures that search engines can discover and index the new pages effectively, preserving the website's SEO visibility.
- Monitoring and Analytics: After the migration, it's important to closely monitor the website's performance using analytics tools. This allows you to identify and address any potential SEO issues, such as broken links, crawl errors, or a drop in rankings. Including monitoring and analytics in the migration plan helps maintain SEO score by promptly addressing any issues that may arise.
By incorporating SEO considerations into a website migration plan, businesses can minimize the negative impact on SEO rankings and ensure a smooth transition to the new website while preserving organic search visibility and traffic.
What we will do in Website Migration Plan?
When creating a website migration plan, it's essential to include the following important points:
- Conduct a Website Audit
- Plan the New Website Structure(This will be provided by client site)
- Develop a Timeline of Migration
- Content Migration Strategy
- URL Redirects
- Test and QA