Website Migration is sometimes necessary; if the migration is done correctly, then everything’s great! However, a poorly implemented website migration can wreak havoc with site traffic and more.

Site migration is a serious process that requires plenty of planning, organisation, and preparation. We’ve put together some tips to help you and your team have a successful website migration!

Determine the Type of Website Migration Needed 

Website migration is the process of making major changes to the site, which affects the site’s indexing and visibility in the search engines. Migrations are done for various reasons. A company may decide their site needs a refresh, or perhaps they’re switching domains or even hosting providers. Sites may be migrated for other reasons, as well. No matter the reason for migration, the process is a major change for a website.

Here’s a list of major site migrations:

• Design or UX changes
• Software updates
• Platform changes
• Content change
• Structural changes

Before you begin planning the migration, it’s important to consider other changes that may also be necessary. For instance, the site’s CMS (content management system), visual design, and site structure may also have to be changed.

The initial planning period is the right time to conduct an audit of the site’s design, structure, and tools and then determine what changes are required to successfully migrate the site.

Prepare Your Team for Website Migration 

Once the decision has been made to migrate, and the plan has been created, it’s the time to let the team know about the process. Preparation can include the following:

Set Expectations

The team should be aware that migrating the website may cause a temporary drop in traffic. It’s necessary to minimise this effect as much as possible. However, it is one major reality of migrating.

The team should be made aware of these facts.

Understand the Goals of Migration

One part of the migration plan should include creating goals to guide the plan in the right way. A well-planned migration should include these goals:

• Preserve and optimise SEO & backlinks
• Migration of all content
• Improvements in site design, performance, and function

Keep Everyone in the Loop

Another part of successful website migration is keeping everyone in the loop, especially those involved in the backend of maintaining the site. Several parts of the site will be impacted, including the design, marketing, and the site’s content. These areas each impact how visible the site remains in the search engines.

Team members you may want to include in the plan are:

• Designers
• Web developers
• Content writers
• Marketing team

Make sure to keep all those involved with essential aspects of the website in the loop.

Preserve Site Traffic & Search Optimisation 

Migrating a website can lower site traffic for a time. One way to keep traffic from going too low for a long period is to conduct the site’s current performance. A site assessment provides a gauge of the site’s current status.

Start by finding which pages on the site are currently high-performing. Once you find these pages, then plan on spending more time and attention on them through the migration process. Tools such as Google Analytics can provide you with an idea of which pages are visible and have been crawled by Google. These pages need priority as the site migrates. Ensure these pages are not changed too drastically.

On-Page SEO: Clean It Up

Now’s the right time to clean up any SEO errors that may have come up during the audit. Your new site needs to be “clean” and optimised correctly. Therefore, improving on-page SEO can reduce the problems once the migration is completed.

Check to ensure these areas are properly optimised for SEO:

• URLs
• Image file name & alt text
• Title tags
• Heading tags
• Meta descriptions
• Internal & external links in the body copy

Decide Which Pages to Save, Change, or Delete

As you check the site post-migration, it’s good to reassess the site’s structure and links. The goal is not to delete too many pages at the same time.

The problem is that Google notices changes on websites. If they see a large number of indexed pages removed from the site, the search ranking goes down quite a bit.

So, if there are a large number of pages to delete, do them gradually over time.

Include a Post-Migration Audit in the Plan

Once the migration has been completed, then it’s time to have a post-migration audit. The audit should be done before the site goes live and may turn up errors. Errors must be fixed before the site is live.

In addition, it’s a good idea to monitor site traffic after the migration. You’ll have a better idea of how effective the migration was. Compare the current performance with the performance guide created before the migration. This method is a good way to determine if the site is recovering or not over time.

Content Migration 

When migrating a website, it’s also necessary for content to migrate at the same time. Migrating content is no mean feat and also requires a plan. Here are some things to consider when migrating content:

Inventory all content: create a list or catalogue of all the content currently live on the site. It might be helpful to create separate folders in Google or another storage service. Be sure to index and keep backups of all content, including written text, images, videos, and more.

During the migration process, it’s easy for things to get lost. What’s more, changes made to heading tags and alt-text on images can also have an impact on search rankings.

Export a CSV

If possible, export a CSV file of all content, which makes the process of migrating content easier. Once you’ve downloaded the CSV, then it’s easy to upload it again into the new CMS. Everything can be done in one step, which is fast and easy!

Add a Sitemap

Adding a sitemap to your domain can help keep everything organised during the migration. The sitemap can then be used as a reference to ensure all the content and pages have moved safely.

After creating the sitemap, it’s also a good idea to submit this to Google. Doing so verifies you own the new site, which Google will want to ensure.

Summing It Up

Creating and following a migration plan can keep the entire process organised. Planning and organising the migration keeps traffic numbers from going down too low for too long. What’s more, your migration will be smoother and successful in the end!

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