Winning SEO when doing Web Migrations #SEO4Life

#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
Winning
SEO when
doing Web
Migrations

#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @orainti
Moving sites, like
moving houses,
can be painful

Both require a lot of work…
You want
to take your
belongings with you
without leaving,
breaking, losing
anything
important
You want to
update your details,
to refer and be found
in your new
address
You want to
correctly reorganize
your belongings in
your new location
fast

…that can be shockingly similar, right?
You want
to take your
belongings with you
without leaving,
breaking, losing
anything
important
You want to
update your details,
to refer and be found
in your new
address
You want to
correctly reorganize
your belongings in
your new location
fast
URLS 301-REDIRECT URLS
LINKS & CONFIGURATION
UPDATE

Without proper SEO planning & validation Web
migrations can have terrible consequences
BEFORE AFTER

Like when you move and forget to label all the
boxes and then can’t ﬁnd your toilet paper

Although losing
your organic
trafﬁc after a
Web migration is
a potentially more
business critical
situation and is
also shockingly
common
#webmigrations at #yoastcon by @aleyda from @oraintihttps://www.sistrix.com/blog/migration-migrations-migraine-site-move-fears-are-not-well-founded/

However, both can be exciting if you’re
moving to a better place…

Like when you take
the opportunity to
throw what you
don’t need and
better organize
your clothes in a
bigger closet

Or when you improve your site optimization for
better results when doing the Web migration

Over the years I’ve found is mostly about tackling
these common reasons for Web migration failures
Lack of a
clear Web
migration
goal
Lack of
Flexibility to
make changes
Lack of
support to
make
changes
Leaving
Important
Pages out
Migrating
pages
erroneously
Moving to
non-optimized
new pages
destinations

Notice how half of these are not technical related
but have to do with appropriate project planning
Lack of a
clear Web
migration
goal
Lack of
Flexibility to
make changes
Lack of
support to
make
changes
Leaving
Important
Pages out
Migrating
pages
erroneously
Moving to
non-optimized
new pages
destinations

And how the technical related ones will tend
to intensify with big and higher number of sites
Lack of a
clear Web
migration
goal
Lack of
Flexibility to
make changes
Lack of
support to
make
changes
Leaving
Important
Pages out
Migrating
pages
erroneously
Moving to
non-optimized
new pages
destinations

I’m not Marie Kondo
but today I’ll show
you how to avoid
them and make your
Web migrations to
spark joy

Start by identifying
your moving goal,
feasibility and
scope to support
the process
accordingly

What are you looking to achieve
with the Web Migration?
Redesign
Move to
HTTPS
Rebrand
Web
Consolidation

Redesign
Move to
HTTPS
Rebrand
Web
Consolidation
The migration will become more complex to
support depending on the required move
Same URLs
Same Domain
Different Domains

Redesign
Move to
HTTPS
Rebrand
Web
Consolidation
As well as the focus of your SEO work,
that will change given the migration nature
301-redirecting
URLs to their
relevant
canonical
Secured URLs
Keeping old brand
& terms rankings
while redirecting
to new domain
URLsKeeping their
crawlability,
indexability &
content
relevance

Like for International Web expansions/
consolidations that will be of higher complexity
Geolocalization
signals of Web
property
Geolocated
Link Popularity
Relevance
towards localized
search behavior
Internal expansion
or consolidation
Different Domain
Name and Type

Given all this, is it necessary, feasible and
proﬁtable to move?
Is there any
other way to
achieve the same
goal without
moving?
Are there
resources and
flexibility to do the
needed technical
and content
changes?
Is it going to
be profitable
given the related
costs?
What would you
need to move and
where?

In some cases it is, like when moving to a stronger
domain consolidating international versions
ccTLD gTLD

In others is due to business reasons, like a
rebranding that requires a domain move
Outdoors
outdoors.co.uk
Indoors
indoors.com/uk/

Avoid chaining
many Web
migrations
(nothing less than
6 months) Avoid
implementing
multiple Web
migrations (eg: many
countries versions) to a
single new property
at the same time
Avoid
implementing
drastic changes in the
site architecture or
design at the same
time when doing
the migration
If you’re
moving many
international
Websites, start with
the less important
one to learn from
the process
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9370220
If so, it’s critical that you avoid some Web
migration scenarios to avoid further challenges

Try to keep it simple! It’s
easier to move a box at a
time while keeping the
previous organization than
moving many while doing a
reorganization… plan your
Web migration accordingly

SEO
Design & UX
Marketing
Development
Agree with the
project’s
stakeholders to
secure resources
& support based
on the expected
schedule

Once you have secured this… It’s time to start!

Let’s work on that international rebranding project
outdoors.co.uk indoors.com/uk/
Outdoors Indoors
outdoors.co.uk/shirts/ indoors.com/uk/shirts/
… …
indoors.com/es/outdoors.es
International Web
domain consolidation
+ Rebrand
*Fake Example

Avoid leaving any
important page out
by gathering all
URLs to move

Identify which are the affected URLs
based on the Web migration scope
Page level
Category level
Site level
Redesign, HTTP to
HTTPS change,
company rebranding,
acquisition or Web
consolidation
Area renaming
Product rebranding

Crawl the affected URLs and gather their
SEO conﬁguration, rankings & trafﬁc metrics
Crawlability
Indexability
Internal linking
Relevance
Rankings
Traffic
Link popularity
Speed
Geolocation

You can use desktop crawlers for smaller
sites and cloud crawlers for bigger ones
Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, OnCrawl, Ryte, Deepcrawl, Botify
Desktop Cloud

As well as looking for any URL attracting trafﬁc,
rankings or links within the migration scope
Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs, Sistrix

Rankings
Traffic
Link popularity SSL Certificate
Analyze their SEO status to identify what is
important to keep or improve in these pages
Outdoors
outdoors.co.uk
Pages Crawlability
Pages Indexability
Pages Content Relevance
Pages Internal linking
Pages Speed
Pages URL Naming Convention

Integrate all possible URLs sources
into your crawl simulation
Screaming Frog & Deepcrawl
Google Analytics
Search Console
XML Sitemaps
Log Files
Backlinks

This will allow you
to identify orphan
URLs, and to avoid
missing any
important page

Including images, or any resource that you
might be also serving and needs to be migrated

You will likely ﬁnd very old URLs that
you might have never heard of though…

It will be then also an opportunity to clean!

Give context to
prioritize the
actually meaningful
pages to redirect
and establish rules
for the rest

Obtain the traffic and queries for
which all the identified URLs rank for
Screaming Frog, URL Profiler

You can then put your pages in context with their
trafﬁc, ranked queries along optimization status
Top Pages Technical Configuration Relevance Popularity Traffic Ranked Queries

Which of these actually spark joy by bringing
value: conversions, trafﬁc, rankings & links?

Leave them out
Were they typos, didn’t
existed, didn’t brought nor can
bring rankings, links, traffic?
301-redirect to parent
category
Did they existed but were not
indexable, didn’t brought
rankings, links & traffic nor can
bring in the future?
301-redirect to new page
version
Did they existed, were
indexable and brought or have
potential to bring rankings,
links & traffic?
Deﬁne rules for their migration to give the best
search and user experience, based on importance

This is also a
great
opportunity to
prune your
site, and avoid
bringing old
errors to the
new one

#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @oraintihttp://bit.ly/contentpruningseo
Follow the
“should you
prune or optimize
a page from your
site” ﬂowchart

Meaningful pages should be 301-redirected to
their new versions where their relevance is kept
Indoors Shirts
Outdoors Shirts
Outdoors Indoors
301-Redirects

If their SEO status is lacking, is then also
important to specify what should be improved
Thin, Duplicate Content
Slow Speed
Hierarchical Navigation
Relevant Title
Page specific, expanded Content
Fast Speed
Hierarchical Navigation
Relevant Title
To Keep
To Improve
301-Redirects
Outdoors Indoors

Establishing the conﬁguration changes to be
implemented in the new pages versions
Old Pages Titles, Descriptions & H1s New Pages Titles, Descriptions & H1s

Including hreﬂang annotations and geolocation
conﬁguration

Deﬁning also the new pages to create to keep
the rankings for the old branded queries
301-Redirect
Outdoors UK
is now
Indoors UK
indoors.com/uk/outdoors/ Links to
Outdoors UK Indoors UK
Outdoors Indoors

While targeting the transactional and new
branded queries with the new ones
New Indoors Pages
Old Branded
Queries
Transactional
Queries and
New Branded
Queries
Old Outdoors Pages
Transactional
Queries and
Old Branded
Queries
Bridge Pages for old Outdoors Brand

Verify that you’re not leaving anything out
before moving on with the Web migration
You will
achieve the
desired goals
with the
specified
changes
You have taken into
consideration all the
relevant Web
properties URLs
You have
correctly
mapped each old
URL to a new
relevant
destination
The new URL
destinations are
correctly configured
from a technical
perspective
The
new URL
destinations
content is
relevant to the
targeted
queries
You have
correctly
established the new
“bridge” pages to
keep the rankings
for the old brand
or terms

It’s time to prepare
and test your
migration to make
sure the deﬁned
pages are effectively
redirected to their
relevant new
destinations

Before launching, it’s critical to test
the migration in a private environment

Validate the changes by comparing ﬁrst the top
old vs. new types of pages in the stage site
Pages Crawlability (HTTP Status, Robots.txt)
Content Indexability (Canonicalization, meta robots)
301-Redirects
SSL Certificate
Pages Speed
Home Page
Category Page
Sub-Category Page
Product Page
Main Blog Page
Blog Category Page
Blog post
For Each Page
Verify
XML Sitemaps
GSC Configuration
test.outdoors.co.uk test.indoors.com/uk/
Old vs. New Geolocation (GSC, hreﬂang)
Old vs. New content localization
Old vs. New link popularity for target market

List crawl the old URLs to check if the
301-redirects have been set as speciﬁed

Look for these common redirects issues
and ﬁx them before launching
Non-301
Redirects
Redirects
Loops
Redirects
Chains
Redirects
to Non-
indexable or
Error URLs
Redirects
to Non-
relevant
Pages

Crawl the new Web test version to also check
if its pages are optimized as speciﬁed

And if the SEO improvements & new pages
have been implemented too
HTTP
status
Canonical
tags
Internal
Links
Content
Indexability
Content
Relevance

Pay speciﬁc attention here to the canonicalization
and hreﬂang annotations in international sites

It’s all working as
expected? It’s then
time to migrate and
verify these again in
the live environment

Set analytics & search
console for the each of
the new properties,
geolocating each if
necessary to their
target markets

If the migration will take a bit, return a 503 HTTP
status to tell Google there’s a maintenance
https://yoast.com/http-503-site-maintenance-seo/

Do a list crawl of the old URLs to check that
they’re 301 redirecting to their new destinations

Look again for and ﬁx any non-301 redirects,
loops, chains, or anything going to incorrect URLs

Prioritize to ﬁx high-trafﬁc pages with
incorrect redirect behavior

Crawl the new live site and make sure
the new pages are accessible & optimized too

Look for URLs that
might be blocked,
no-indexed, linking
or canonicalizing to
the old pages

Check again that the key Web migration criteria
have been implemented in the live site
All the old
relevant Web
properties URLs have
been 301-redirected
as specified
There are no old
URLs left out to be
migrated
The new URL
destinations are
correctly configured
from a technical
perspective
The new URL
destinations
content is relevant
to the targeted
queries
The new
“bridge” pages to
keep the rankings for
the old brand or terms
have been correctly
launched and are
indexable

Once all issues are ﬁxed, submit your new and
old URLs XML sitemaps to be re-crawled

For domains level migrations, submit it too
with Google’s Change of Address feature
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en

Check that new site
pages are indexed
and ranked over time

Set a Web
monitoring
service to get
alerts when
changes in the
new site pages
or old redirected
URLs are made
Little Warden & ContentKing

To make sure that the old URLs 301-redirects are
kept… forever!

Use the Search Console to monitor if the new
URLs get indexed and the old ones disappear

Verify which have been included and which have
been left out the index & the reason, to ﬁx them

Follow-up &
compare the new
vs. old locations
main queries &
pages rankings and
CTR using Search
Console with
Google Data
Studio
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/7-handy-seo-tools-functionalities-that-facilitate-a-fast-web-migrations-redesigns-validation/

#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @oraintihttps://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/7-handy-seo-tools-functionalities-that-facilitate-a-fast-web-migrations-redesigns-validation/
It will allow you
to compare
directly the
ranked queries
along their old
vs. new pages
blending the
two properties
data sources

#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @oraintiSEOmonitor
Follow up w/ your own tracking tools to monitor
the evolution for your own targeted queries

Check the
trend of your
top queries for
the target
markets,
organizing
them in groups
to facilitate
analysis

#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @oraintisemrush
Track and compare
the previous vs.
new Websites
SERP features too,
to identify
opportunities to
improve the format
and structured data
usage on content

Put your evolution into context by comparing
versus your competitors for your tracked terms…

... as well as overall old vs. new sites visibility
share for mobile and desktop results
sistrix

Check for
your rankings
impact on
trafﬁc,
conversion &
engagement
behavior
SEOmonitor

#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @oraintiInternet Archive Wayback machine’s
If the evolution is
not as expected,
compare non-
performing pages
with the old ones
to optimize further,
checking their
Wayback Machine
copies

#webmigrations at #seo4Life by @aleyda from @oraintisemrush, ahrefs, moz, majestic
Request an update to the most authoritative
linking sites to go to your new Web pages

Aligning SEO through the Web migration to
keep indexability, relevance & popularity
Pages Crawlability (HTTP Status, Robots.txt)
Content Indexability (Canonicalization, meta robots)
301-Redirects
SSL Certificate
Pages Speed
Home Page
Category Page
Sub-Category Page
Product Page
Main Blog Page
Blog Category Page
Blog post
XML Sitemaps
GSC Configuration
Old vs. New Geolocation (GSC, hreﬂang)
Old vs. New content localization
Old vs. New link popularity for target market
For Each Page
Verify

While taking the
opportunity to
eliminate
whatever doesn’t
spark joy

Avoiding the most common
Web migration issues…
Lack of a
clear Web
migration
goal
Lack of
Flexibility to
make changes
Lack of
support to
make
changes
Leaving
Important
Pages out
Migrating
pages
erroneously
Moving to
non-optimized
new pages
destinations

To achieve the desired technical/content/business
goals successfully while growing rankings

If somehow, you
can’t do this
from the start…
don’t worry, I got
you covered too
bit.ly/crawlingmondays6

You’re now ready to move!

Winning SEO when doing Web Migrations #SEO4Life

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