What is Site Migration?
Site migration refers to significant changes made to a website, such as domain name changes, hosting switches, or URL structure updates, that can impact its visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Site migration is typically done to improve a site’s performance, user experience, or rankings on search results pages. However, it is crucial to execute it properly, as improper migration can cause Liens brisés, traffic loss, and other technical SEO issues that can make your site inaccessible, unstable, and unusable.
Why Bloggers Migrate Their Sites
Bloggers typically migrate their sites for security, user experience, and search engine optimization (SEO) reasons. However, migrations can also occur due to rebranding, redesigning, or even in fringe situations like when a host shuts down or a site gets hacked.
That said, some common causes of site migration include:
- Switching from HTTP to HTTPS
- Changing their domain name to a new one
- Switching to a more SEO-friendly URL structure
- Merging multiple sites into a single site
- Splitting a site into distinct sites or subdomains
- Reorganizing the categories, subfolders, and subdomains
- Switching to a faster and more reliable host or hosting plan
- Improving the site’s code or framework to keep up with modern coding practices
- Moving from a separate mobile site (e.g., m.yourdomain.com) to a fully responsive design
- Switching from one content management system (CMS) to another, for example, from Blogger to WordPress
SEO Impact of a Site Migration
Site migration can have positive and negative impacts on your SEO. When done correctly, it can help to improve your site’s structure and underlying infrastructure. This, in turn, will improve your SEO, security, and user experience.
Google also treats several site migration-related elements as ranking factors. For example, Google uses your Éléments essentiels du Web and HTTPS usage to evaluate your page experience, which is a ranking factor.
On the other hand, improper site migration can cause major SEO issues that can hurt your visibility on search results pages. For example, visitors will encounter 404 introuvable pages if you changed your URLs but do not redirect them using 301 redirects.
This would cause you to lose out on the link equity et Classement that would have flowed to those pages. Visitors are also likely to get frustrated with your site, which will cause them to leave. This will increase your bounce rate.
Site Migration Best Practices
Site migration can make or break your SEO, which is particularly important if you are a large site with considerable traffic and backlinks. So, to avoid costly mistakes, ensure it is handled by an experienced developer or IT professional. You should also follow the best practices below.
1 Backup Your Entire Site
It is good practice to back up your site before migrating. This ensures that you can recover your site if anything goes wrong during the migration. Without a backup, you may lose your site forever.
You should ensure to back up everything. From your content to media and even databases. The specific number of backups you create would vary, but many bloggers like to follow the 3-2-1 rule. That is, you make three backups and store them on two different storage, including one off-site.
2 Prioritize Your Top-Performing Pages
Pay special attention to your top-performing pages. These pages generate the most traffic and have high-authority backlinks pointing to them. They are crucial to your SEO, and you want to ensure they remain intact after the migration.
While you will review your entire site after the migration, you will want to review these top-performing pages and links first. Ensure they remain accessible and retain their rankings. Their URLs, interne, et external links should work properly.
3 Test Your Redirects
URLs can break during a réorienter. Even if you did not change your domain name or URL structure, your URLs can still become inaccessible due to misconfigured server settings, faulty CMS updates, or broken or incorrect redirect rules.
So, make sure to test your URLs and redirects after you complete the migration. This is an important step you should not miss. Make sure to do it, even if you did not change your domain name or URL structure.
4 Update Your Brand Elements
If you changed your branding (logo and colors) or website appearance during the migration, then make sure to update it on your social media pages, sister sites, and various other platforms that you own or are affiliated with. This helps to keep your look uniform and prevents confusion.
5 Communicate the Change to Users
Migrations can be confusing, and depending on the scope, may be noticeable. Even backend migrations, such as switching from one host to another, may have visible effects or cause changes to your site.
For example, switching hosts can lead to downtime, which will frustrate users, increase your bounce rate, and hurt your user experience. You can reduce the effects of these undesirable situations by informing your users of the upcoming update.
6 Resubmit Your Sitemap to Search Engines
Once you complete your migration and are sure that your URLs and redirects are working properly, submit your updated plan du site to search engines. This keeps them aware of the migration and allows them to find your URLs.
7 Monitor Your Analytic Reports
Things can go wrong after a migration. So, make sure to pay close attention to your analytics days and weeks after the migration. You want to be sure that there are no unusual changes to your traffic and rankings.
If you detect any changes, then you should investigate them right away to understand what is happening and how it can be resolved.