Moving URLs: Structural Web changes  without losing rankings #SearchLove

#movingurls at #searchlove by @aleyda from @orainti#movingurls at #searchlove by @aleyda from @orainti
Moving URLsImplementing structural Web changes  
without losing your rankings
#movingurls at #searchlove by @aleyda from @orainti

Structural Web changes will ﬁnd you  
at any given day as an SEO consultant…

They give you an amazing
opportunity to clean,  
reorganize and improve
what you already have

Like this

But frequently these
moves don’t take SEO
into consideration

Which can have catastrophic results  
and urgent needs for SEO help

No kidding
BEFORE AFTER

Aleyda Solis
* International SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti.
* Conference Speaker in +100 Events in +20 Countries.
* Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.”
* Blogger in Search Engine Land & Search Engine Journal.
I’m an SEO consultant -not a moving expert-, but I’m going to
show you how to handle these situations to achieve success

HTTPS migrations
Products/Website Rebranding
International Web Consolidation
Not all moves are equal, so it’s critical to establish ﬁrst  
where do you need to go and for what purpose
Implementing hreflang Implementing non-canonical AMP
Change URL to
crawl, index and
rank in the same or
different domain
Display new URLs
in Google’s SERPs,
without changing
the indexing
configuration
Display different
existing URLs in
Google’s SERPs
without changing
the indexing
configuration

Whatever the type of scenario, is critical to align general &
speciﬁc SEO principles through the whole moving process
2.
Execute
1.
Plan & Test
3.
Validate & Monitor
Display different existing URLs in Google’s SERPs without changing the indexing configuration
Change URL to crawl, index and rank in the same or different domain
Display new URLs in Google’s SERPs, without changing the indexing configuration

Category level
Site level
URL levelHTTPS migration
Website rebranding
AMP implementation for the blog
Canonicalization change
Let’s start by planning, identifying the affected URLs
based on the moving scope

Revise these URLs conﬁguration, optimisation & ranking
status to see what should be kept, changed or improved
Crawlability
indexability
Ranked Queries
Traffic
External Links
Affected URL SSL Certificate
Content Relevance
Internal Links
Mobile
Used images & resources
Robots.txt, parameters handling via GSC
Meta robots and canonical tag configuration
Internationalization Hreflang tag, geolocation via GSC
Position, SERP features
Speed
Alternate tags for independent mobile, AMP

To correctly update their conﬁguration in order  
to achieve the relevant moving scenario goal
Old New
301-Redirects
Update Links
Update XML
Sitemap
Change URL to
crawl, index and
rank in the same or
different domain
Display new URLs
without changing
the indexing
configuration
Display different
existing URLs in
Google’s SERPs
without changing
the indexing
configuration

Old New
As well as to improve their current optimization status  
to make the most out of the moving opportunity
Thin, Duplicate Content
Slow Speed
Hierarchical Navigation
Relevant Titles
Page specific, expanded Content
Fast Speed
Hierarchical Navigation
Relevant Titles
301-Redirects
Update Links
Update XML
Sitemap
Change URL to
crawl, index and
rank in the same or
different domain
Display new URLs
without changing
the indexing
configuration
Display different
existing URLs in
Google’s SERPs
without changing
the indexing
configuration

Once deﬁned, align and agree with the stakeholders to get
approval, resources & support for their implementation
SEO
Design & UX Development
Marketing

Let’s go through each scenario 
Change URL to
crawl, index and
rank in the same or
different domain
Display new URLs
without changing
the indexing
configuration
Display different
existing URLs in
Google’s SERPs
without changing
the indexing
configuration
HTTPS migrations
Implementing hreflang Implementing non-canonical AMP

Display different existing URLs in
Google’s SERPs without changing the
indexing configuration
Implementing Hreflang

Sometimes the wrong country or language page of an
international Website is shown in search results

These misaligned search results will have  
worse rankings, CTR and conversions
This happens with a UK ccTLD

hreﬂang comes to the rescue allowing to specify each page
language and country as well as its alternate versions
x.com/us/
Add hreflang Tags
x.com/uk/
Add hreflang Tags
<link rel="canonical" href="https://x/us/" />
<link rel="alternate" href=“https://x/us/“ hreflang="en-us" />
<link rel="alternate" href=“https://x/uk/“ hreflang=“en-gb" />
<link rel="canonical" href=“https://x/uk/" />
Existing US Page Existing UK Page

All while keeping them all indexed, self-canonicalizing each
x.com/us/
Add hreflang Tags
x.com/uk/
Add hreflang Tags
<link rel="canonical" href="https://x/us/" />
<link rel="canonical" href=“https://x/uk/" />
Existing US Page Existing UK Page

How implementing
hreﬂang annotations
can cause issues then?

When canonicalizing all international pages to the initial or
main version, making them to not rank by themselves
Change to: <link rel="canonical" href=“https://www.airbnb.mx“ />

Including non-canonical, non-indexable URLs  
versions in the hreﬂang annotations
Change to: <link rel="alternate" hreflang=“en-gb” href=“https://www.x.com/uk“ />

As well as including URLs that are redirecting to others

Adding hreflang annotations in non-supported  
formats with non-existing values
link rel alternate hreflang="pt-br"
link rel alternate hreflang="en-ca"
Not supported
link rel alternate hreflang="es-mx"
link rel alternate hreflang="en-us"

All these will trigger hreﬂang errors in Google Search
Console and won’t show the desired page in SERPs

Here’s how
you can avoid
these issues…

Use the accepted ISO 639-1 values for languages and ISO
3166-1 for countries as well as the speciﬁed tags formats
bit.ly/generatorhreflang

Simplify hreﬂang implementation by avoiding to add it to
every single page of your different international versions

Add it only in those pages attracting rankings from non-
relevant countries or languages you can ﬁnd in GSC

Include it via HTML for an easier management and use XML 
sitemaps when you can’t change code or have too many

When implementing hreﬂang via HTML,  
place them at the start of the head code
http://ohgm.co.uk/hreflang-tags-not-respected-how-to-solve/

If you need to implement them in XML sitemaps organize
them hierarchically to easily identify and ﬁx issues
COUNTRY
LANGUAGE
CATEGORY
TYPE

Validate hreﬂang implementation in a test environment
before launching by using SEO crawlers
Deepcrawl, Sitebulb, ScreamingFrog, Ryte

Monitor any remaining issues through the Search Console  
and prioritise those affecting more pages

Rinse and repeat until there are no errors left

You’ll start showing the relevant market pages in search
results with positive visibility & engagement trend from them

If you want to learn more about hreﬂang conﬁguration,  
check out these slides from a presentation about it
https://www.slideshare.net/aleydasolis/setting-hreflang-for-international-serp-success-smxeast

The hreﬂang URL
move is now ﬁxed,
let’s go a bit further…

Display new URLs in Google’s SERPs,
without changing the indexing
configuration
Implementing non-canonical AMP

Having a fast mobile Website is one of the fundamental
aspects of user experience, inﬂuencing conversions & results

This is our mobile Web speed reality though

This is why Google launched AMP to facilitate the generation
of faster Mobile pages by pre-optimizing & caching them

AMP URLs should be generated parallelly and
canonicalised towards the original “slower” mobile pages
x.com/blog/post/
Add amphtml Tag
x.com/blog/post/amp/
Create valid AMP page
Add canonical Tag
<link rel="canonical" href=“https://x.com/blog/post/“ />
<link rel="amphtml" href=“https//x.com/blog/post/amp/">
<link rel="canonical" href=“https//x.com/blog/post/“ />
New alternate AMP URLExisting Page

Like Forbes does here 
Canonical URL AMP URL
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanwolk/2017/09/07/apple-is-
losing-its-cool-factor-and-thats-a-problem-if-they-want-to-break-
into-tv/#4707740c71f8
into-tv/amp/

Making the AMP version much faster to load 
Canonical URL AMP URL
into-tv/#4707740c71f8
into-tv/amp/

Although not a ranking factor, Google made it a
requirement to be included in the Top Stories Carrousel

It is also shown in mobile organic search results  
for any page with a valid AMP version
AMP article rich results 
Can be free-standing in the results page, or
embedded in a carousel of similar result types.
All AMP article rich results are also rich results.
AMP non-rich results 
A basic, non-graphical search
result pointing to the AMP page.

Which has made its usage to explode
https://www.semrush.com/sensor/

Making some sites to see more organic visibility and trafﬁc
with its AMP results than the ones of their original URLs
AMP Rich Results
AMP Non-Rich Results
Non-AMP Results

How implementing AMP
can cause issues then?

Many sites have started to use it without assessing if it
would be really relevant for them, seeing a negative impact

Your “own” URLs won’t be displayed in mobile search results
but the ones of AMP cache, needing additional tracking

Although this has been announced that  
is going to be changed later this year

An inconsistent UI will also likely have a negative  
impact on the site user engagement
ORIGINAL MOBILE PAGE
<> AMP VERSION

As well as not detecting and redirecting  
non-mobile users to the original desktop page
DON’T DO THIS

Implementation errors are common and won’t allow  
to show AMP URLs in the mobile search results
https://www.semrush.com/blog/amp-mistakes-semrush-study/

Which can end-up having these results

Here’s how you
can avoid these
AMP issues…

Beware that it has been announced that in the future you
will be able to obtain AMP beneﬁts with non-AMP content
https://amphtml.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/standardizing-lessons-learned-from-amp/

Verify then if it’s a relevant option based on your short  
and long-term needs, goals and resources
You have mobile
Web speed issues but
can’t improve your
own site
You need to be
included in Google’s
Top Stories Carrousel
ASAP*
You’re building a new
site and AMP offers
the easiest way to
implement your
desired functionality
1 2 3

If it’s a matter of extra visibility, see what your competitors
or top industry players are ranking for already with AMP
https://www.sistrix.com/

Check if your site functionalities can  
be implemented with AMP components
https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/components

Non-Canonical AMP
Canonical AMP
Keep this also in mind when choosing the most  
cost-effective way to integrate AMP in your site
Independent
Mobile Web
brand.com
m.brand.com
brand.com
m.brand.com
m.brand.com/amp
Responsive or
Dynamic Web
brand.com
brand.com
brand.com/amp

Complexity can be higher when selecting to  
use AMP along an independent mobile setting
Desktop Web
Independent Mobile Web Version
AMP version
Canonicalize to
Independent Mobile Web in AMP
Canonicalizes to
Desktop Web
vs

Whatever you choose, it’s critical to redirect visitors based
on their user agent, as you do with independent mobile URLs
AMP URL Desktop URL
Desktop
Users
301-
Redirect

Google also requires AMP URLs to include the same  
content than canonical ones to be shown in SERPs

The goal is to keep the UI, content and functionality
consistent when using non-canonical AMP
=ORIGINAL MOBILE PAGE AMP VERSION

This includes also the implementation of  
hreﬂang annotations
https://ampbyexample.com/introduction/internationalization/

Most of AMP errors will be caused by using tags,  
attributes and values that are not allowed
Name of Mistake % of Affected Sites
Disallowed attribute 45 %
Disallowed tag 44 %
Invalid attribute value 38 %
Invalid URL protocol 36 %
Invalid URL 34 %
Mandatory tag ancestor with hint 26 %
Disallowed style attribute 20 %
Mandatory attribute missing 13 %
Wrong parent tag 12 %
Missing URL 10 %
https://www.semrush.com/blog/amp-mistakes-semrush-study/

Avoid them by sharing the required AMP markup as well as
the validation errors when planning the development
+
https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/validation_errors

Opt-in for Google Analytics AMP Client ID API  
to correctly track AMP on Cache
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7486764

Verify during development the AMP compliance of  
your top pages in real time with the code validator
https://validator.ampproject.org/

Crawl the whole site before launching it, simulating the
mobile googlebot to look for remaining issues
https://www.deepcrawl.com/

Prioritize to ﬁx the critical issues before launching,  
to be able to show AMP in Mobile SERPs as expected
https://sitebulb.com/

After launching look for any remaining errors  
in the new Google Search Console AMP report

Select critical errors in the report and start  
checking & ﬁxing those affecting more pages

This is now made easier by the new search console,  
by checking the code and with live validation

Rinse and repeat with the critical errors until there  
is none left and then move on with the warnings

You’ll see then a positive visibility trend while keeping your
engagement metrics and providing the desired functionality

Use rank trackers to monitor the AMP visibility for  
targeted queries you’re not ranking for yet
https://www.seomonitor.com/

As well as keeping track of what you’re competitors  
are targeting with their AMP content that you’re not yet
https://www.semrush.com/

If at some point you want to disable AMP, eliminate the
amphtml tags and 301-redirect to your canonical URLs
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/remove-amp

If you want to learn more about AMP, check out my
presentation about the topic from the #AMPConf
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/amp-accelerated-mobile-pages/

The AMP moving issue
is now ﬁxed, let’s go
even further…

Change URL to crawl, index and rank  
in the same or different domain
HTTPS migrations

You might still need to move your site to HTTPS, which  
is now a must to give a secure Web experience

Or you might need to to rebrand your overall  
business or certain products or services

For these Web migrations, it’s critical to establish if it’s
only a matter of a technical change, like with HTTPS
http://x.com/ https://x.com/
<link rel="canonical" href=“http://x.com/“ /> <link rel="canonical" href=“https://x.com/“ />
HTTPS URLHTTP URL
301-Redirect SSL Certificate
Update links
Update XML
Sitemaps
Update Images &
Resources

Or also requires a content change, for example  
when rebranding a business or product

How Web migrations
can generate problems?

When redirects from the old to the new URLs are temporary
302’s & the HTTPS URLs canonicalise to HTTP ones

When the old URLs 301-redirect to non-indexed  
or error pages

When URLs that had incoming external links are  
not redirected and are returning 404 http status errors

When the new pages are still linking  
to the old redirected URLs in HTTP

When both, HTTP and HTTPS URLs are accessible, and
HTTP URLs are just canonicalising instead of redirecting

Which can end-up causing this type of organic search
visibility and trafﬁc loss when implementing the migration
New SiteOld Site

Here’s how you can
avoid these Web
migrations issues…

Since Google chooses canonical URLs based on a number
of signals it is a must to align as many as possible
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en

To avoid leaving anything out, crawl all the  
affected URLs and gather their SEO metrics
Crawlability
Indexability
Internal linking
Relevance
Rankings
Traffic
Link popularity
Speed

You can do this easily by integrating third-party  
data sources directly into your crawl simulation
Screaming Frog & Deepcrawl

This will also allow you to identify orphan pages, to avoid
missing any important URLs that you need to migrate

Obtain the trafﬁc and ranked queries for  
which these pages are ranking
URLProfiler

So you can easily consolidate all the information of the  
top pages to be prioritised in the Web migration
Top Pages Technical Configuration Relevance Popularity Traffic Ranked Queries

And be able to assess well if they should be kept or not,  
and where they should be migrated in the new location

Establishing the patterns to keep or to improve in the new
pages vs. the old URLs technical and content status
Old Pages Titles, Descriptions & H1s New Pages Titles, Descriptions & H1s

As well as deﬁning pages that might need to be created to
keep certain rankings based on the scenario, like a rebrand
Old Pages
New Pages
Legacy Pages
Old Branded 
Queries
Transactional
Queries and
New Branded
Queries
Transactional
Queries and Old
Branded Queries

Implement this ﬁrst in a private test environment,  
blocked to external access without authentication

List crawl the old URLs to check if the 301-redirects have
been set as speciﬁed & go to the relevant new locations

Do a full audit of the new Web destination in test to also
check if the new pages are completely optimised as speciﬁed

If it’s a new Web location, set it also with Analytics & Search
Console, and remember to use the old settings if relevant

When doing an HTTPS switch make sure the certiﬁcate is
previously installed, including subdomains & CDN zones

After launching the migration to production check if the 301
redirects from the old to new URLs have been implemented

Prioritise to ﬁx those high-trafﬁc pages with 301-redirects
going to wrong or non-indexable pages and redirects chains

Crawl the new web location and make sure the new pages  
are not only accessible but optimised as recommended

Look for URLs in the new location that might be blocked,
non-indexed or also linking or canonicalising to the old URLs

If the migration has included an HTTPS switch  
make sure there are no mixed content issues too

Once ﬁxed, you can submit your new URLs & XML  
sitemaps to be re-crawled via the Search Console

If this is a sub-domain or domain level migration you can
also specify it through GSC’s “Change of Address”

Use the new Search Console “Index Coverage” to monitor if
the new URLs start getting indexed & the old ones disappear

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

Compare the new vs. old locations main ranked queries  
& pages, as well as SERP features w/ Search Console
Last 28 Days
15 Days Before and After the Migration
new website locationold website location

Check that rankings & CTR of your top queries in the new
location are regained w/ the relevant pages over time

Monitor the trend of additional keywords w/ your own rank
tracker, organising them in groups to facilitate analysis
SEOmonitor

Complement your own tracking by following-up with  
third-party visibility indexes to identify additional issues
New site has not completely
regained top 3 rankings

Assess the new rankings impact in your pages trafﬁc and
conversions, to identify additional actions to improve them

By doing all this you should see a positive post 
migration organic search visibility & trafﬁc trend

Use also this migration checklist and guides I’ve  
written as references to avoid leaving anything out
http://bit.ly/checklisttohttps http://bit.ly/monitoringmigrations http://bit.ly/recoveringmigration

You should be good
to move now…

It’s time to go!

Moving URLs: Structural Web changes  without losing rankings #SearchLove

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