Winning SEO Strategies for Web Migrations

#webmigrations at #smssyd19 by @aleyda from @orainti#webmigrations at #yoastcon by @aleyda from @orainti#webmigrations at #smssyd19 by @aleyda from @orainti
The Australian 2019 Edition
Winning
SEO when
doing Web
Migrations

#webmigrations at #smssyd19 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/indexwatch-the-top-100-seo-losers-of-2018/

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 Websites
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

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
Nine
nine.com.au
Ten
ten.com.au

SEO
Design & UX
Marketing
Development
After assessing
these, agree
with the
project’s
stakeholders to
secure resources
& support

#webmigrations at #smssyd19 by @aleyda from @orainti#webmigrations at #yoastcon by @aleyda from @orainti
SEO
Development
We will do whatever
you say, SEOs know
their stuff and we will
all support you forever
Finally!
Warning, this might not be a realistic scenario

Once you have obtained it… It’s time to start!

Let’s work on that rebranding project
Nine
nine.com.au
Ten
ten.com.au

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

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

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

As well as look 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
Nine
nine.com.au
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…

A common issue when moving

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?

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

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

#webmigrations at #smssyd19 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
10 News
nine.com.au/9news/ ten.com.au/10news/
9 News
Nine Ten
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
Nine Ten

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

Deﬁning also the new pages to create to keep  
the rankings for the old branded queries
301-Redirect
9 News  
is now  
10 News
ten.com.au/9news/ Links to
9 News
Latest Australian  
News
10 News
Latest Australian
News
Nine Ten

While targeting the transactional and new
branded queries with the new ones
New Ten Pages
Bridge Pages for old Nine Brands
Old Branded 
Queries
Transactional
Queries and
New Branded
Queries
Old Nine Pages
Transactional
Queries and
Old Branded
Queries

With rules you can follow in rebranding  
scenarios that are known to be complex

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
Content Indexability
301-Redirects
SSL CertificatePages Content Relevance
Pages Internal linking
Pages Speed
Home Page
Category Page
Sub-Category Page
Product Page
Main Blog Page
Blog Category Page
Blog post
Each Affected Page Type
Verify
Nine Ten
nine.test.com.au/9news/ ten.test.com.au/10news/

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

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

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 speciﬁed 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

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

If it’s a new
Web location,
set GA & GSC,
and update
with the old
settings if
relevant

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

Start tracking your targeted queries before  
the launch for the new and old Websites
SEOmonitor, STAT & Advanced Web Rankings

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

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

Monitor & compare the new vs. old main  
ranked queries, pages and SERP features
old website location new website location

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

#webmigrations at #smssyd19 by @aleyda from @oraintiSEOmonitor
Monitor the
trend of
additional
keywords w/
your own rank
tracker,
organizing
them in groups

Look in both desktop and mobile results to
identify inconsistent ranking behavior
SEOmonitor

Track also your top queries vs. your competitors
to check your search visibility share before & after
SEOmonitor

Complement
your own
tracking by
following-up with
visibility indexes
to identify
potential issues
with non-critical
queries
SEMrush, Sistrix, Searchmetrics

Check for
your rankings
impact on
trafﬁc while
looking on
conversion &
engagement
SEOmonitor

You should see a positive before and after
migration trafﬁc trend after a while

It’s about aligning SEO in the Web migration  
process to avoid the most common 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

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

#webmigrations at #smssyd19 by @aleyda from @orainti#webmigrations at #yoastcon by @aleyda from @orainti
In order to achieve business goals successfully 
ten
ten

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 Strategies for Web Migrations

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