Time for a site migration? Whether you’re changing your URL structure or just switching to a different CMS, a site migration and redesign is not a one-step process. For an SEO, especially, it requires participation in every step of the process and of every member of the team.
But don’t pull out your hair just yet! We put together this list of best practices for site redesigns and migrations to help alleviate one of the most stressful processes for an SEO. After all, it’s a lot easier to prevent site migration problems, than to fix site migration problems. Which, if you haven’t heard before, have the possibility of being pretty disastrous. But you can avoid migration horrors with pointers like:
Pick the right time for your redesign to go live
Do a SWOT analysis on your current site
Make sure your sitemaps are up to date
Test aggressively — and back up your claims with data
Remember though: every site migration/redesign/transition is unique. Don’t just rely on this (fantastic) website migration SEO checklist. Make sure to cover all your bases by informing yourself as much as possible. Check out these other resources: Intelligent Site Redesign & Migrations Webinar and Only You Can Prevent Site Migration Disaster. Also, here is a nifty resource kit with a collection of all our website migration and website redesign resources.
Website migration checklist
I. PRE SITE MIGRATION
Find the best time for your site migration. Give yourself leeway for potential problems/delays. Discuss with your team.
Understand why fluctuations occur during post-migration and relay these to your project manager.
Use Fetch as Google via Search Console to verify existing content can be viewed properly by Googlebot.
Ensure all links included return a 200 status code.
Keep major changes to a minimum (if possible).
Check Internet archive waybackmachine to see if there was harmful content previously on your domain.
Verify both sites in the same Webmaster tools account.
Make sure old and new URLs can be fetched by Google bot.
Use the change of address option in GWMT site configuration.
Do not run two identical sites simultaneously. Ensure your staging site is blocked from crawlers.
Inform linking partners of your new URL structure.
Make solid design around SEO.
Make sure there are no crawling issues with your design.
Reduce duplicate content and tagging issues.
Purge and merge pages where needed.
Ensure tracking has been added to every page.
Test aggressively and make sure to back up your claims with real data!
II. LAUNCH
Be proud of yourself. You did it!
III. POST SITE MIGRATION
From your baseline report pre-launch, monitor what has changed.
Validate robots.txt file in your production environment.
Validate your page load times and compare it to your pre-migration baseline.
Ensure all redirects are firing properly via 301 status code to their new destinations.
Monitor indexation via Search Console (and perform a site: search).
Use Fetch as Google again to verify the new pages can be viewed properly by Googlebot.
Inform linking partners of your new URL structure.
Take a deep breath… the checklist is finished.
But don’t stop monitoring your analytics!
Think you’re ready to migrate your site? Check out our website redesign and migration hub for everything you need to be prepared before, during and after your site migration.
Esther served as Conductor's Content Marketing Manager. Besides deciding on what to eat for lunch, she helped manage and edit content for Conductor, the leading enterprise Organic Marketing platform.
Very good the post and posting the blog. Valuable and excellent post about The Interactive Website Migration Checklist. lots of great information and ideas. I just would like to say thanks for your great efforts. Looking forward to read more.
Very good the post and posting the blog. Valuable and excellent post about The Interactive Website Migration Checklist. lots of great information and ideas. I just would like to say thanks for your great efforts. Looking forward to read more.