Search Engine Optimization - 11 Jul 2024

Common SEO Challenges During Site Migration (And How to Tackle Them)

If you are running a business website, you already know how critical SEO is to your success. But what happens when you need to migrate your site? Whether you’re changing your domain, switching platforms, or just restructuring your URLs, site migration can cause a lot of headaches for your SEO.

Migrating a site is like moving to a new house; it comes with its fair share of challenges. In this case, a poorly managed migration can result in a decline in your ranking. And here’s why! Just like it takes you a while to adjust to your new surroundings, it takes search engines a while to understand the changes you’ve made to your website.

The good news is that if your migration was well executed, these effects are generally only felt temporarily. Over the long run, search engines will recognize that you have changed your site for the better, which should ultimately improve your ranking. The other good news is that there are ways to minimize the negative SEO impact of website migration, and that’s what we will be covering in this blog.

Why Do We Migrate Sites Anyway?

Before getting into how to overcome the challenges of site migration, let’s review why we would want to migrate a website to begin with, especially given the stakes.

You might decide to migrate your site for any number of reasons, but typically, people choose to undertake this drastic change when they want dramatic results, often geared towards improving user experience on the site. For example, you might want to migrate because you want to:

• Upgrade your website platform: If you’ve outgrown your current setup or it simply lacks functionality, you might choose to migrate to a new platform like WordPress or Shopify to enhance website performance and overall user experience.

• Improve your website architecture: How the pages on your website are organized has a major impact on SEO performance and user experience. Implementing a more organized website structure allows search engines to better understand and index your site, which can help your web pages rank higher in SERPs

• Enhance website security: Website security is a major issue for users and businesses. Even if your website doesn’t handle sensitive information, Google recommends upgrading from HTTP to HTTPS to secure both your site and visitors’ data.

• Move to a new server: As your website grows, your current hosting provider may no longer meet your needs. Switching to a new host can improve site speed and performance, earning you valuable points with both website visitors, who will enjoy a smoother experience, and search engines, which prefer faster-loading sites.

• Change your domain name: Sometimes, embarking on a business rebranding means changing your domain name. This can help with brand recognition, marketing, and SEO efforts; however, it requires careful planning to ensure that you don’t lose the SEO value of your original domain.

Regardless of why you are migrating, you want to make sure that the process runs as smoothly as possible with minimal damage to your SEO.

Solutions to Your 5 Most Common Site Migration SEO Issues

Migrating a site can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially when it comes to maintaining your SEO. Here’s a detailed guide to help you navigate the most common SEO challenges during site migration and how to overcome them.

#1: Temporary Drop in Rankings and Traffic

When you migrate your site, you’ll almost always notice a temporary drop in rankings and traffic. This happens because search engines need time to re-index your new URLs and understand the changes you have made. Don’t worry; this is normal, and as long as the website changes you have made have indeed improved your site, the negative impact on ranking and traffic will be short-lived.

To limit the effects:

• Plan and Execute Carefully: A detailed migration plan is crucial. Outline every step, from setting up redirects to updating sitemaps. Include clear goals, timelines, and assign responsibilities to ensure that nothing is overlooked.

• Monitor Performance: Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your site’s SEO performance before, during, and after the migration.

• Pre-Migration: Before starting the migration process, you need to establish a clear understanding of your site’s current performance metrics, including key indicators such as organic search traffic, bounce rates, conversion rates, and keyword rankings. Knowing your baseline gives you a reference point to measure the impact of migration on your SEO performance and helps you identify areas that might need attention.

• Real-Time Performance: Throughout the migration process, it is crucial to keep an eye on how changes affect your site performance in real time. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can provide immediate feedback on traffic fluctuations, crawl errors, and indexation issues. If you notice a sudden drop in traffic or an increase in crawl errors, you can take corrective action before these problems escalate and cause long-term damage to your SEO efforts.

• Post-Migration Assessment: After migration, you should evaluate how the changes have affected your SEO performance. This will include analyzing changes in keyword rankings, traffic trends, and user behaviour. Keeping on top of post-migration metrics helps you understand whether the migration achieved its intended goals or if there are lingering issues that need to be addressed.

#2: Loss of Backlinks

Backlinks are critical for your SEO, and there is a risk of losing them during migration. If other sites are linking to your old URLs, those links might break, causing you to lose valuable link juice.

To avoid losing your backlinks:

• Set Up 301 Redirects: Ensure that all old URLs are permanently redirected to the new URLs. This helps pass on the SEO value of the old URLs to the new ones. Tools like Screaming Frog allow you to quickly generate a list of all your URLs and implement your redirects in bulk.

• Update Important Backlinks: Where possible, reach out to webmasters with significant backlinks and ask them to update their links. Make sure to sell why updating the link is beneficial to their users.

• Use Tools to Identify Broken Links: Tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush can help you identify broken links and fix them promptly. Make sure to schedule regular checks for broken links even after migration to maintain your link profile.

#3: Indexing and Crawling Issues

Search engines may struggle to index your new URLs, leading to a drop in visibility. This can significantly impact your SEO because search engines need to understand and index your new site structure to match user queries. If search engines cannot crawl your pages, they might as well be invisible.

To minimize disruptions and ensure that your new site is indexed and crawled efficiently, make sure you:

• Create and Submit a New Sitemap: A sitemap is a file that lists all the URLs of your website. This map helps search engines crawl and understand the structure of your site. You can use tools like Yoast SEO (WordPress) to generate a new sitemap and, once completed, submit it to search engines via their webmaster tools. For Google, this is done through Google Search Console, and for Bing, through Bing Webmaster Tools.

• Check for Crawl Errors: Continually monitor your site for any crawl errors using Google Search Console or other SEO tools. Look for errors such as 404 pages (not found), 500 errors (server issues), or redirects that lead to broken pages.

#4: Duplicate Content

If old URLs aren’t properly redirected, you might end up with duplicate content issues. Duplicate content can confuse search engines and dilute your SEO efforts.

To help solve this issue:

• Implement 301 Redirects: Ensure that all old URLs point to the new ones to avoid duplicate content. Double-check that no redirects are missing or misconfigured.

• Use Canonical Tags: In cases where duplicate content is unavoidable, use canonical tags to indicate the preferred version of a page. A canonical tag (also known as a ‘rel = canonical’ tag) is an HTML element used to specify the preferred version of a web page when there are multiple pages with similar or identical content. It tells search engines which version of the page to index and rank and helps to avoid keyword cannibalization.

#5: On-Page SEO Disruptions

During migration, you might lose important on-page SEO elements like meta tags, headers, and keyword optimization. This can hurt your rankings if not addressed promptly.

To maintain your on-page SEO:

• Conduct a Thorough Audit: Before and after the migration, perform an audit to ensure that all SEO elements on the site are intact. The Semrush site audit tool can help you find crawlability issues, broken internal links, and missing metatags. Make sure to check for:

• Missing Meta Tags: Verify that the title tags, meta descriptions, and alt text of the images are correctly implemented on the new site.

• Header Tags: Ensure that header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are properly structured and that important keywords are used effectively.

• Internal Linking: Confirm that internal links are updated to reflect the new URL structure and that there are no broken links.

• Redirects: Verify that all old URLs have been properly redirected to their new counterparts to maintain link equity and prevent 404 errors.

Site migration is a complex process that requires careful planning and execution. However, understanding and preparing for common SEO challenges can help minimize risks and ensure a smooth transition.

Keep your goals and objectives in mind and remember that a well-executed migration can set the stage for long-term SEO success and growth. By proactively addressing potential problems, you can overcome migration challenges and emerge stronger on the other side.