Are you considering migrating your website from one domain to another? If so, you may be wondering how this could affect your SEO rankings. After all, when it comes to SEO, even the smallest changes can have a big impact.
Fortunately, with proper planning and implementation, migrating your website can be an opportunity to improve your SEO—and in this article and accompanying checklist, we’ll show you exactly how to achieve this.
When it comes to website migration, there are two primary options to consider: full-site migration and URL-by-URL redirects. Full-site migrations involve copying over the entire website from one domain to another while URL-by-URL redirects involve moving each page of the website individually and setting up 301 redirects from the old pages on the old domain to the new pages on the new domain. For most websites, doing a full-site migration is recommended because it ensures that all of the data on your site is preserved with minimal effort.
Once you’ve chosen which type of migration you want to do, it’s time to start preparing for it. This involves creating a comprehensive plan that outlines what needs to be done before, during, and after the migration process has been completed. During this preparation phase, you should also take stock of any existing issues with your current website such as broken links or duplicate content that need to be addressed before making any significant changes. The more prepared you are for a migration project, the smoother things will go!
Finally, once your new site is up and running on its new domain name—congratulations!—it’s time to optimise its performance. This includes making sure all of your internal links are working properly and setting up 301 redirects if necessary. It also includes optimising meta tags for each page of your site as well as page titles and descriptions so that search engines know exactly what each page is about. All of these small steps will help ensure that search engines index your new website quickly and accurately, so that it can start ranking for important keywords as soon as possible.
Properly managing an SEO website migration can result in increased visibility online and better organic search rankings over time—but only if you make sure everything is done correctly from start to finish! By taking the time to plan ahead and implement best practices during each step of the process (from prepping for migration through optimisation), you can ensure that any changes made won’t adversely affect your SEO efforts but rather provide a boost in traffic over time.
We’ve included a downloadable PDF that will walk you through our website migration process, step by step in more detail.
With over 15 years of experience in search and online marketing, Kim is the Founder of Insight Online. Kim started Insight as he saw an opportunity to build an agency that focuses on business results and strong working relationships with clients.
As the face of the business, Kim will likely be your first point of contact, chatting with you about your work and what you’d like to get done. The best part of his job is meeting new people, getting to know their businesses, and making a tangible, measurable difference for them.
In his spare time, Kim loves playing disc golf, strumming a little guitar and is an avid bookworm.
His favourite charities are Zeal which supports youth in their development over a number of years and Lifewise, an organisation focussed on getting homeless into homes.
