Tips for moving your website
Read below for 10 easy-to-follow tips for a successful relocation of your website (also called a migration), ensuring that the move does not affect your SEO efforts. The tips apply to those of you moving your website to a new web server or hosting provider - but also to those of you making major structural changes to the website in connection with a website relaunch. You can read more in-depth information about moving your website in our article on migration or download a copy of our migration book.
1) Moving requires lots of time
First and foremost, you should know that when you move your website, it may take some time before Google is completely up to date with all the changes you've made. In practice, this means that you may lose rankings in search results and it may take some time before you regain the same positions. This is normal and to be expected during a relocation, but there can also be real errors that are holding you back, and it's important that you catch these errors in time.
2) Think twice before you change your domain name
Changing a domain name is not without importance. In fact, it's quite a complex maneuver SEO-wise that often results in a loss of traffic.
Firstly, Google has a clear preference for older domains. A new domain simply doesn't have the authority of an older domain, and even if all links from the old domain point to the new one with 301 redirects, rankings can be a long time coming.
Secondly, users may also have a preference for a domain name. If they usually find you on a certain URL or name, they may choose to ignore the new domain because they don't know it.
Both factors are something that will resolve with time, but you need to be aware of the possible loss of traffic that can occur at the cost of domain change.
3) Remember to take a backup
It's rare for a relaunch to go completely flawlessly, so it's reassuring to know that you have a backup plan in case things don't go as planned. Make sure you have a backup of your old website ready so you can quickly switch back to it until you resolve the issues with the new website.
4) Find out what to migrate
Of course, in order to make a successful move, you need to have complete control over which URLs and files that need to be moved. The complexity of this depends on the size of your website, and instead of approaching the task with an Excel spreadsheet and a lot of patience, you should use a tool called Screaming Frog SEO Spider. This tool can quickly, easily and efficiently crawl your entire website and provide a detailed overview of all URLs and files you have.
5) Use a strategic approach
Instead of migrating your entire website all at once, you can take it in smaller sections at a time. That way, you can start by moving a single section and check that the migration works flawlessly and that Google can figure out how to index the section correctly, and then continue with the rest of the site. By using this approach, you minimize the risk of fatal errors that could have been avoided.
6) Create redirects and monitor 404 errors
If your site's URL structure has been changed during the migration, it is important that you create redirectsas soon as you launch the new website.
Create 301 redirects from your old URLs to the new ones to avoid losing too many links and users bumping into 404 errorwhen they enter your site. Being greeted by a 404 error is never a good user experience, so it's not in Google's interest to send users to such a page. Therefore, you should always keep an eye on the development of 404 errors and make your 404 landing page as user-friendly as possible.
After the migration is complete, you can use Google Search Console to keep an eye on your 404 errors and as soon as you spot them, you should set up a 301 redirect to take users to the correct landing page.
7) Update your most important backlinks
If your website has a new name or url structure, you can also benefit from updating as many inbound links as possible. Depending on the size of your website, it can be a daunting task to find the links in question, contact the owners of the websites that link to you and wait for them to correct them. A good idea is therefore to start with the 50 most important backlinks and ensure they are updated immediately. You can use tools like Ahrefs and Majestic to monitor and analyze your backlinks.
If you don't set up redirects and update the most important backlinks, users coming from these sources will be greeted by a 404 page and link juice will not be passed on to the right landing pages. As a result, you may lose positions on Google and receive less traffic.
8) Update sitemaps
To update a sitemap is a quick and simple task, but one that can easily be forgotten in the process. Your sitemap must be updated if you have changed or added new URLs. Remember that you need to change the location of your sitemap in robots.txt-file as well as in Google Search Console.
9) Keep an eye on traffic
Losing traffic after a relaunch is normal, but does it seem like your traffic has disappeared into a black hole? If so, it's time to take a closer look.
An obvious place to start is by checking your robots.txt file. The technicians could have mistakenly set noindex on the entire website. If this is the case, your new website will not be indexed and your organic traffic will dwindle to nothing.
If the problem is not in the robots.txt file, you should take a closer look at the tracking code for your analytics tool. It could be that the tracking code hasn't been included at all or that it's not collecting data from all pages of the website.
10) Create awareness of the new website
Nothing is better for a new website than fresh inbound links. By getting new links, you can help yourself (and Google) well on your way to reclaiming good positions in search results. Ideally, this activity should be planned early in the move process, as it can take time to build these links. It can be difficult to attract good links from relevant websites, but activities such as exciting competitions, sneak peeks of the new website or a launch party can all help to generate publicity, especially if you leverage your own network to spread the word.
