searchleeds, jon earnshaw 'five things that can go wrong with a site migration

5 things you need to remember for a smooth migration Jon Earnshaw@jonearnshaw @PiDatametricswww.pi-datametrics.com

July 2016

@jonearnshaw@PiDatametrics www.pi-datametrics.com

DangerousAdventures


Swimming with sharks



Free climbing



Running with bulls



Migrating your website



Potentially one of the most dangerous online marketing adventures


Heres a classic example


Platform Migration - unnamed website loses all organic visibility


And heres another


A high street bank - appears to suffer a loss of visibility


Turns out to be a straightforward TLD migration


The Overall Outcome?


Organic VisibilityAfter 15 days

28% visibility loss


Organic VisibilityAfter 75 days

35% visibility loss


Pre MigrationVisibility Index - grouping the terms together

Original TLD


Pre and Post MigrationVisibility Index - grouping the terms together

Original TLD

New TLD

Never quite recovered from

the loss


And this is where the rumours start!


The oldmigration myth


45%

60% - 70%

It could die

It depends


ButIt doesnt have to be

this way!


This is a great opportunity!


Five key things to get right


1. Involve SEO from the start2. Redirects and mapping3. Utilise DATA4. Make sure theres an owner5. Keep the stage from getting out


1. Involve SEO from the start


Project resources and scope normally set very, very early on

Involve SEO in scoping and planning to build SEO in at all appropriate touch points

This person MUST be experienced in migrations Allow SEO person to build relationships and establish

credibility with the team


2. Redirects and mapping


Crawl your site Check for old subdomains and orphan pages Create a detailed redirect map Every page matters - especially the priority ones If youre in pre-build phase - review the theming Thoroughly test in staging and after launch


And if you dont?


Incorrectly migrated contentThe result of a failure to preserve authority

Many old URLs still indexed - months on

Steady rise in soft 404s


Impact on the SERPS?

01 April 2016

High value terms


The cause and the fix

Highly inappropriate redirects Substantial number of pages 302 to home

Audit to determine appropriate redirects Regaining authority will take time!


3. Utilise DATA


Benchmark current visibility early on How are we performing? Look for opportunities and feedback Determine current extent of conflict Whos doing better and why? Find/modify existing redirects to avoid chains Monitor the migration window


The migration windowWhat to expect...


Imagine you were #1 for Best Bollywood Movies


Straight switch

Original domain

New new domain

migration window


Brief coexistence then switch

Original domain

New new domain

migration window


Good uplift

New domain

Original domain

migration window

Previous conflict resolved

30 positionuplift


Another good uplift

New domain

Original domain

migration window

PreviousGlass ceiling

20 positionuplift


4. Make sure theres an owner


Give one person responsibility to run the migration Involve them throughout the project to ensure they grasp

the architecture and the quirks of the site Empower them to make and enforce decisions


5. Keep the stage from getting out


Remember that robots.txt only blocks crawling, NOT indexing

Use IP whitelisting Require a login Noindex meta


Summary


SEO is not the icing - its a key ingredient You cant just SEO it! Get expert help See this as an opportunity Dont always believe the old migratory myth Utilise data - before, during and after Plan

Thank You

Jon Earnshaw@jonearnshaw @PiDatametricswww.pi-datametrics.com

July 2016

searchleeds, jon earnshaw 'five things that can go wrong with a site migration

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