Here is a high-stakes SEO question: how do you migrate to a new site without losing traffic? Indeed, migrating a site is a useful but delicate operation. It's useful because it allows changes, for example in design or hosting. We all know that to survive on the Internet, you have to adapt.
But it is also a delicate operation from an SEO standpoint: you must both make room for the novelty of the newly launched site and at the same time know how to preserve the benefits of the SEO work patiently carried out on the old site.
It is therefore preferable to take the time to carefully switch from the old site to the new one, and not give in too quickly to the temptation of a "tabula rasa", to a rushed "let's redo everything from scratch" approach.
To help you make the most of the previous content creation and SEO work on the old site while taking advantage of the benefits of the new site, we explain step by step in this article how to migrate to a new site without losing traffic.
1. Site migration: a technical and rigorous process
We talk about "site migration" when moving from site A to site B. You then take all or part of the pages from the old version, before doing a mapping between each page of the two versions.
But before going further and explaining the successive steps of site migration, let's take a closer look at the reasons for migrating a site.
First, you may want to migrate a site because you're changing servers.
Today, more and more companies, including SMEs, choose a dedicated server to secure their data or to obtain additional features such as a corporate intranet.
Next, you might consider migrating a site because you're changing the domain name.
This desire to change the name often occurs as part of an evolution in marketing strategy, or when the original company passes into different hands.
Sometimes it's also an opportunity to merge several sites into one to better centralize information and traffic.
Finally, you might consider migrating a site to access better technology.
For example, think of "responsive design", which allows your site to display optimally on any screen type (all smartphone sizes, tablet, desktop).
Or access to the HTTPS protocol, which is gradually becoming standard. The latter is indeed on its way to becoming essential for the health of your site.
Keep in mind that the absence of the https protocol is viewed negatively by both users and crawling bots.
Changing the domain name, the server, or moving to a more advantageous technology: in all cases, a site migration is an operation with high SEO stakes.
We now detail the steps to follow for a successful site migration without traffic loss.
2. Steps for a site migration
To avoid losing traffic, a site migration must follow precise and, in some cases, quite technical steps.
First of all, you will need create a sitemap, that is to say a plan showing your website’s architecture in an XML file. This should include all the URLs, as well as the HTML tags.
Creating this sitemap is an opportunity to take stock, not only overall but especially for each page and each page type.
This involves carrying out an audit of performance in terms of raw traffic, but also more detailed data such as the number of shares or the click-through rate on specific parts of the site.
Do not neglect this crucial step: it is used to determine what to keep, what to modify, and what to remove for the future site.
Next, it will be time to gather all your content. Be thorough and organized, sorting content both by page and by content type (text, image, audio…).
Creating content requires time, skills, and money: make sure no content slips through the cracks at this stage.
Then it’s time to match each old page with its corresponding new page: this is known as redirection.
This redirect should be performed as close as possible: that way you retain the traffic from visitors to the previous site, and you also keep the benefit of the SEO work done with Google.
After this detailed work, verify the proper correspondence between the two sites' structures.
Then, do this matching work again, but this time with the URLs.
At this point in the process, you have completed the most tedious part: the preparation phase. Now comes the fateful moment when you will make your redirects operational.
Two options are then possible:
- Via an .htaccess file
- Via a plugin
You can create an htaccess file, a sort of matrix that the web server reads first. This is a fairly long and technical option.
Or your CMS offers the possibility to use a plugin (as with WordPress), which shortens and simplifies this step.
Finally, some time later, carry out the mirror operation of the initial inventory you made, when creating a sitemap.
Examine the SEO positioning of the new pages and the old ones to compare them. This is a productive step, especially if you need to justify the profitability of the site migration you just completed.
3. Three mistakes to avoid
To complete this step-by-step roadmap, we've listed for you the 3 mistakes to avoid when migrating to a new site without losing traffic.
404 errors
The number one mistake to avoid is leaving 404 errors. We mentioned this several times during the different stages of the migration process.
Why is this so important? Because a user who lands on a 404 error will keep a bad impression of your site.
Internet attention spans are extremely short, as you know: that user will likely go to the competitor's page that loads fastest.
Imagine that this internet user had previously bookmarked this page on your site in their favorites, and that they encounter this 404 error.
Someone who thought they could refer back to your page as often as needed goes from frustration to a feeling of outright abandonment.
Always remember how data and emotion are connected in SEO…
Copy/paste your old site
Mistake No. 2 to avoid is rebuilding the same site exactly as it was.
Indeed, it would sound like “all that for nothing?” in the minds of users from the previous site who expected improvements linked to the site migration, and it would cause a loss of traffic.
Merging too many pages
Mistake No. 3 would be trying to merge too many pages. That would unbalance the correspondence between the two site trees.
Can you still merge two old pages into a new one? The answer is yes: migrating a site is also about change — otherwise the operation has no purpose.
But you must be careful not to do it on too large a scale, otherwise you risk disrupting the smooth transition between the two versions of the site.
4. Benefits of a site migration
Granted, the process of migrating a site is a path strewn with pitfalls. Many errors are possible, and the steps are tedious. But the potential rewards match this effort. Explanation.
At the moment of the switch and for some time afterwards, you may record a drop in traffic.
Why? Because it takes time for users to get used to the new site on the one hand, and on the other because at first the spybots will be slower to crawl your new site.
But if the migration is carried out correctly, the traffic recovery will not be long in coming, and will often exceed the numbers of the old site.
Why? Because preparing the site migration will have been the occasion for a genuine site SEO audit. You have here a fantastic opportunity for renewal!
You can improve the site's usability with the well-known combination of a good internal linking and a breadcrumb trail high-performing one. But to go further, consider studying your site's depth.
The general rule is to not go beyond four levels.
Moreover, this same overall rule for site architecture also applies within your articles, where it is recommended in HTML not to go beyond H4 tags.
As you can see, site migration is a process with high SEO stakes, which can either improve or harm the search ranking of the new version of your site.
To maximize the benefits of this migration, you must, however, follow its key steps one by one.
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