There are many reasons why digital content creators might decide to migrate their websites. Among other reasons, they may aim to create a faster, more secure site that benefits both their business and its users, improve User Experience, cut operational costs by selecting a more affordable hosting provider, or boost SEO. Whatever the motivation, a solid plan and some tips are essential to ensure everything works like a charm!
What is website migration
Website migration is the process of making severe changes in a website’s structure, project, localization, or technology. Usually, it’s done to benefit User Experience or SEO. Such a process, for example, includes:
- transferring or changing the domain name when, for example, your company undergoes rebranding;
- choosing a new hosting provider when a website loads slowly or you face security problems. Publishers should opt for a trustworthy hosting provider to ensure their website loads quickly, stays online and remains secure. Additionally, good customer support and scalable options as the website grows are also a plus;
- redesigning the website when the old one is outdated, providing a lousy User Experience, or is just not in line with your business goals anymore;
- changing the platform or CMS, which can resolve scalability issues when your website grows or provide special functionalities, like UI templates or SEO plugins, that can make your life easier.
Website migration SEO impact
There are plenty of rewards coming with a properly executed website migration process:
- the Google Core Web Vitals of your website may improve, which in consequence can lead to a higher position of your website in the search ranking, as Google highly values fast loading, responsiveness, and lack of significant layout shifts (which is a sudden movement of web page elements while the page is still loading);
- website migration presents a valuable opportunity to enhance your site’s various aspects, such as accessibility, for instance, by improving the color contrast ratio, which plays a vital role in the visibility of your content on users’ screens and design quality. If this contrast is too low, users may struggle to read your content;
- another aspect you can upgrade thanks to this process is User Experience, which might include improvement of navigation using, for instance, breadcrumbs or responsiveness enhancements that allow for an optimal viewing experience and design consistency across devices;
- your website can be better optimized for search engines. For example, you can enhance SEO by analyzing internal linking structures or incorporating effective keyword optimization.
However, sometimes some complications, also the SEO-related ones, may arise during the transfer. Here are some risks you can encounter during the website migration process:
- your website can encounter SEO issues, including potential declines in organic traffic, ranking, or conversion rate;
- temporary shutdown (unavailability) of the website that may cause your audience confusion;
- website migration is a complicated process that may require significant time and resources;
- broke links and 404 errors can occur;
- if data isn’t properly backed up, it may lead to data loss at some point.
Website migration plan
- Reflect on the actual need for change and conduct an audit, pinpoint content that should be deleted, refreshed, recycled, or redirected;
- Thoughtfully plan each step, considering the possible outcomes, benefits, and drawbacks. Prepare well in advance and consult with your team when necessary. Think whether you need professional assistance with your website redesign. Creating a timeline for all your tasks is also a good idea;
- Gather essential data from tools like Google Search Console or Google Analytics. Don’t forget to check your website performance (Google Core Web Vitals): Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, and Interaction to Next Paint. Save all the information so you will be able to compare the results after your website migration;
- Consider a backup. Even if you entrusted someone with the following steps, you need a safety measure in case something unexpected happens, and you will need all your files and content (if you use WordPress, in the following paragraph, we will recommend some plugins that might assist you in that task);
- This is the moment for the “main” work to be done. This might include but is not limited to, redesigning your website interface and structure (when doing this, keep in mind UX laws) and also working on SEO aspects. If you’re moving your website to a new domain or switching to HTTPS, use a 301 redirect. It will tell search engines to connect your old rankings to the new URLs on your updated site. 301 redirect is also an HTTP status code, the same one as the mentioned above 404. However, it does not cause “Page not find” text to appear; instead, it forwards the wanted page from the old URL to a new location;
- It is also advised to set up a testing environment, which is a safe thing to do because, during the process, your website can’t yet be indexed. You can, among others, set up a password so only people with it will be able to see it. Check whether your site is responsive and whether everything looks how you intended. With a test version, you can also ask your acquaintances to see the new version of your website and maybe give you some helpful notes on what could be improved. And make sure all your redirects work properly;
- Build a content inventory (a list of all your pages that you can easily compare with your initial plan to spot any missing ones) and make sure you’ve correctly set up analytics;
- When it comes to the new version’s big launch, consider doing it, when your audience is unlikely to visit your website (for instance, when most of your users are probably asleep). Additionally, it’s not good for website analytics if the website is down for too long;
- Check thoroughly if everything went according to plan and correct any potential issues;
- After some time, you should assess your website performance – see whether you gained or lost traffic, check the bounce rate, and analyze the numbers before and after the migration.
Website migration service
If you don’t want to migrate a website all by yourself, you can get some help, for example, by using a website migration service like Autify Digital. They manage the entire migration process, paying attention to UX and SEO aspects while also testing, tracking, and providing reports afterward. Alternatively, you can opt for automated migration solutions. For instance, GoDaddy offers Managed WordPress Auto Migration, allowing you to quickly transfer your WordPress site to their hosting platform. And speaking of WordPress, this CMS provides a variety of plugins, which are easy to install and configure:
- Duplicator allows for an automatic, scheduled website backup, that can be stored in cloud services like Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. Additionally, it streamlines the process of website migration with a dedicated tool called WordPress Migration Wizard or a feature called Custom Search & Replace that allows one to find and replace old URLs;
- UpdraftPlus helps to back up and migrate your website. It provides a convenient way to take care of your files by setting up an automatic backup on a specific hour, day, or month;
- Jetpack VaultPress Backup, apart from backup services, additionally detects and deletes viruses and has a Spam Defense feature included.
You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending
There is always an opportunity for change. If the situation requires it or if you notice a chance to improve your website, with careful decisions, you can enhance its condition, thereby increasing its performance and, eventually, its earning potential. If you’re interested in applying monetization solutions to your optimized digital content, you can consider joining our network!
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