SEO Migration: What Is It & Why Is Website Migration Being Hyped In Digital Marketing? 

Being in the digital marketing field, I have seen countless good sites lose their authority within the blink of an eye. And, that too because they migrated the website. 

Since then, website migration has been taboo in my mind. Now, most digital marketing agencies avoid website migration to keep their authority and organic traffic intact. 

And, I get that it is risky to migrate a good website. But sometimes migration can change the overall SEO performance. Taking rankings to the next level. 

Now, you must be wondering how to tread this risky path. Well, the answer is to follow a proper SEO migration guide — covering both the pre-planning and post-checklists. 

So, here, I have brought you exactly that. In this simple guide, I have delved into the diverse aspects of website migration, exploring— 

• Why businesses need to migrate, 

• Common challenges with migration, 

• A checklist for both pre- and post-migration, and more. 

Stay tuned! 

What Is SEO Migration? Understanding The Basics Of Website Migration 

Before diving into the checklists, let’s understand what exactly SEO migration is.

So, to put it in simple words, website migration, or as it is commonly known, SEO migration, refers to a relocation process. 

That is, it is a process to move a website from its former domain, hosting area, or content niche to another. 

Now, this is done for a variety of reasons. But the risky part of this process is the loss of stability in the digital space. 

That is, this sudden migration from a stable content management system can massively impact the organic traffic, domain authority, and more. 

So, naturally, it is usually avoided to ensure that the brand sites stay stable. 

Why Do Businesses Choose SEO Migration? 

Even though the process is complicated and associated with high risk, businesses often choose to migrate their websites. So, here are some of the reasons behind— 

1. Technological Changes — If the brand is switching to a modern technology, they need to integrate it into the system. So, it changes the website to upgrade it for the technological change. 

2. Relocating Website — This revolves around changing the domain of the site by relocating it to another one. So, the brands can relocate the site to a new domain, merge with another site, or rebrand it. 

3. Redesigning Site Structure — Unlike minor tweaks in the website, major design changes can often lead to a migration of the website. So, brands might choose to redesign the entire website and change the domain location. 

4. Content Production Changes — Moreover, if brands choose to change their content production angle, then they need to change the entire domain. So, the new content production aligns with the website designs. 

5. Switching Host Domain — If the host is switching, then the website needs to be migrated to the new hosting, domain, and location. So, it becomes easier to switch the hosts with a simple website change. 

Common Challenges Of Website Migration 

Now, migrating can sound exciting, but it comes with massive risks and challenges. So, some of these challenges include— 

1. Poor Website Planning 

Firstly, poor planning and resources can massively impact the smooth migration of the websites. So, it is vital to develop a proper plan for running the migration process. 

That is, brands need to identify the purpose, allocate the resources, and structure the team, and keep an alternative plan handy — in case things go South. 

2. Ignoring SEO Optimization 

Another vital challenge is SEO optimization. Given that migration impacts the SEO performance, it is better to optimize the process to minimize this SEO impact on the site. 

3. Internal Communication Issues 

Team communication regarding the website migration cannot be overlooked. That is, brands need to ensure that all the cross-functional teams communicate about the process. 

This way, the process can be streamlined and smoothly run, avoiding major issues. So, migration can be done in a few days. 

4. Lack Of Experiments 

Moreover, testing and experimentation matter. That is, before making the final decision on the structure, design, and other aspects of the websites, brands need to test different versions. 

So, brands can conduct private testing of the different versions and collect the engagement data. Then, based on these insights, they can make a more data-driven decision. 

5. Limited Deadlines 

Finally, SEO migration is not a one-night process. It takes hours and days to fully migrate a site to another domain without majorly impacting its SEO aspects. 

So, having short deadlines can affect the proper execution of the migration process.

How To Do SEO Migration? A Checklist For Beginners 

Since SEO migration is a very complicated process, following a proper process is vital. So, here are the pre-migration and post-migration checklists— 

Pre-Migration Checklist 

Now, before starting the migration process, here is what you need to keep prepared. This way, you can conduct a successful SEO migration. 

1. Audit Crawlability 

Conducting an audit on how the current version is crawled gives accurate data on the site’s authority and SEO performance. So, it can help in comparison. 

2. Collect Pre-Migration Data 

Then, gather the data on the indexed URLs, traffic, backlinks reports, XML sitemap, and content-related information. So, it can be compared with the post-migration results. 

3. Check Ranking Keywords 

After that, collect the data on the current ranking keywords and their traffic rate. So, it can help in identifying the post-migration issues with the website. 

4. Create A Redirecting Map 

Moreover, you need to create a clear map of the current pages that will be redirected to the new version. This will keep track of the entire redirection in the URLs. 

5. Audit Staging Site

Finally, conducting a technical audit on the staging site can help in resolving the tech issues before starting the migration process. So, post migration, these issues won’t affect the site’s SEO performance. 

Post-Migration Checklist 

Similarly, after the migration is over, you need to check how successful it was. So, here is a clear breakdown of the post-migration checklist—

1. Older Site Audit Data 

Firstly, to start the comparison between the older and the newer versions of the website, you need to audit the older site and collect relevant data on its SEO performance. 

2. Audit New Site Crawlability 

Then, run an audit on the newer site to measure its crawlability and SEO performance. This way, you can compare the URLs, tags, blocked pages, and other issues at the earliest. 

3. Sitemap and Robots.txt Analysis 

After that, analyze the sitemap and robots.txt files to ensure they are formatted properly. So, you can identify the tech issues and fix them with the XML sitemap validator. 

4. Google Analytics Reports 

Moreover, collect the GA4 reports on the indexing, traffic, ranking keywords, and page speed. This can help in comparing the two versions and measuring the success rate of the overall SEO migration. 

5. Backlink Update Requests 

Finally, you need to identify the broken backlinks and fix them by sending requests to the authoritative sites. Additionally, you can use the 301 redirects to pass the link equity after the migration process is complete. 

Now, the process of migrating a website from its current domain to its new domain is not child’s play. Moreover, it comes with risks and challenges. 

So, a simple mistake can be quite fatal to the overall SEO performance. 

But when you have the perfect checklist for both the pre- and post migration process, the process no longer feels daunting.

So, take this chance to migrate your website without falling into the risky pitfalls. 

FAQs 

Here, I have delved into the diverse frequently asked questions around the SEO migration for websites that most users look for.