Migrating a website can feel a little like moving into a new house. On one hand, you’re excited about the fresh start, but on the other, you don’t want to lose anything important along the way. And when it comes to your website, one of the most valuable things you own is your SEO ranking.
The good news? With the right plan in place, you can migrate your site smoothly and keep your hard-earned visibility intact. Let’s walk through how to accomplish this without giving Google (or your customers) any reason to forget about you.
Website Migrations and Their Purpose
A website migration is the process of making significant changes to a site’s structure, design, platform, or location, which are all changes that can impact how search engines index and rank your site. Common types of website migrations include:
- Domain changes. Moving from one web address to another.
- Platform or CMS changes. Switching from one Content Management System to another (like WordPress to Shopify).
- Design overhauls. Redesigning your site’s look and structure, sometimes with new layouts and navigation.
- Hosting changes. Moving to a new server or hosting provider.
- Protocol changes. Switching from HTTP to HTTPS for better security.
- Structural changes. Changing your site’s URL structure, navigation, or category setup.
Proven Tips for a Smooth, SEO-Friendly Site Migration
Here at Magna Technology, we migrate websites with precision and care, helping businesses make the transition smoothly while protecting their hard-earned search visibility. Here are some tips on how to ensure a smooth, SEO-friendly site migration.
Know Why You’re Migrating
Before you pack up your digital boxes, get clear on the “why.” People migrate their websites for all types of reasons, such as rebranding, better performance, security improvements, and expanded features. Knowing your exact reason will help you map out the right migration strategy and avoid unnecessary changes that could impact SEO.
Conduct an Audit
A website migration is not something to wing. Before you flip the switch, you’ll want to audit your current site. This includes documenting your top-performing pages, backlinks, and keywords. Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to get a complete URL list. Also, take note of your current traffic, rankings, and conversions so you have a before-and-after snapshot.
Map Your Old URLs to New Ones
If your migration involves any URL changes, this step is absolutely critical. A well-planned URL mapping strategy ensures that both visitors and search engines can find the content they’re looking for without hitting dead ends.
Start by creating a complete list of your existing URLs using a site crawl tool. Then, determine the closest equivalent page for each one on your new site. Even if the content has changed slightly, directing users to the most relevant match helps preserve their experience and keeps your bounce rates low.
Once you’ve mapped the URLs, set up 301 permanent redirects. A 301 redirect signals to search engines that a page has permanently moved, allowing most of the original SEO value to transfer to the new page. Without these redirects, you risk losing rankings, backlinks, and valuable traffic.
Keep Content and Metadata Consistent
During a migration, it’s tempting to tweak titles, descriptions, and copy to “freshen things up”. But big changes can cause search engines to treat your new site as a totally different entity. Keep your content, headings, and metadata as consistent as possible until your rankings stabilize, then make gradual improvements. Also, ensure your alt text, schema markup, and internal linking remain the same during the transition.
Test Before You Go Live
Before launching your new site, it’s essential to run it in a staging environment, a private, non-public version of the site that allows you to check for issues without impacting your live traffic. This testing phase is your opportunity to make sure everything works exactly as it should.
Verify that all 301 redirects are working correctly, so visitors (and search engines) who land on old URLs are sent to the right new pages. Click through your internal links to ensure they point to the correct locations and don’t lead to 404 errors. Also, check that images, scripts, and other media load quickly and without errors, since slow or broken assets can harm both user experience and SEO performance.
Lastly, review your robots.txt file and any meta tags to confirm that no important pages are accidentally blocked from being indexed.
Notify Google About the Change
Once the migration is live, it’s important to update Google right away so search engines can start indexing your new site structure. Update Google Search Console with the new domain or sitemap, as this ensures Google knows exactly where your content has moved and can start transferring SEO equity from your old URLs to your new ones.
Also, submit your updated XML sitemap (which acts like a roadmap for Google) and monitor crawl errors daily for the first few weeks. Keep an eye out for 404 (Not Found) errors, redirect loops, or blocked pages and fix them as soon as possible to prevent your rankings from dropping.
Monitor Your Metrics Closely
For the first few weeks after migration, keep a close eye on keyword rankings, organic traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates. If you see significant drops, investigate them quickly. Usually, it’s an easy fix like a broken redirect or missing tag.
It’s also wise to track crawl errors and index coverage reports in Search Console, as these will reveal if search engines are having trouble finding or indexing your updated content. Consider setting up automated alerts so you’re notified of sudden changes in traffic or rankings.
Remember, you don’t want to just “spot” problems, but also respond to them so you can keep building on your successes.
Smooth, SEO-Safe Website Migrations—Handled for You
Migrating your website doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your SEO rankings. With a clear plan, thorough testing, and careful monitoring, you can make the move confidently and even set your site up for better performance in the future.
At Magna Technology, we specialize in smooth, SEO-safe website migrations that protect your search visibility and keep your business running without a hitch. If you’re ready to make the move, we’ll help you pack everything neatly, carry it over, and set it up so it’s better than ever. Give us a call today at (617) 249-0539 to learn more.