Ever doubted how much Organic Search traffic contributes to your bottom line? Migrate your website without proper care and watch your traffic and leads/sales plummet. Web designers will drop the SEO word here and there but are they really SEO specialists? Are they really SEO-optimising the fundamental things when they (and you) are focused on the look and design of the new site?
Time and time again. Time and time again. Still in 2019 and 2020 most website migrations I have seen from external parties has been 'cocked up' after months of focusing on the design but not the website content migration plan . 404 errors on pages that drove huge amounts of traffic or the kicker ... I'll re-direction to the homepage cause that will save the page rank. And then there's the redirections that Google Ads doesn't alert as a page not found wasting money click after click.
To be honest, it doesn't even need to be a website migration. A SEO Audit identifies /irrelevant-page-url/ would be better as /seo-optimised-page-url (for better ranking) and the professional and well paid web designer fails to redirect the old to the new. Google sees that as a fresh page without the page authority that's been building up over the years.
The risk is tens, hundreds, potentially thousands of leads or sales a week. Proper investment in the lead up can save lost leads/sales, many hours, stress and thousands of dollars in advertising fixing the problem. In the last 5 years I've seen several sites revert back to the old soon after migrating. The 2+ month lead up and anticipation of greatness lost in a matter of hours.
A proper website content migration plan is necessary when upgrading your website. Here's how I attack it, the tools I use and me offering my services if it all seems a little too hard.
