website migration: seo survival kit (artur jach tfm&a 2014)
DESCRIPTION
With marketers typically redesigning, overhauling or migrating their website every two years the pressure on maintaining organic search visibility is mounting. Whilst emerging technologies, new content management systems and new tools in SEO help with effective website migration, there are still many pitfalls to avoid and steps to take to ensure your site doesn’t lose visibility in search. This presentation will explore how to survive website migration and maybe even improve your SEO performance by following a simple SEO migration process.TRANSCRIPT
Quick intro
The SEO campaign is doing well and you’re taking the credit for it
BossClient
Unless you’ve met this cuddly pair
Your white hat SEO is paying off
But one day you hear the dreaded words “website migration”
Great… it’s tempting to take this route
Why panic?
Top reasons
New CMS
New design
New domain
Domain consolidationExpansion
Google Penalty
Architecture
So why migrate a website?
You then pull yourself together, do your research and seek help
Brand & domain name considerations
List of current and historical pages
Keyword research & analysis
CMS & Content migration
considerations
Reviewing sitemap and site structure
Reviewing wireframes and designs
Technical and code optimisation
Content optimisation (titles, descriptions, copy,
links)
Redirect mapping and strategy
Pre-launch checks & recommendations
Post-launch indexation and visibility checks
(getting the site indexed)
Post-launch evaluation
Discovery Optimisation Launch Ongoing SEO..
Three migration steps
Is your new domain name too ambiguous?
Is it too generic?
Destined for instant success?
A new brand name? Or is it?
Free CMS platforms might do the job
If you need a scalable, enterprise solution with great support for SEO think about Sitecore– Easy editing of the usual on-site SEO elements– Separation of business logic and presentation layer >> SEO friendly HTML and URLs– Smooth content migration using the API for direct system to system content
migration– Redirection module is a great asset for matching old pages and URLs
Help yourself with SEO friendly CMS
Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform
Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform
Current website:– Screaming Frog / Xenu (crawl the site)– Webmaster Tools (most popular pages)– Google Analytics (best SEO landing pages)– Searchmetrics, Linkdex, BrightEdge (rankings pages)
Historical URLs– Webmaster Tools (404 not found pages)– Wayback machine + link download plugin (pages from the old website)– Open Site Explorer / Majestic SEO (old pages linked to from external sites)
Get a list of all pages… you’ll need it
KeywordRank Search Volume Search Volume Ranking URL
cake recipes20 71,583 http://www.flora.com/flora/tasty-and-healthy-recipes/cake-recipes/
lemon drizzle cake7 57,265 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Cake-recipes/Lemon-drizzle-cake.aspx
carrot cake recipe18 51,621 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Cake-recipes/Carrot-cake.aspx
macaroni cheese35 13,583 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Dinner-recipes/Macaroni-cheese.aspx
crumble recipe28 13,225 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Baking-recipes/peach-and-raspberry-crumble.aspx
healthy meals11 13,050 http://www.flora.com/flora/tasty-and-healthy-recipes/
how to make cupcakes16 10,687 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Cake-recipes/Lemon-cupcakes.aspx
lentil soup49 10,362 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Soup-recipes/Moroccan-red-lentil-soup.aspx
baking recipes12 10,133 http://www.flora.com/flora/tasty-and-healthy-recipes/baking-recipes/
change 4 life38 8,458 http://www.flora.com/flora/flora-and-change4life/
brownies recipe27 8,183 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Cake-recipes/Chocolate-brownies.aspx
coronation chicken49 8,025 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Sandwich-recipes/cheats-coronation-chicken.aspx
minestrone soup25 7,962 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Soup-recipes/Minestrone-soup.aspx
beef burger recipe38 7,925 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Dinner-recipes/Herbed-burgers-with-potato-wedges.aspx
american pancakes34 7,808 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Breakfast-recipes/american-pancakes.aspx
healthy dinner recipes33 7,670 http://www.flora.com/flora/tasty-and-healthy-recipes/dinner-recipes/
chicken stir fry48 7,212 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Dinner-recipes/Chicken-and-honey-ginger-stir-fry.aspx
profiteroles37 6,950 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Cake-recipes/Profiteroles-with-chocolate-orange-sauce.aspx
lemon cake9 6,815 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Cake-recipes/Lemon-drizzle-cake.aspx
easy cake recipes29 6,470 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Cake-recipes/Carrot-cake.aspx
change4life30 6,266 http://www.flora.com/flora/flora-and-change4life/
cheese straws31 6,126 http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/Baking-recipes/Cheese-straws.aspx
Do your keyword research
Brand & domain name considerations
List of current and historical pages
Keyword research & analysis
CMS & Content migration
considerations
Reviewing sitemap and site structure
Reviewing wireframes and designs
Technical and code optimisation
Content optimisation (titles, descriptions, copy,
links)
Redirect mapping and strategy
Pre-launch checks & recommendations
Post-launch indexation and visibility checks
(getting the site indexed)
Post-launch evaluation
Discovery Optimisation Launch Ongoing SEO..
Three migration steps
Are target keyword groups reflected in the sitemap?
Optimise before the first line of code is written
Time to actually do something
http://searchengineland.com/seotable
Brand & domain name considerations
List of current and historical pages
Keyword research & analysis
CMS & Content migration
considerations
Reviewing sitemap and site structure
Reviewing wireframes and designs
Technical and code optimisation
Content optimisation (titles, descriptions, copy,
links)
Redirect mapping and strategy
Pre-launch checks & recommendations
Post-launch indexation and visibility checks
(getting the site indexed)
Post-launch evaluation
Discovery Optimisation Launch Ongoing SEO..
Those three migration steps again
x
Create a like for like redirect mapping using all gathered URLs
Things to remember:They must be 301 permanent redirectsUse ‘catch-all’ wildcards if the list is longPrioritise redirects by how beneficial they are to SEOTest on preview version of the siteIt’s tempting to cut corners and to do a site-wide redirectAt the same time don’t overdo it
Redirect strategy is the single most important part of SEO migration
Then the moment of truth
1. Check the site can be indexed
2. Submit XML Sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools
3. Get the site indexed
4. Test redirects
Are we there yet?
The following chain of events might be expected:1. Post-migration dip in SEO visibility2. Temporary spike3. Return to “normal”4. Continuous improvement
1
2
3
4
The aftermath and expected SEO performance
1
2 3
4
On other websites it may take longer to recover
The return of the hero
Thank You
Brand & domain name considerations
List of current and historical pages
Keyword research & analysis
CMS & Content migration considerations
Reviewing sitemap and site structure
Reviewing wireframes and designs
Technical and code optimisation
Content optimisation (titles, descriptions, copy, links)
Redirect mapping and strategy
Pre-launch checks & recommendations
Post-launch indexation and visibility checks
(getting the site indexed)
Post-launch evaluation
Discovery Optimisation Launch Ongoing SEO...
@arthurjach Artur Jach