SEO: how to move to a new website without losing traffic?

 Here is a question with high SEO stakes: how to migrate to a new site without losing traffic? Indeed, migrating a site is a useful, but delicate maneuver. It allows a change in the form or hosting of the site, because to survive on the internet, you have to adapt!

But it is also a delicate maneuver from an SEO point of view: you must both leave room for the novelty of the site that has just been born, and at the same time, know how to capitalize on the benefit of the SEO work patiently carried out through the old site.

It is therefore preferable to take the time to carefully make the switch from the old site to the new one, and not to give in too quickly to the temptation of a “tabula rasa”, of “we are redoing everything from scratch”. " Quickly.

To help you make the previous content creation and SEO work profitable on the old site, while taking advantage of the advantages of the new site, we explain point by point in this article how to migrate to a new site without losing traffic.

1. Site migration: a technical and rigorous process

We speak of “site migration” when we move from a site A to a site B. We then take all or part of the pages from the old version, before carrying out correspondence work between each page of the two versions. But before going further and explaining the successive stages of site migration, let's take a look at the reasons for migrating a website!

First, you may want to migrate a site because you are changing servers. Today, more and more companies (SMEs included) are choosing a dedicated server to secure their data, or even obtain additional features such as a corporate intranet.

Then, we can consider a site migration because we are changing our domain name. This desire to change the name often occurs during an evolution of the marketing strategy, or the passage of the original company into the hands of another. Sometimes, it is also an opportunity to redesign several sites into one to better centralize information and traffic.

Finally, we can consider a site migration to be able to access better technology. We think, for example, of “responsive design”, which allows your site to be displayed optimally regardless of the type of screen (all sizes of smartphone, tablet, computer).

This also refers to access to the https protocol, which is gradually becoming more widespread. The latter is in fact on the way to becoming essential for the good health of your site. Keep in mind that the lack of https protocol is frowned upon by both Internet users and crawl robots.

Whether it is a question of changing a domain name, a server or whether you are looking for access to more advantageous technology, site migration remains an operation with high SEO implications. We now detail the steps to follow for a successful site migration without loss of traffic.

2. Steps for a site migration

To avoid losing traffic, a site migration must follow precise steps and, in some cases, quite technical.

First of all, you will need to establish a sitemap , that is to say a plan presenting the architecture of your website in an XML file. This must include all URLs , as well as HTML tags.

Don't forget the meta descriptions , important for the attractiveness of each page of the site and for its positioning in search results.

Creating this sitemap is an opportunity to take stock, not only overall, but especially for each page and for each type of page on your website. This involves drawing up a “skills assessment” in terms of raw traffic, but also more refined data such as the number of shares or the click rate on this or that part of the site. Do not neglect this crucial step: it is used to determine what we keep, what we modify or what we delete for the future site.

Then, it's time to recover all your content. Be thorough and organized by arranging content both by page content and by content type (text, image, sound, etc.). In addition, creating content requires time, skills and money: make sure that no content escapes you during this step.

Finally, it is important to match each of the old pages with each of the new ones: this is called redirection. It must be carried out as faithfully as possible to the first version of the page: in this way, you retain the traffic provided by Internet users of the previous site as well as the benefit of the SEO work carried out with Google.

Once this step is completed, consider crawling your old site. The goal ? Identify and correct any 404 errors as quickly as possible.

After this detailed work, check the correct correspondence between the trees of the two sites. Once done, carry out this matching work again, but this time with the URLs .

At this point in the process, you have completed the most tedious part: the preparation phase. Then comes the fateful moment when you will make your redirects operational.

Two options are then possible:

• Via an htaccess file
• Via a plug-in

You can create an htaccess file, a sort of matrix which will be read first by the web server. This is a fairly long and technical possibility, but your CMS may also offer you the possibility of using a plug-in (this is the case in WordPress), which shortens and simplifies this step even more.

To complete this launch, remember to crawl both sites for a new check and hunt for the slightest 404 error.

Finally, some time later, carry out the symmetrical operation of the inventory carried out at the beginning, when making a sitemap.

Look at the SEO positioning of the new and old pages to compare them. This is a fruitful step, especially if you are required to justify the profitability of the site migration you have just carried out.

3. Three mistakes to avoid

To complete this step-by-step roadmap, we have identified for you the 3 mistakes to avoid in order to migrate to a new site without losing traffic.

404 errors

The #1 mistake to avoid is leaving 404 errors. We've talked about this several times during the different stages of the migration process.

Why is this so important? Because a user who comes across a 404 error will have a bad impression of your site. Internet time is extremely short, as you know: this Internet user will probably go to the competitor's page which opens the fastest.

Imagine that this Internet user had previously pinned this page of your site in his favorites, and that he came across this 404 error. He who thought he could refer to your page as often as necessary, goes from frustration to a feeling of abandonment pure and simple!

Always keep in mind how data and emotion are connected in SEO…

Copy/paste your old site

The No. 2 mistake to avoid is redoing the same site identically.

Indeed, in the minds of Internet users of the previous site, this would sound like “all that for that?” ". They were expecting improvements related to site migration and will be greatly disappointed, which would result in a significant loss of traffic.

Doing too many page merges

Mistake #3 would be trying to merge too many pages. This would unbalance the correspondence between the two trees.

Can we still merge two old pages into a new one? The answer is yes: migrating a site also involves change, otherwise there is no point in the operation! But you must be careful not to do this in too large volumes, otherwise you risk compromising the smooth flow between the two versions of the site.

4. The benefits of a site migration

Of course, the process of migrating a site is a journey fraught with pitfalls. The possible errors are numerous, and the steps tedious. But the possible rewards are worth the effort. Explanations.

At the time of the changeover and some time after, there is a risk of experiencing a drop in traffic. For what ? On the one hand, because it takes time for Internet users to get to grips with the new site; on the other hand, because spybots will take longer to crawl your new site.

But if the migration is carried out correctly, the increase in traffic will not be long in coming, and will often exceed the figures of the old site. For what ? Because the preparation of the site migration will have been the opportunity for a real SEO audit of the site . This is a fantastic opportunity for renewal!

You can improve the ergonomics of the site using the well-known recipe of good internal networking and efficient breadcrumbs. But to go further, consider studying the depth of your site. The general rule involves not going beyond four levels. Moreover, this same global rule of site architecture also applies within your articles, where it is recommended in HTML language not to go further than the H4 tags.

We will have understood: site migration is a process with high SEO stakes, which can change the SEO of the new version of your site for better or for worse. To optimize the benefits of this migration, however, the key stages must be respected point by point.

Our advice

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