If you already have a website with some ranking on Google and some Visitor volume, moving to a new site can be daunting. However, when done right, transferring across to a new site, even a new domain name, can have little negative impact on results and rankings.
Quality traffic over quantity
Before looking at the measures that can be taken to minimise the risk of losing SEO value when moving websites, it is important to understand whether there is any SEO value worth chasing.
This is done, primarily with two exercises:
1) A thorough assessment of Google Analytics
It is common for website owners to consider their website is successful and valuable, based purely on the volume of Visitors.
However, quality of Visitors is by far the more important metric.
Frequently, poorly executed sites get a lot of spam Sessions, which bump up their Visitor numbers but also make their Bounce Rate (the % of Visitors that leave immediately) very high.
Also, engagement statistics may be low, such as Time on Site and Pages Viewed, due to a poor Customer Journey, or lack of creative design. With a newly designed website, that is more interactive and with improved functionality, the engagement statistics can be improved.
2) SEO Keyword Research
Secondly, SEO keywords that a business owner thinks are relevant to their product or service, may not be even searched for online.
Therefore, they are not worth chasing anyway, and other means of promotion are likely the cause for current traffic to the website.
This could include social media, email marketing or back-links from other websites.
An assessment of where your website is right now is the first step of seeing if any of the SEO value can be retained.
It may be that there isn’t actually as much value as you think, and you can move onto creating your new website platform with ease.
A successful website is not just related to SEO
Whist SEO is still important, one of the key driving factors that adds to the success of a website is providing the user with engaging content, and a reason why they would want to return.
This is often best achieved these days without the behind the scenes SEO practices of yesteryear, but instead with quality content and an integrated marketing strategy.
Google has largely been successful in eradicating the tricks people used to use to boost rankings. Writing quality and unique blog articles that people would want to read can be significantly more effective then many other SEO tactics.
Frequently, business owners tend to give too much focus on Google and forget it should be part of a wider marketing tool.
New website, same domain.
This is the most common type of website transfer. Business owners often opt to upgrade their website design & content every couple of years. Technology advances so quickly that they can use new features and functionality. Or, a business wants to enhance and grow their website as their business grows too, investing more into their promotional platforms.
If you are changing the content, images and page names within a website then it’s bound to have an effect on ranking.
However, with the correct care and attention to the new site, this can be minimised, and sometimes eliminated.
If some of the pages in the current site have been particularly successful, then it may be necessary to keep the page titles and descriptions, if possible.
If your ranking is due to brand, which has come about from external links on reputable sites, then you could see no difference what so ever.
Sometimes you see a dip and a fairly quick return, sometimes an improvement and rarely (if you do it right), a drop.
These days most businesses don’t rely just on Google rankings, particularly in sectors where there is little search activity online. Social media and digital marketing also play a key part in driving traffic to the website.
New website, new domain.
With the correct practices, a change in domain can be achieved without a loss of SEO value. It is possible to set up redirects on the old name and inform Google of the move through specific online tools. Then the age, authority and reputation of your old website in Google is transferred to this new web address. In these cases, the old domain should be retained with the new redirects in place.
However, if you are changing the domain name, and all the contents of the website, then you are effectively starting from scratch in the eyes of Google, so this can have an effect on ranking, at least in the short-term.
Whilst a new domain may take time to rank in Google, and there may be a temporary drop in traffic, over the longer-term rankings and visitor volume should improve if the new site is of better quality than the old.
Initially, you always need to be aware of what you are actually ranking well for, and whether or not it’s worth chasing.
Same website, new domain
If there is SEO worth keeping, then sticking with the same domain is always best, unless there is good reason not too, like a change of brand, for example. With a re-brand, a change in domain is normally required.
There is always a small risk from switching domain, but by following best practices laid out by Google it ensures risks are minimized, and it can lead to very little effect.
Diverting your old URL
It is possible to divert an old URL to a new one to pick up loyal visitors, i.e. people that know your URL.
If you no longer host any content under the old one then it will drop off Google’s ranking. It is possible to inform Google through specific online tools that the website has moved, which may help. The old URL will appear in the ranking if it’s typed correctly into the search, but that is all.
Temporary redirection of pages
It is possible to set up redirects from old pages to new ones. This adds value for the interim period where Google still has the old pages in it’s results, and also if you have those pages linked in from external sites.
