SEO Website Migration
Rely on Seasoned Technical SEO Experts for Your Website Migration – Not Luck
Embryo has helped countless businesses of all sizes make seamless and successful SEO website migrations. Our experienced technical SEO team will cover the full migration, from planning to post-live checks, in order to meet our clients’ goals. All while minimising disruption.
Is it possible to migrate your website yourself? Absolutely. We even have tips on how to manage a site migration. The issue is the risk involved.
You’ve probably invested a huge amount of time and resources establishing your website’s search visibility. If you’ve carefully built traffic, authority, and backlinks, the best investment you can make is to protect them. Contact our agency of SEO experts today for your free consultation, and we’ll talk you through our SEO website migration services. Call Embryo on 0161 327 2635 or get in touch via email at [email protected].
Let Our Team Ensure A Successful Migration.
There is a lot at stake with a website migration so why not leave it in the hands of experts? Get in touch with us today by phone at 0161 327 2635 or email [email protected].
Would highly recommend. A truly exceptional agency to work with. A real pleasure to work with such a friendly team of professionals.
What’s a Website Migration?
And perhaps, more importantly, why would someone want to migrate their website when it exposes the site to so much risk? If you’re in the process of considering a migration, you might be doing so for the following reasons:
- CMS change – Otherwise known as re-platforming, this is a key reason for a website migration.
- Platform updates – Sometimes your platform provider will provide an update to their service that requires a site migration to move to.
- Web hosting change – If your web hosting isn’t cutting the mustard any more, an SEO website migration to a new host could be your remedy.
When you make major changes to your website’s URL structure, hosting, or platforming, you’ll definitely want to protect yourself before, during, and after what’s known as a site migration.
Types of SEO Site Migration
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1. Front-End Migration
Why perform this kind of SEO website migration?
If you’re redesigning your website, superficial changes to the way your website’s front-end looks can have a knock-on effect. Changing the navigation bar, for instance, could result in some big changes to your URL structure. In this sense, it’s classed as an SEO website migration because it requires action to re-map your site and preserve SEO health.
The risks involved:
If you don’t properly attend to a front-end migration, you could end up with a whole load of 404s on your site. Imagine a huge slice of your traffic leading to pages that no longer exist in their current location. That’s a lot of lost sales.
How Embryo combats these risks:
We’re skilled at understanding the knock-on effects that redesigns can have on the architecture of your site. Our team has the tools and experience in redirection and remapping to unpick the puzzle and get your site structure back in good shape.
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2. Domain Name Change Migration
Why perform this type of SEO website migration?
Typically, a domain name change is due to a rebrand, but you can choose to change your site’s domain name for a variety of reasons. Perhaps a website URL closer to your brand name has become available. Or maybe you’ve outgrown your current market and are taking your website’s SEO international by switching from a .co.uk address to .com.
The risks involved:
All of your link-building and previous activities to boost your domain authority will be pointing at your old domain. If a migration project doesn’t resolve this, then you’re likely to find your ranking in SERPs slipping even if your site’s content remains the same.
How Embryo combats these risks:
Our team of technical SEO migration experts work diligently to ensure all internal and external links are accounted for. From link reclamation to reindexing, Embryo has domain changes covered.
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3. Back-End Migration
Why perform this type of SEO website migration?
In the digital landscape, chasing growth is key. Sometimes, a shake-up to URL structure is necessary. You may feel the need for features only available on another CMS platform, or want to upgrade your platform – like to Shopify 2.0, for instance.
The risks involved:
Platform migration poses many risks to search visibility, so we always recommend using a reputable SEO agency for website migration in these cases. Among some of the risks are data loss, traffic loss, and link loss.
How Embryo combats these risks:
Our analytics lead is always involved in migrations right from the start. We carefully harvest and transfer data tags, so that your valuable insights are ring-fenced. That way, you won’t face data loss or corruption. Our SEO team works hard to bring all of your link juice with you.
Our Technical SEO Expert Weighs in on the Risks & Rewards of Site Migration
Dan McCarthy heads up SEO, as Embryo’s Head of Organic SEO. As a seasoned SEO operator, Dan spent his career performing smooth migrations and rescuing sites with reduced traffic from botched migrations. He takes us through the biggest risks of a poorly executed migration project.
‘The biggest risk of migration is losing visibility in search engines, which translates to a loss in traffic and ultimately revenue. People say first impressions are everything, and this doesn’t stop with search engines. If you botch a migration, it can take a while for search engines to “forgive” you, even if you act quickly on the fixes. On the face of it, migrations can appear fairly straightforward, but this is a dangerous (yet common) mindset.’
Why Migrate Your Business’s Website?
It’s possible that you started your brand’s website on a platform that’s no longer the best fit for your purposes any more. Different platforms cater better to certain niches. Shopify, for instance, has a whole suite of plug-ins that can be extremely useful for growing eCommerce businesses’ on-site capabilities.
Google also rewards sites that are fast and meet user search intent. Often the reasons for a site migration are to actively try to cater to this ranking factor and enhance user experience on site. For instance, by improving page loading speed. In these situations, the reward for a successful migration can be better results in SERPs and an uplift in traffic.
There’s plenty to be gained from a site migration for the right reasons. The important thing is to have a team you trust and a robust SEO site migration strategy.
The Benefits of a Successful Site Migration
Let’s delve into the rewards that Embryo’s SEO website migration services can bring to your migration project.
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Retain Site Authority
Carryover domain authority from your existing site. You’ve worked long and hard to build site authority, and you can take it all with you. Don’t lose your well-earned stripes from Google by putting them at unnecessary risk.
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Redirect Links
This is a bit like leaving a forwarding address when you move house. All of the traffic that usually comes through isn’t lost, they can be rerouted and remapped to your new site. That way, you won’t lose the results of link building to your site.
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Reap Growth
Done wrong, an SEO website migration can damage your traffic and therefore your sales in a major way. Done right, a migration can make your site faster, as well as more secure and user-friendly. Embryo’s team helps you make it the latter.
Our Teams Work in Tandem to Make Your Migration Seamless
A successful website migration involves team collaboration, with a variety of roles providing necessary input. They work together to make sure nothing is left to chance during your migration. Let’s break down the roles they play.
SEO – Our technical SEO experts work to plan and execute your SEO site migration. Essentially, they do the heavy lifting. The process requires meticulous attention to detail during all pre-migration, go-live, and post-migration work. Our technical SEO execs deliver to this level time after time.
Client Services – You’ll have a dedicated account manager to guide you through the entire migration process. They’ll be your point of contact for any questions or queries and will provide regular updates on how the migration is progressing.
Analytics – Our analytics lead will move over your site’s code so that you can seamlessly continue tracking. They will review all of the necessary analytics and then set up and move all tags and code over so that, when people submit forms or buy products, all data can continue being tracked.
Development – Embryo’s top-notch web development team can work on your behalf. Our team work across a whole host of platforms and coding languages, from JavaScript to CSS. However, you’re also free to use your own internal developers or dev agency. We’re used to quickly making ties with our clients’ developers.
Project Management – Sitting in our creative team alongside our developers, your project manager will act as the lynchpin between the development team, SEO, and client services. They keep the project on track and running to the timeline.
Embryo’s 3-Phase SEO Website Migration Process
We’ve performed countless successful SEO website migrations, so we have our process refined. Embryo’s SEO migration strategy uses a rigorous 3-phase approach.
That’s how we ensure any potential hiccups are dealt with so they don’t impact your site’s search visibility when your new site goes live. Our painstaking approach has been developed to minimise stress during a turbulent time for your site.
View our three-step process below
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1. Pre-Migration
Every migration starts by putting together a robust timeline and project plan, including a 50+ point checklist. From there, our key tasks vary depending on the type of site migration. Typically they will include unpicking existing redirects and mapping pages to your new environment.
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2. Go-Live
We treat your go-live with the care it needs to transition correctly. Go-live tasks are performed, including submitting your new sitemap to Google to speed up the process of re-indexing your new website in search engines.
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3. Post-Migration
Post-migration checks include our 150+ point SEO audit. We monitor your site’s visibility and ensure all checks have been correctly implemented. We comb through your newly migrated site to ensure tags are transferred, bugs are fixed, and your search visibility is restored.
Experience the Embryo Difference
Why choose Embryo as the SEO agency for your website migration?
With years of experience migrating across a wide range of platforms and web hosting, we’re a safe pair of hands. When we’re entrusted with a website migration project, we don’t leave anything to chance. And neither should you.
- Our 3-phase SEO website migration strategy ensures a smooth process
- Your site migration is handled by award-winning SEO specialists
- We use a 50+ point migration checklist so nothing is missed
- Specialists from all areas of our agency work on your migration
- After migration, no stone is left unturned with our 150+ point SEO audit
Replatforming Your Site? Why Not Seize the Opportunity to Redevelop
Embryo’s creative team doesn’t just migrate websites. They can also provide UX, UI, and development that can transform your website’s user experience. Our team of talented creatives and web developers in Manchester are on hand to help with any on-site development.
If you’ve got ambitions to redesign, we can help make your changes a reality. Get in touch to get your project started.
Website Migration All Starts with a Chat
If you’re weighing up the risks and rewards of migrating your site, let’s talk. Embryo can manage your full website’s migration so that you can reap the rewards of migration whilst keeping the risks under control.
Call us on 0161 327 2635 or get in touch via email at [email protected] to book your free consultation.
Would highly recommend. A truly exceptional agency to work with. A real pleasure to work with such a friendly team of professionals.
All Your Site Migrations Questions Answered
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How can I check how a migration has affected my site’s SEO?
Perform SEO auditing. There are many common SEO tools you can use to check how a site migration has affected your SEO and what to work on to restore your SEO status quo. Screaming Frog and Google Search Console in particular are mainstays of migration audits.
Embryo is an agency born of a search-first mentality. That means we’ve cultivated a team of organic SEO specialists who perform world-class SEO audits. If you want our SEO A-team to check your site’s SEO health, just get in touch.
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How do I recover SEO after a site migration?
If you want to fully recover SEO after a web migration, a thorough post-migration SEO audit is a must. Ascertain how the migration has impacted your SEO and tie up all loose ends and redirections. Checklists make this easier to keep track of. If you’re using Embryo for your SEO website migration, you’ll benefit from our 150+ point post-launch audit checklist.
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My site migration has gone wrong. Can you help?
First, take a deep breath. As we’ve covered extensively – migrations can and do go wrong. If you’ve found yourself unable to recover traffic, we’re happy to help pick up the pieces. Our methodical approach can help with link reclamation and funnel traffic back to your site.
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Is site migration expensive?
As the old saying goes: pay less and pay the price. Be suspicious of providers offering cut-price SEO site migrations. Something this important requires the benefit of technical SEO expertise. At Embryo, we like to keep our rates reasonable and our service level high.
We’ll be glad to provide a full consultation about your migration, free of charge, and give you a no-obligation quote for your consideration. That way, there are no surprises or strings attached.
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Will changing my website hosting affect my site’s SEO?
It could do. People often don’t realise that switching hosting providers is a site migration and can leave you with a big dent in your organic SEO. If you’re switching to save a little on your hosting costs, make sure that you don’t pay a bigger price down the line.