How to preserve your SEO when migrating to a new site?

If you own a website — whether a showcase site or an e-commerce site — there may come a time when you need to change your domain name.
This entails a number of inconveniences, among them the loss of your internet SEO. Given that SEO (search engine optimisation) is built up over time through quality content, and that the age of a site also plays a role, it is entirely understandable to consider such a change risky.

But in the end, there is very little to fear. The internet knows that domain name changes are sometimes necessary.
All it takes is following a few steps to retain the ranking you have earned through your diligent efforts in search engine results.

And that is exactly what we are going to walk you through today.

Why change your domain name?

Let us start at the beginning: why change your domain name at all? After all, it is always preferable to keep the one you have, wherever possible.
But there are certain cases where changing your domain name represents a clear benefit, or even an unavoidable necessity. This is the case, for example, when:

1. You gain access to a domain name that is infinitely better than the one you already have. Sometimes this happens because the previous owner let their subscription expire, freeing up the domain name in question. Sometimes because your site has enjoyed such success that you can afford a premium domain name.
2. Your current domain name is penalised/blacklisted: the internet no longer references it in search engines, or does so poorly. This may never have happened to you. But if it does, changing your domain name will be your salvation.
3. You are deliberately rebranding. Sometimes a company or individual needs a change, for various reasons. Changing the domain name is an essential part of this.

Let us now look at how to carry out this migration smoothly.

First, understand that this advice is aimed at avoiding a significant and permanent loss of your SEO. During the migration process, your site will inevitably experience a temporary drop in its ranking. This is broadly unavoidable.
But by correctly following the steps below, you will be able to minimise this loss and recover your original ranking as quickly as possible.

Second, make sure you have a backup in case something goes wrong during the migration. You can see at this link how to create a backup to save your site.

Finally, you must always retain control of your old domain name, even if you no longer use it for your site. This is essential to ensure that the redirects you add to it continue to function in the long term.

Step 1: Copy your entire site and its content to the new domain name

Before anything else, you need to create an exact copy of your site on your new domain name. There are several plugins for this. Among them, the Duplicator.

The latter is particularly handy because it allows you to transfer all your existing URLs to your new domain name.
When migrating manually, you can update your URLs in the WordPress dashboard. However, this will not account for internal links embedded in the text of your pages and posts. Duplicator will automatically transfer these links.

Once the site has been copied to the new domain name, check that everything is working correctly. Make sure that the links in your text, and your images, have been transferred to the new domain name and are not pointing back to the old site.

The next step is to redirect all your traffic to your new site. The latter must therefore be fully functional.

Step 2: Redirect your addresses to the new site

We now come to a delicate step: setting up 301 redirects.

What is a 301 redirect?

First, a definition is in order. Also known as a web redirect or permanent redirect, it involves the replacement of an originally requested address with another — the destination address. In practice, users will type your old web address to find you. And automatically, the page loading will redirect them to your new address.
The absence of a 301 redirect produces something you are probably far more familiar with: the 404 error, when the requested address no longer exists.

The 301 redirect is therefore vital for any user who will search for you using your old address, who may have bookmarked it, or for any site that contains a link to yours (your old site).

Moreover, the internet itself will understand, thanks to the 301 redirect, that you have permanently moved your site. This is essential for Google and other search engines to correctly handle your new pages in the same way as your old ones.

What you need to add 301 redirects

To set up these redirects, you will need your .htaccess file. To access it, you will need to use an FTP protocol (the free software Filezilla, for example) to access your site's server. The .htaccess file is located in your site's source folder.

Download and make a copy of this file — one that you will not touch; this will be an additional backup for added security.

Once your copy is made, open the .htaccess file in a text editor (Notepad, for example).

Adding your 301 redirects

Now you need to add the 301 redirect code at the top of your .htaccess file.

The code differs depending on whether you are keeping the same URL structure for your new site or not.

If you are keeping the same structure, use this code:

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldurl.com [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.oldurl.com [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newurl.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

In this example, the old domain name would be "oldurl.com" and the new one "newurl.com".

If you are using a different URL structure, you will need to redirect each link on your site one by one. This is very time-consuming, but necessary.
In this case, use the following code:

Redirect 301 /original-page1 http://newdomain.com/new-page1

In this example, "/original-page1" is only the part of the URL that comes after "olddomain.com", and "http://newdomain.com/new-page1" is the full URL of your new page.

Once the new version of your .htaccess file has been saved and uploaded, all pages on your old site should automatically redirect to the corresponding new URLs on your new site. Test this yourself to make sure the redirects are working correctly.

Step 3: Tell Google you have migrated

Now that traffic is being redirected to the new site, you need to notify Google. It will inevitably notice the change anyway. But alerting it will make the transition smoother and help you quickly recover your SEO.

To do this, log in to the Search Console (or Google Webmasters).

If you have not already validated your site on Google Search Console, you will need to do so before proceeding.

Once your old site is validated, do the same with the new one.

When both sites are validated, you can fill in, for your old site, the change of address form, by clicking on the cog icon at the top right of the dashboard.

Follow the instructions in the form and confirm.

Step 4: Monitor Google Search Console

Since you have made major changes to your site, it is a good idea to keep an eye on the Search Console in case Google encounters any indexing issues.

Check the reports the Console generates to make sure your new site is being correctly indexed and crawled. Google has a dedicated page listing everything you can check in these reports.

Also check the notifications Google may issue in the Search Console.

Step 5: Update as many inbound links as possible

You can now ask the sites that link to yours to update their link. You will probably not be able to contact everyone, nor receive a positive response from all. But it will already be a significant win if some of them update their links.

Of course, the 301 redirects will redirect all inbound links to your new domain in any case. But it remains a better user experience to be directed straight to the current address.

Also update the inbound links you own — those on your social media profiles, in particular. Replace them with your new domain name.

Step 6: Let your users know about the change

This step will probably have no direct effect on your SEO, but it is important for your community to be informed. This will avoid potential confusion going forward and allow them to head directly to the new address.

A message on your new site and on your social media channels will allow you to inform them quickly and easily.

Step 7: Monitor and be patient

You have now done everything necessary to minimise the impact of this change on your SEO. All that remains is to wait for Google to index your new site and adjust your ranking accordingly.

As mentioned, you will experience a temporary drop in your ranking. But if you have followed all the steps correctly, that drop will be nothing more than temporary.

(Freely translated from Elegantthemes)