Website Migration Services by Expert SEOs

Leave no stone unturned in your migration strategy

An effective website migration requires an exhaustive SEO plan.

When it comes to something as critical as migrating a website, you can’t afford to go in ill-prepared. At Seeker, we build comprehensive SEO migration strategies that consider all possible eventualities, facilitating smooth transitions to new sites.

Pre-Migration Audit

We’ll conduct a thorough audit to identify any existing issues on your site. This will prevent potential problems from being carried over to the new website.

Staging Environment Sign-Off

After assuring no SEO issues that may impact rankings, we’ll approve staging website deployment to the live environment.

Strategy Consultancy

We’ll provide ongoing consultancy and support in building a full post-launch site strategy.

Redirect Plan

We’ll create a redirect plan to seamlessly map both new and old URLs. This will ensure a smooth user experience and optimal site crawlability.

Performance Management

Our work doesn’t end with the deployment. We’ll track site performance closely following migration, raising and resolving issues promptly.

In-House Training

We’ll hold customised training workshops to upskill your staff on migration management, preparing them to face related challenges.

Relaunch with a fully optimised site

Ensure your new website continues to dazzle search engines.

Is your content game strong enough to accompany a stylishly remodelled website? We’ll help identify which content to migrate and which to cut off, and uncover optimisation opportunities to ensure your new site is eminently search-engine friendly.

Uncover technical issues before you migrate

Don’t wait until launch day to discover SEO defects. Find and fix them in advance.

Rather than simply transferring existing SEO issues from your current site to your new one, we can help you root out and resolve hidden technical deficiencies to ensure your relaunched website is in its best possible shape from day one.

We’ve been there and done it|

We’ve safeguarded some major website migrations.

Advantages of outsourcing your migration project

Website migrations can be risky and time-consuming undertakings, especially for in-house teams balancing day-to-day SEO responsibilities. By outsourcing your migration project to an experienced agency, you transfer the risk and effort to experts who exclusively focus on these complex transitions.

SEO agencies conduct site migrations multiple times per year, so they have proven methodologies to ensure no SEO value is lost in the process. They also utilise specialised tools and technologies that may be prohibitively expensive for a company to purchase just for a migration project.

With an agency overseeing the migration, your in-house team can focus on driving organic growth through their usual activities before, during, and after the transition. Their deep expertise will help avoid any pitfalls and ensure a smooth, seamless experience for both users and search engines.

Working with Seeker

The expert team at Seeker are able to handle all site migration hands-on tasks ourselves. The key areas where the internal SEO teams can support us are:

1. Site history

Providing us with a brief history of the site, and any potential challenges we might encounter during the website migration.

2. Data & tools

Provide access to relevant tools (Google Search Console, Google Analytics) or provide required data from these tools.

3. SEO advocacy

Advocate for SEO requests within the organisation, bridge between Product / Engineering teams & Seeker.

4. Technical sign-off

Sign off redirect plan, timelines, project scope and other requirements.

5. Content sign-off

Ensure all content is satisfactory from Seeker’s audits.

6. Feedback

Feedback on Seeker’s activity.

What does a website migration process involve?

Our 6-stage migration process ensures a seamless transition with zero loss of SEO equity.

First, we collaborate to comprehensively audit the existing site's content, technical elements, and Google Analytics data. This identifies optimisation opportunities to improve the old site's design, architecture, or platform.

Next, while developers recreate the site in a staging environment, our team comprehensively audits this test environment. We use the initial data gathering to confirm all critical SEO elements like metadata, links, new URLs and content properly migrated.

Through collaborative testing, we validate the staging website functions optimally before approving the final live launch. And on go-live day, we monitor for urgent issues and communicate them immediately to your team.

Post-launch, we assist with new website’s backlink updates, full technical audits, and ongoing performance tracking.

Finally, we review the project, share learnings, and ensure your staff has the knowledge to own future migrations confidently.

Throughout the process, we offer flexible check-ins and support. Our meticulous approach means your new site will launch successfully, without any loss of rankings or traffic.

SEO Website Migration FAQ|

Preparing for a site migration? Here’s what you need to know…

What is a website migration?

A website migration is a complex process whereby a website undergoes significant changes that can substantially prevent search engine visibility if not managed carefully.

This may include transitions in site architecture, content, user experience, design, or even domain. Common examples include moving the entire site to a new domain name, transferring to a different content management system or ecommerce platform, consolidating multiple domains into one, significantly revising the URL structure, or simply moving from HTTP to HTTPS protocol.

Since migrations require technical adjustments like implementing redirects, updating internal links, and moving content to new URLs, they carry inherent risk.

Core SEO equity – including rankings, organic traffic, and domain authority – can be inadvertently lost if migrations are not strategically executed according to best practices. That’s why proper planning, preparation, and guidance from experts are key to a successful migration that maintains or improves your site’s performance.

How does a website migration impact SEO?

A website migration is a high-stakes endeavour that can have long-term significant impact not only on SEO, but your overall business if not executed properly.

Without careful planning, a migration can result in temporary revenue loss due to disrupted visibility, poor user experience from technical errors, and brand inconsistency from design or content gaps. The site’s search performance may also suffer from issues like crawlability problems, lost indexation and rankings, missing pages or content, and lost authority from broken backlinks.

Meticulous care must be taken to transition site architecture, internal linking, redirects, and other technical elements seamlessly so that search engine crawlers can understand the changes and reindex pages smoothly. This maintenance of optimisation best practices is vital to avoid severe impacts to organic traffic, conversions, and rankings post launch.

By partnering with experts to plan and execute a migration, businesses can mitigate risks to both the user experience and SEO health of the website. A successful migration ultimately paves the way for long-term revenue growth and improved performance.

What does a successful website site migration look like?

At its most basic level, a successful site migration enables a seamless transition that sustains existing search engine rankings and user experience. With meticulous planning and execution, a migration can retain all SEO equity built up on the old site, preventing any dips in organic traffic or visibility.

However, a migration also presents a strategic opportunity to empower your site to achieve improved performance through close collaboration with your in-house teams and Seeker.

By thoroughly evaluating user pain points, technical limitations, and future business objectives, we can identify optimisation opportunities to implement during the migration. This allows us to not only avoid potential pitfalls but also enhance the site’s architecture, content, speed, and conversion flows.

Leveraging our expertise, we develop a holistic migration strategy to create long-term growth. We ensure the transition is seamless for both users and search engines by meticulously executing industry best practices. At the same time, we optimise the user experience and site performance with your goals in mind. With this comprehensive approach, migrations can propel your website to new heights.

SEO Website Migration Checklist|

Our recommendations for preparing a website for a migration:

1: Audit site content. Take stock of all existing content and media that needs to be migrated.

2: Evaluate the new site’s capabilities. Assess if the current site functionality and architecture can support the new platform or design. For platform migrations, ensure your CMS or ecommerce software can enable the transition. For design refreshes, ensure your team has the capacity.

3: Set migration goals. Define the purpose, timeline, and measures of success for the migration.

4: Assemble project team. Identify all internal and external resources who will be involved and their responsibilities. Consider hiring an SEO agency to manage the migration.

5: Inform stakeholders. Communicate timelines and impacts to any affected internal teams or external partners.

6: Backup current site. Create a complete archive of the current site files and database.

7: Prepare the new platform/design. For platform changes, install, configure and test the new software. For design refreshes, create new site’s main templates and a style guide.

8: Migrate content. Carefully transfer all approved content to the new site prior to launch. Work with developers and your SEO agency to migrate without losing rankings.

9: Test thoroughly. Check all elements - design, functionality, URL structure, security, speed, etc. - before going live. Have your SEO agency conduct tests to identify any crawl, indexation, or ranking issues.

10: Execute launch. Switch over DNS and traffic to the new site. Monitor closely for any issues and have your agency on standby for immediate fixes.

11: Optimise iteratively. Use analytics and user feedback to identify and prioritise opportunities for improvement post launch. Consult your SEO agency for ongoing optimisation.

Site Migration Toolkit & Resources Used by Seeker|

At Seeker, we leverage these key tools to facilitate smooth site relaunches for our clients:

Screaming Frog

We use Screaming Frog to comprehensively crawl and audit your website, identifying errors like broken links, duplicate content and redirects. This ensures a seamless transition during migration.

SEMrush

We track your keyword rankings and backlink profile with SEMrush, ensuring these crucial SEO factors remain intact after migration.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs helps us identify and rectify any lost backlinks, monitor keywords, and track overall SEO health to minimise disruption.

Google Search Console

This helps us monitor and troubleshoot your website’s presence in Google Search results, tracking indexing status and optimising visibility during and after migration.

Lumar (FKA Deepcrawl)

Our team conducts comprehensive website crawls with Lumar to identify potential SEO issues before migration, reducing unexpected problems down the line.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to monitor website traffic and user behaviour, ensuring engagement and conversions remain consistent post-migration.

Talk through your migration goals with us

Thinking of migrating your site? Chat with the SEO experts first.

Whether you’re fully committed to migration or you’re simply doing some initial discovery, our experienced site migration consultants can guide you through the SEO part of the process.

From URL redirects to post-launch performance monitoring, we’ll build and execute a full-spectrum SEO strategy for your site migration project.

Interested? Chat with us today.

hi@seeker.digital