7 Steps to migrate your SEO strategy

Robin Neyt

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Hi! I’m Robin.

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I work at WijsA digital Agency in Ghent/Gent

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‣ Situation

‣ What’s the problem?

‣ A blueprint

‣ Start: the new website

‣ Before the launch

‣ Launch of the website

‣ What if it goes wrong?

Tweet-style Summary

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Situation

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‣ Everybody wants a new website

‣ It should be bigger, better, fancier,...

‣ Nobody thinks about the consequences!

Situation

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What’s the problem?

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‣ website that’s been around for quite a while

‣ has a lot of domain authority

‣ has a lot of unique backlinks

‣ is top of mind with customers

All this can be lost easily

What’s the problem?

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We need a strategy!

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‣ Think first, act later! (Usually goes wrong...)

‣ Create a masterplan!

‣ Follow it to the letter! (Usually goes wrong...)

‣ Put it to the test!

‣ Keep a close eye on the results!

How should we tackle the problem?

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A blueprint for the masterplan

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Start: The new website

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It should be bigger, better, fancier...

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Watch out for exotic functionality!

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The website should also be SEO friendly

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‣ Ideal moment for a new keyword research

‣ Use keyword research to create new site architecture

‣ Visitor point of view

‣ Not too much jargon

‣ Visitor has a problem and searches for a solution

Keyword Research

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‣ Don’t lose good functionality that was present in the previous website

‣ If it works, don’t break it (Your IT is going to love this)

‣ Just make it better

‣ Now is the time to make adjustments

‣ Costs, timing, campaigns,...

‣ Make sure web copy is ready in time

‣ Don’t do everything last minute!

Requirements

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‣ Search Engine Friendly URLs

Bad URL: http://www.site.be/index.php?id=25&cat=42

SEF URL: http://www.site.be/category/subcategory/page/

‣ Use keywords in the URLs

‣ Avoid excessive use of JavaScript and CSS

‣ Make sure goals/conversions are tracked

Technical requirements

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‣ URL

‣ Title <title>

‣ H1

‣ Menu item in navigation

Should be possible to edit all items individually

On-page elements

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‣ Make sure goals/conversions are tracked

‣ Prepare event tracking

‣ Make sure every form has an unique thank you page → different URLs

‣ Monitor the performance of the new website

‣ After a few weeks → enough data to evaluate the migration

Conversion tracking

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Before the launch

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Create a redirect plan!

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‣ Create overview of the current site structure

‣ Determine the most important pages of the current website

‣ Different tools you can use

Site structure

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‣ Check the URLs of the top landing pages

(e-commerce, leads)

‣ Check the URLs of the pages with most pageviews (traffic)

Google Analytics

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High amount of pages?woensdag 29 mei 13

Sort pages by authority!

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‣ Use a tool like Open Site Explorer

‣ www.opensiteexplorer.org

Check page authority to determine value

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‣ Merge the important URLs from your current site

‣ Both the ones you selected and the top landing pages in Analytics

‣ As specific as possible

‣ Keep number of consecutive redirects to a minimum

301 redirects to the corresponding pages on the new website

Combine all data

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Don’t forget 301 redirect from non www to www

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‣ Too many URLs to redirect everything manually

→ Time & cost efficiency

‣ Check new vs old URL structure → Try to automate

Example:

Old URL: www.site.be/blog/webshops/ and www.site.be/blog/shopping/

New URL: www.site.be/blog/e-commerce/

‣ If not possible → Redirect to parent category

What with blog posts?

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‣ Everything in detail → Costs a lot of money

‣ Only the top pages → Chance you’ll miss traffic

‣ Don’t forget about

‣ active campaigns, newsletters, affiliates, offline campaigns, backlinks, tools

301 redirects: The dilemma

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Tips & tricks

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‣ Don’t launch the new website in phases

→ Not efficient for IT and marketing

‣ Make checklists

‣ Meetings & progress check

‣ Continuous follow-up

‣ Marketing & IT have to work as 1 team

Tips & tricks

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Launch of the website

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‣ Be sure everything is prepared and ready

‣ Checklists ready

‣ Launch on Monday or Tuesday

‣ Preferably in the morning

‣ Whole team ready to monitor and take action

Launch of the website

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‣ Do a manual check of the redirects

‣ Header check to make sure the right type of redirect is used

‣ Monitor Google Webmaster Tools for spider problems and crawl errors

‣ Pause the Adwords campaigns and change destination URLs

Launch of the website

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Header check

http://www.seoconsultants.com

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Google Webmaster Tools

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What if it goes wrong?Don’t blame each other :)

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‣ Normal after a site migration

‣ May not last forever

‣ Check 301 redirects

‣ 301 redirects point to the right pages?

‣ Check web copy: copied? Not SEO friendly?

‣ Is staging website online and indexed?

‣ Old website still online?

‣ Some products/services no longer exist?

Drop in rankings?

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‣ Analytics setup is OK?

‣ Goals are implemented correctly?

‣ E-commerce is activated?

‣ E-commerce transaction code is implemented?

‣ Certain products/services no longer exist?

Drop in leads/sales?

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What you need to remember

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‣ List the most important pages

‣ New website must be SEO friendly

‣ 301 redirects & optimization

‣ Planning is the key to success!

‣ Prepare the launch

‣ Use checklists

‣ Follow-up of the launch is essential!

‣ Testing!

What you need to remember

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Questions?

Robin Neytrobin.neyt@wijs.be

Twitter.com/RobinNeyt

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