How to Migrate Your WordPress Site Without Losing SEO Rankings
If you’re considering moving your WordPress site to other platforms, you’re not alone.
One of the main concerns in this case is what will happen to your hard-earned SEO rankings, but there’s a solution for everything.
Migrating a website can feel daunting, especially because your traffic and visibility might be affected. Even links can break when you’re doing such an update.
The good news?
Stressing about it isn’t necessary. If you plan it carefully and take the right steps, you will be able to migrate your site successfully without having to sacrifice your search engine performance.
Let’s explore how to do it.
Planning is key for a successful migration
Before starting anything on your website, you need to have a bulletproof migration plan. So, sit down and minimize the risks. Make sure nothing major slips through the cracks.
Yes, 43% of websites use WordPress, but there are other options, and each one of these has its pros and cons. It’s not bad, as long as you plan it well in advance.
Pick the right time for your migration
Don’t migrate your website if the company is experiencing a high-traffic moment or running a marketing campaign. Choose a quieter period when a dip in traffic can’t hurt your business. It depends on the industry, of course.
Make a backup before anything else
Make sure your website is backed up, and include everything:
- Databases;
- Plugins you’ve used;
- Media files;
- Themes;
- Extra sections.
That way, if something goes wrong, you’ll have a safety net to count on. WordPress websites suffer an attack every 22 minutes, so it’s best to buy a VPN and protect your digital assets on every front.
Make an inventory of your current site
There are tools for this, like WordPress plugins. These will crawl your site and create a list of important information: URLs, metadata, internal links, and redirects.
This will help you a lot with tracking changes and maintaining consistency as you migrate to a different platform.
Keep the URL structure when possible
If you change the URL, search engines can get confused, and your rankings might be harmed. Keep the same permalink structure on the new website if you can.
What happens if you have to change URLs?
In this case, you can use 301 redirects to tell search engines where your pages are at the moment.
A proper 301 will migrate most of the SEO value to the new URL. Since 301 redirects act like a bridge between the old website and the new one, use them wisely and keep both visitors and search engines moving in the right direction: your new website.
Create a redirect map
Match each old URL with its new equivalent. Set up redirects manually using your .htaccess file or use a plugin like Redirection to manage them. It’s slow work, but it’s essential to keep your traffic.
Test the redirect links
After you set the 301 redirects, you need to test them and make sure they work. Broken redirects send users and search engines away, because they’re frustrating.
Keeping your on-page SEO intact
Although migrating a website is a little overwhelming, it’s the perfect opportunity to audit your content without throwing your SEO out in the process.
Save titles and meta descriptions
Both titles and meta descriptions help pages rank first and attract clicks. These have to be transferred correctly during migration.
Don’t change header tags and keyword use
Your H1s, H2s, and overall keyword strategy should stay the same. Unless, of course, you’re updating them as part of your SEO strategy.
Make sure to migrate your internal links
Internal links are great for search engines because they get to understand how your site is structured and distribute link authority. They also improve user navigation, so don’t forget to migrate them correctly.
Check your links and update them
If you have to change your URL structure, you should go through your site and update the internal links accordingly. Some plugins might make this easier because it’s a time-consuming task.
Submit your new sitemap to search engines
Once your new website is up and running, search engines will need your help to crawl it efficiently. Submit an updated sitemap. You can use Google Search Console and other tools to check for errors and monitor indexing.
Follow the indexing progress
Indexing is essential for websites to rank. Make sure to pay attention to how many pages are indexed, and if you see issues, inspect them immediately and submit individual URLs if you have to.
Fix your broken links and 404 errors
404 errors are not great: they can hurt the SEO, yes, but also the user experience. Address these issues as soon as they appear. You can scan for errors with Google Search Console and other SEO tools, which will help you deal with broken links quickly.
When you find errors, update them and link them to the correct page, or just use a 301 to send users to a related piece of content.
Don’t forget to inform Google every step of the way
If you keep informing Google of every update, the impact on SEO will be reduced as you migrate your content. For example, if you’re changing domains, use Google Search Console to notify Google of what you’re doing.
It’s also smart to keep your domain active a little bit longer, a few months at most, so that redirects work properly and search engines can index your content.
To sum up
Migrating your WordPress website doesn’t mean sacrificing all your hard-earned, best-ranked pages. With a solid plan accounting for emergencies, careful execution, attention to detail, and close monitoring, the migration should go well.
Remember: keep the URL structure and internal links, use 301s to redirect people, keep search engines informed, and keep your data safe with a good cybersecurity strategy. This is a good opportunity to rank even better.
Also, you can check: 3 Simple Steps To Backup Your WordPress Site.
