Managing Successful SEO Migrations via @TaylorDanRW
0Reported today on Search Engine Journal
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Managing Successful SEO Migrations
As SEO professionals, we are no strangers to migrations and the various levels of volatility they can bring.
Migrations are naturally occurring events in the life cycle of digital businesses as both technology and business objectives advance.
Migrations can come in different forms, but the more common ones we encounter include:
The level of risk and variables change dramatically between the different migration types, as well as variables and nuances in the client's tech stack, meaning it's almost impossible to provide an "off-the-shelf" scope.
In the industry, we hear about migrations going wrong namely when they start to impact the world outside of SEO.
Losing some traffic and a few rankings isn't headline news, but businesses closing down stores and laying off staff is.
Examples of this include the Homebase HTTPS migration (as covered in-depth by Omi Sido here), and the more recent Logojoy to Looka rebrand, which when looking through the eyes of third-party tools show a decrease in ranking keywords of 25,000 (150k to 125k).
Scoping an SEO Migration
For me, getting the scoping of a migration correct is essential to the success of the migration process as a whole, and avoid situations like this:
A key part of the scoping and specifications is that it needs to be actionable for both developers and wider stakeholders:
Ambiguity creates risk. The less room for misinterpretation, the better.
Within the scoping document, it's essential to establish:
From this, you can begin to create a schedule of activities to reduce as much risk as possible.
Risk Mitigation
For the most part, risk mitigation during any migration is carrying out what is for many, general migration activities.
Each activity, however, is designed to reduce elements of risk a