A Guide to Successful Website Migrations

The Risks of Migrations

As well as that chorus of groans, you may also frequently hear how risky migrations can be - and they can be.  

There are always risks involved when making large changes to your website and ranking pages, which can result in a loss in rankings and website performance, and there are no guarantees that your rankings will return to the same place after your migration.

Some of the most common issues that can arise from a migration include Technical SEO problems such as broken links, poorly set up redirects, and page speed issues. Poorly migrated - or the removal of - content on your site can lead to reduced rankings and website traffic. Also, Analytics and tracking can often be overlooked or set up incorrectly which can cause inaccurate data or complete data loss post-migration.

This is why ensuring that you have a thorough migration strategy, aligned goals, and a team of specialists is key to achieving a successful migration and retaining and growing your website performance. 

Alongside your team of internal experts, it is important to brief your SEO agency on your migration plans. Your SEO team will help mitigate risks and ensure your migration follows best guidelines from start to finish. 

What To Include in Your Migration Strategy

Here we are going to break down website migration best practices to include within your strategy that will help your team avoid complications and turn your migration into a smooth operation. 

Budgeting and Project Resource Planning 

Before you even start your migration it is important to understand the potential pitfalls and plan your resources wisely from the start. 

Stay ahead of the game and plan for hidden costs. Migrations often take longer than expected and can require last-minute development work or design tweaks. Investing upfront in things like infrastructure, testing, and optimisation can help you avoid downtime or performance dips later down the line. 

As a team create a clear, shared website migration checklist that outlines everything that needs to happen before, during, and after the migration so you know exactly what time, budget, and people you’ll need. 

Try to assign roles early and make sure everyone, from development, to marketing, to design, knows what they’re responsible for. This helps teams collaborate smoothly across the entire website migration process. 

Our biggest recommendation is don’t rush it. Build in extra time for reviews, testing and fixing issues, as trying to speed through a migration only increases the risk of performance problems. 

Involving Internal Stakeholders

A smooth migration depends on getting the right people involved early and making sure everyone works together towards the same goals. 

If you’re not sure who to involve in your migration, the list below will highlight the common internal stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities that you may need during the process. 

• Project Manager: keeps the migration on schedule and makes sure communication flows between teams. 
• Developers: will set up the infrastructure, configure your CMS, handle any integrations, and troubleshoot and test functionality. 
• Design & UX Team: create wireframes and design elements, check accessibility and interactivity to ensure the new site looks great and delivers a strong user experience. 
• SEO Specialist: protects search performance by performing audits, benchmarking reports, setting up redirects and provide ongoing consultancy guidance. 
• Content Writers: produce new content and improve existing pages to support post-migration performance. 

Remember each team will bring a different perspective, so creating a strong dynamic from the start of the process ensures everyone’s requirements are met and the migration strategy stays cohesive. 

Setting Migrations Goals and Timelines

A successful migration is built on the foundation of good preparation. 

To start, you will need to understand what type of migration you are embarking on and what your overall goals are. Read the table above? Great, you're ready to go. 

The next fundamental step is to communicate this effectively to all parties. Everyone should know what you are doing, how you are doing it and what the end result needs to be. 

Be realistic when setting up your website migration timeline, give yourself enough time for each phase and cushion it with wiggle room so you’re covered if something needs to shift. 

Try to plan beyond the pre-migration work, make sure your schedule includes time for testing, setting up your redirect mapping, and keeping a close eye on things post launch. 

Finally, think about your wider business calendar, try to line up your migration with quieter periods so you aren’t making big changes during peak traffic or busy seasonal moments. 

Benchmarking Performance

Ahead of any migration you should have a clear picture of your website’s current performance. 

When gathering this data, focus on core metrics such as traffic, user behaviour and engagement, SEO performance and page speed. 

These numbers will become your baseline for comparing results after the migration and can help you spot any affected areas. 

Knowing which areas need the most attention will allow you to prioritise optimisations that will make the biggest difference. 

This groundwork will also allow you to tell a clearer story to stakeholders. With accurate pre and post migration data, you can demonstrate measurable improvements and show exactly how the migration has contributed to overall performance gains. 

Identifying Potential Risks and Complications

To protect your website during a migration, it’s important to create mitigation steps for any potential risks or complications that could affect your performance. 

Start with creating a thorough pre-launch testing checklist. This ensures you catch and fix errors early across all phases of the migration plan. 

Next, back up your website after any major updates to your staging site. A full backup safeguards your data and gives you the ability to restore the site if anything goes wrong. 

Finally, take your time to accurately plan and map your redirects. Correctly mapping and implementing your redirects is crucial, as mistakes here can confuse users and search engines, impacting both user experience and search performance. 

Final Thoughts

A well planned website migration can turn a complex process into a strategic and successful experience. 

Taking the time to align your team, define clear goals and prepare for potential challenges ensures a smoother transition that protects your SEO performance and minimises potential downtime while setting the stage for the opportunity for growth and improved performance.