13 Website Migration Tips for a Smooth Transition

Website migration is daunting, but with the right planning and strategy, it doesn’t have to mean a loss of traffic, rankings, or user experience. 

Whether you’re switching CMS platforms, rebranding, or restructuring your site, a successful site migration requires a thoughtful approach to ensure smooth operation. 

We’ll share 14 essential website migration tips that will guide you through the process, help you avoid common pitfalls and set your site up for long-term success. 

Contact our SEO migration service to have an experienced team of technical SEOs handle your migration. 

• Audit JavaScript and Dynamic Content 

Many websites rely heavily on JavaScript and dynamic content to enhance user experience and site functionality. 

However, search engine crawlers can sometimes struggle to properly index and render dynamic content, which can affect SEO performance. 

Before migrating, audit your JavaScript and ensure critical content, such as text, images, and links, are fully rendered and crawlable in the new environment. 

Make sure that your JavaScript is optimised and that the dynamic elements on your site are working properly. This can help prevent disruptions in how search engines index your pages and understand your URL structure after the migration.

• Map Orphan Pages

Orphan pages are pages on your website that aren’t linked to any other part of the site. These pages may still receive traffic, but without any internal links, search engine crawlers may have difficulty discovering and indexing them within your site structure.

Use your analytics data along with tools like Screaming Frog to identify these orphan pages before your migration. 

Once identified, ensure these pages are properly accounted for during the migration process and include appropriate redirects or internal links. 

Failing to map these pages could result in unintentional traffic loss and a negative impact on your site’s overall SEO performance.

• Review Backlink Profiles for Redundant URLs

Before migrating, take the time to review your backlink profile and check if any outdated or redundant URLs have significant backlinks. 

Plan to 301 redirect these URLs to relevant new pages so you retain the link equity. 

Don’t assume all backlinks are still active—there may be broken links that point to deprecated content or pages that will be removed during the migration. 

Properly redirecting these URLs will help preserve their SEO value and prevent traffic loss from valuable backlinks.

• Prepare for the Correct Migration Type

The complexity of the process when planning a website migration can vary depending on the type of migration you are performing. 

Combining migrations—such as a domain change alongside a platform upgrade—introduces more risk due to the number of variables involved. If possible, split the migration into stages, first migrating the domain or platform separately and then handling the other aspect. 

This way, you can better identify issues in a controlled environment with fewer moving parts. 

Breaking the migration into stages allows for easier troubleshooting and reduces the likelihood of major SEO disruptions.

• Limit Canonical Errors

Canonical tags are essential for indicating to search engines the preferred version of a page, especially when similar content exists on multiple URLs. 

As you migrate to a new site, make sure that your canonical tags are correctly configured to point to the final versions of pages (e.g., the HTTPS version of URLs). 

Incorrect or missing canonical tags can lead to duplicate content issues or diluted ranking signals, harming your SEO. 

Double-check these tags during the migration to ensure search engines recognise and index the correct version of your content.

• Check Non-Standard Pages

During a website migration, it’s easy to overlook non-standard pages like PDFs, downloadable assets, and media files. 

However, these files often contain valuable SEO equity and should be addressed. Ensure that they are either correctly redirected to their new locations or indexed as needed. 

For example, suppose a PDF or media file is linked externally or has valuable inbound links. 

In that case, you’ll want to ensure it remains accessible or is appropriately redirected to avoid losing traffic or SEO value.

• Monitor Crawl Budget and Internal Linking

After completing your website migration, it’s common to see a temporary decrease in your crawl budget as search engines reprocess your site. 

This is because Google and other search engines need time to crawl and index the new structure. To mitigate this, prioritise the crawlability of your most important pages by ensuring a clean and effective internal linking structure. 

Properly updated sitemaps also play a crucial role in guiding search engines to crawl the most valuable pages first. 

• Double-Check Noindex Tags

During the staging phase of migration, “no index” tags are often used to prevent search engines from indexing unfinished or test pages. 

However, if these tags are left in place after the migration goes live, they can avert entire sections of your site from appearing in search results. 

To avoid this, double-check that all “no index” tags have been removed from the final live version of your site. This is a common issue that can easily be overlooked but has the potential to cause SEO problems if left unresolved.

• Optimise for Core Web Vitals Post-Migration

Migrations often involve layout changes and design tweaks that can impact your site’s Core Web Vitals—key performance metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

These factors affect how users experience your site and are directly tied to your SEO rankings and site speed. After the migration, use tools like PageSpeed Insights to assess and optimise your Core Web Vitals. 

Addressing any issues early on will help ensure your entire site performs well in search rankings, as Google prioritises sites that offer a better user experience in terms of speed and stability.

• Update Metadata and Schema Markup

A website migration from an old site is a perfect opportunity to revisit and optimise your title tags, meta descriptions, and structured data. You can also check for missing meta tags.

These elements are critical to SEO and user engagement, as they directly impact your click-through rates and visibility in search results. 

Keep title tags and meta descriptions aligned with your target keywords and updated to reflect any new content or page structure changes. 

Review and optimise your schema markup to improve your likelihood of showing up in rich snippets and other SERP features. A well-optimized metadata strategy can give your site a significant SEO boost post-migration.

• Leverage Pre-Rendered Sitemaps

For large or dynamically generated sites, using pre-rendered sitemaps helps search engines navigate and index your new site faster. 

After migration, it’s important to provide search engines with a clear roadmap of your content. Pre-rendered sitemaps are especially useful for reducing indexation lag, allowing search engines to crawl your site efficiently and ensuring that critical pages are indexed quickly. 

To avoid delays in indexation, make sure your sitemaps are up-to-date and submitted to Google Search Console and other search engines.

• Prepare a Communication Plan for Stakeholders

Website migrations can lead to temporary SEO dips. That may raise concerns among stakeholders. To manage expectations, it’s important to communicate in advance about typical migration recovery timelines and potential traffic fluctuations. 

Educate stakeholders on the recovery process and emphasise that it can take weeks for search engines to fully reindex and for traffic to stabilise. 

Regular updates throughout the migration and recovery phases will help keep everyone informed and reduce possible anxiety during this transitional period.

• Plan a Follow-Up Audit in 4-6 Weeks

Once the site has been migrated, you will need to submit the new XML sitemap to Google Search Console and other search engines, such as Bing Webmaster Tools. 

This helps search engines understand your site’s new structure and start indexing the content correctly after doing a site crawl.

Ensure that any old URLs that have changed are redirected properly and that the new XML sitemap is ready to guide crawlers through the site’s fresh structure.

Even after a successful migration, hidden issues can emerge over time. To ensure everything is functioning as expected, schedule a detailed audit of your web analytics data using Google Analytics and similar tools around 4-6 weeks post-launch.

This follow-up audit should focus on areas such as crawlability, internal linking, traffic patterns, and ranking changes. It’s important to address any lingering issues that might have been missed during the initial migration phase. 

Conducting this audit will help you catch potential SEO problems early and make necessary adjustments to keep your site on track following the site migration process from your existing website.

Want to Protect Your SEO When Migrating?

Migrating your website doesn’t have to mean risking your SEO. Our team of experts at Prosperity Media has successfully managed countless migrations, ensuring SEO performance stays strong throughout the process. 

From careful planning to post-migration audits, we’ll help you protect your rankings and traffic every step of the way. Contact us today.