SEO CHECKLIST FOR WEBSITE MIGRATIONS

LAUNCHING A NEW WEBSITE IS EXCITING, BUT LAUNCHING PROPERLY TAKES CAREFUL PLANNING AND EXECUTION.

HERE ARE FIVE KEY ELEMENTS TO CHECK BEFORE GOING LIVE:

#1 - SEO

Suppose your old website is currently ranking well in Google. In that case, you’re going to want to protect this valuable customer acquisition channel by getting an SEO pro to analyse your site and perform the following tasks:

• Setup page to page 301 redirects
• Keyword research
• Optimise all page titles
• Optimise image load times, filenames and metadata
• Ensure equivalent content value on redirected pages
• Implement optimised URL structure
• Ensure sufficient internal linking to boost pages per session and page value distribution.
• Page Speed Testing
• Error checking and correction, make sure there are no broken links, missing images, broken checkouts, console errors etc
• Check rel=”nofollow” on external links
• Check canonical URLs
• Generate a new sitemap and submit it to Google
• Submit a Google Index request via Google Search Console
• Submit a change of domain if required via Google Search Console

The above can be done for a pretty reasonable price and helps to protect against taking a backward step when coming to web traffic and online enquiries.

#2 - BROWSER TESTING (DESKTOP & MOBILE)

Test every page of your website on a range of devices and browsers, e.g. Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge. Your web developer will typically do this as part of their service, but it’s best to be sure. A poor browsing experience can whittle away your site traffic and cause you to lose valuable conversions over time.

We recommend using a service like https://www.lambdatest.com/, which can help you test multiple browsers, versions and devices simultaneously.

#3 - GOOGLE ANALYTICS & GOAL TRACKING

Google Analytics tracking code installation often gets overlooked even though it’s one of the essential tools for tracking the performance of your new online marketing investment (your new website). Ensuring Google Analytics is set up from day one is crucial for allowing you to detect website performance and traffic fluctuation issues.

#4 - EMAIL & SOCIAL ALERTS

Ensure your brand advocates and valued customers know your new website refresh by scheduling a celebratory email and social updates. Depending on your site purpose and audience, you may want to let customers know how your new website will make their browsing experience easier and more valuable! This will help customers who may have grown tired of the old content or user experience to re-engage with your brand and content.

#5 - HOSTING LOCATION

If your target audience is in a specific country or city, it’s beneficial to make sure your website is hosted as close as possible to your audience. Hosting locally to your audience will help to improve page load times and provide a better overall user experience.