Google shares insights on site migration

Google publishes an advice video for site migration. John Muller proposes insights on how Google handles website migrations. He also talked about how long they can take.

The key facts are that site migrations are difficult. An all-inclusive plan needs to be there before migrations. He focused on the importance of restructuring data.

The video features the question, ” We’re currently going through a site migration, and we’d also like to restructure the URLs on the site. Does this impose any risks?”

Migration of a site is equivalent to changing the domain name. Merging of companies or change in branding is also possible causes of the migration. Joining two sites together needs you to decide. Choose between what URLs will remain. And which will merge into existing pages.

John Muller stated; Site migrations are not a small change within the website. It’s not simple for search engines. Particularly, Google stores its index on a paper basis.

John Muller shared the tips on site migration. Planning out site moves makes mapping one site to another efficient. It happens by dividing sites into sections. These sections can further undergo mapping.

Creating a list of old and new URLs is an important step. Site moves take time. They have ranking effects. Time planning is also highly recommendable.

According to John, this helps track the changes. Implementing migration will help redirect all the old URLs to new ones. It will also update all internal mentions like links, forms, and structured data.

Monitoring the migration can take months to finish. Mueller stated that it determines complete site quality. He also recommended leaving the redirects in place for one year. Mueller also advised that site migrations are hard.

Planning ahead is the best solution. Map similar pages together and be cautious about link equity. Losing of search presence can result from site migrations. It will not happen if a thorough all in all plan precedes it.