If you migrate your website, you’re going to see a change in traffic. This might be frustrating, but unfortunately, it is inevitable. With that said, migrations are not a traffic death sentence. Realistically, you will see a temporary drop in traffic immediately following your migration due to URL and page changes. With a solid automotive SEO strategy in place, though, you should be able to recover your traffic and continue your growth fairly quickly. Here are a couple things you should look out for and be ready to take care of post-migration to ensure that quick recovery:
Post-Migration Traffic Drops: Causes & Recovery
There are a few reasons you might see a decrease in traffic after a website migration. If your traffic suddenly falls to zero, that usually indicates a tracking issue—most likely your GA4 measurement ID wasn’t carried over to the new site. Because that kind of drop is absolute, it’s typically easy to diagnose. It’s also an easy fix; implement that measurement ID. For declines that aren’t a flat fall to zero, though, you’ll want to look at:
301 Redirects
When you migrate from one site to another, the URL structure of your pages typically changes. Each site provider uses different URLs for pages. For example, while one site provider may use /service for a dealership’s Service Center page, another site provider may use the URL /service-department. This makes it crucial to set up accurate redirects when migrating; all of the old URLs need to be redirected to the most closely aligned new URLs.
The lack of 301 redirects, or the misuse of 301 redirects, is often a factor in dealerships seeing a drop in traffic after a migration. Site providers themselves usually set up 301s, but do so with blanket redirects. This means that some site providers say they will take care of 301 redirects during the migration, but then just redirect all of your old URLs to the homepage of the new site. We also frequently see pages missed, and if a page isn’t redirected, it will lead to a 404, which will, in turn, lead to a loss of traffic.
When it comes down to it, this should be the first item on your post-migration audit. You’ll need to look at the URLs from your old site. We suggest crawling your website with a tool like ScreamingFrog right before the new site launches and then checking where they lead on your new site once it goes live. Are there a lot of 404s? Are there pages that could be redirected to a more closely aligned replacement? Mapping out what the 301s should be and sending them to your site provider will help significantly with a smooth post-migration transition.
Content & Technical SEO
The other major piece to consider post-migration is whether or not your content and technical SEO work were moved to the new site. Many times, site providers do not move over your custom content or technical optimization during a migration, which can diminish your site’s authority and lead to lower traffic. Finding what was lost and reimplementing it is essential to continued success.
Start with a post-migration visual audit of the site, helping to identify the pages that need to be fixed. In most cases, all of your custom content, including the internal links within it, will need to be republished, meta titles will need to be re-optimized, and H1s will need to be rewritten. While you’re already auditing, it’s a good idea to double-check that all of your tools were properly moved over as well. After identifying all of the needs, you can begin working on reimplementation, bringing back the authority you had already built.
Are You Ready to Migrate?
To reduce and recover migration traffic loss, you have to be vigilant with both your pre- and post-migration processes. You need to make sure that you:
Pre-Launch
☐ Crawl your old site before the new one launches
☐ Back up your content and technical SEO documentation
Post-Launch
☐ Implement your GA4 measurement ID on the new site
☐ Analyze/map out meaningful 301 redirects
☐ Republish lost content
☐ Reimplement technical optimizations
Some of these things will be quick, such as implementing the measurement ID, while others will take longer, like reimplementing all of the technical work that was lost. With that said, it is all important and can help offset some of the traffic loss that is typically involved with migrations. And if you have an SEO partner, make sure you’re keeping them in the loop–they should be on top of these items.
If you’re getting ready to migrate your website and don’t have an SEO partner, contact us at Wikimotive. Not only are we ready to help ensure you have a smooth transition to your new site, but we’re ready to help you grow well beyond that for years to come.