Unfortunately, there are far too many stories of failed migrations. That's why, in this article, we'll see how, thanks to Semrush, we can not only limit the damage but also maximize the results in this process.

Before delving into the Semrush features that will be most useful to you, we must first review the criteria for a successful SEO migration. A successful migration is, above all, one that doesn't cause a loss of traffic to your website . That's the simple, general definition.

What would be the checklist for a successful SEO migration project?

If we go into more detail about the technique and all the processes involved in an SEO site migration, it is important to list the different criteria that make it up:

Don't lose the link equity passed on by backlinks historically acquired by your website (or your client's website if you're a consultant). Here, 301 redirects are key. Beyond the SEO value that backlinks provide, you also need to consider all those who visited the site via a direct URL (saved in bookmarks, saved, etc.) and who would lose that access if the redirects weren't properly implemented.

Do not lose redirect chains if the site is not in its first migration, for the same reasons as those mentioned previously.

Carefully consider the site's history , including on old domains; the classic mistake is forgetting to renew the SSL certificate for old domains.

Try to keep content semantically similar

during the redesign: it goes without saying that searc brother cell phone list engines (and even the user, if you stray completely) will be lost without this.

Ideally, change the title of as few URLs as possible, again to limit the maintenance of redirect chains.

Test your migration on a pre-production environment . Of course, you must carefully restrict this environment to prevent industrial espionage and Google crawling that would generate duplicate content. Several solutions are possible, whether using a list of authorized IP addresses or an .htaccess/.htpassword combination.

Beyond SEO, it's also crucial to thoroughly test the performance of your future CMS and/or hosting provider. These aspects are too often taken for granted and can lead to unpleasant surprises during the migration, particularly regarding traffic volume. Your server may become less efficient and unable to handle the load, which is obviously not the desired outcome of a website migration.

It's important to keep in mind that

Google (as well as other search engines ) often detect when a site is undergoing a migration, especially a technical one. At that point, it's very likely that they'll intensify their crawling of your website: this is an unexpected and ideal opportunity for them to rediscover both old and new content as quickly as possible.

Now that we have all these points for a successful migration in mind, let's get down to business: how to maximize the results of this migration using Semrush?