Tilious implements a methodical process that ensures no page is left unaccounted for when moving websites and any issues are spotted and remedied as quickly as possible. See a breakdown of our SEO migration process below:
Benchmarks: Rankings and visibility levels are recorded, along with site speed, indexation levels and a list of all pages currently receiving traffic. This will provide data by which to test the success of the migration process and quickly pinpoint any issues if necessary.
Legacy Website: A thorough crawl of the website to be migrated is undertaken to ensure all pages have been accounted for when planning the migration. This will also help to detect any URL related issues with the current website, such as 404 errors, which can be remedied through the migration process.
URL Mapping: Arguably the most important stage of the process, URL mapping involves matching all URLs from the legacy website to a relevant page on the new website. With the help of a development team, it will then be necessary to create specific redirect rules from the old to new URL structure.
Testing: On a protected development website all redirects will be tested to ensure they resolve to a valid page on the new website. Additionally, this stage will also include the creation and testing of a new XML sitemap, which will be important to allow for quick indexation of the new website.
Launch: With the website verified in Google's Search Console, notification of the change of address will be sent to Google and the new XML sitemap submitted.
Monitoring: All previously recorded benchmarks will be reassessed following the migration to identify any potential issues as early as possible. This will also involve monitoring of Google's Search Console for any crawl errors and indexation levels for the new XML sitemap, which will highlight the transition from the old to new URL structure.