Winning SEO when Migrating International Websites #dguconf

#internationalwebmigrations at #dguconf by @aleyda from @orainti
WINNING SEO
WHEN
MIGRATING
INTERNATIONAL
WEBSITES

#internationalwebmigrations at #dguconf by @aleyda from @orainti#internationalwebmigrations at #dguconf by @aleyda from @orainti
Moving sites like moving houses can be a pain

You want
to take your
belongings with you
without leaving,
breaking, losing
anything
important
You want to
update your details,
to refer and be found
in your new
address
You want to
correctly reorganize
your belongings in
your new location
fast
Both require a lot of work

You want
to take your
belongings with you
without leaving,
breaking, losing
anything
important
You want to
update your details,
to refer and be found
in your new
address
You want to
correctly reorganize
your belongings in
your new location
fast
URLS 301-REDIRECT URLS
LINKS & CONFIGURATION
UPDATE
…That can be shockingly similar!

Without proper SEO support Web migrations in
general can have painful trafﬁc consequences too
BEFORE AFTER

However, with proper SEO support Web migrations
in general can provide trafﬁc growth opportunities…

Like when you move to a new, bigger, better place 

Migrations will also increase in complexity based on the
required level of change depending on their type & goal
Different URLs,
Same Domain
Different Protocol,  
Same Domain
Different Domain Name,
Same Type
Same URL
Redesign or CMS
migration while
keeping URL
structure
HTTPS Swaps
Product rebranding,
area renaming or
structural content
changes
Company
rebranding,
acquisition or Web
consolidation
Internal expansion
or consolidation
Different Domain
Name and Type

International Web migrations are those w/ a higher
complexity due to more factors to be changed
Geolocalization
signals of Web
property
Geolocated  
Link Popularity
Relevance
towards localized
search behavior
Internal expansion
or consolidation
Different Domain
Name and Type

It’s really like moving houses, the further you go,  
the more complex it becomes

They can also end-up with painful trafﬁc consequences  
if these factors are not taken into consideration
ccTLD gTLD

But if correctly executed, can consolidate a site authority
across its international markets and facilitate its growth
ccTLD gTLD

It’s then critical to start by assessing if you  
really need an international Web migration

Is it really necessary to do an international Web
migration to achieve the desired result?

Especially if it’s to
expand your
international Web
presence in new
competitive markets

A migration can be necessary in some international Web
scenarios based on the current & desired Web structure
To start targeting
international
audiences
.com/uk/.co.uk
To decrease
complexity and
consolidate popularity
.com/uk/.co.uk
.com/us/
.com/au/
.com/it/.it
.com/fr/.fr
To consolidate
unproﬁtable
international versions
.com/es/.es
.com/es/.mx
.com/es/.ar
1 2 3
To move from non-
supported regional
targeting
.com/uk/.eu
.com/fr/
.com/es/
4

The 1st scenario
happens when
the already
existing market
is targeted with
a ccTLD that
can’t be reused
to launch
another one
Don’t

Option B
.co.uk
.com/us/
.com/au/
Option A
.co.uk
.com
.au
Option C
.com/uk/.co.uk
.com/us/
.com/au/
This scenario has its own speciﬁc alternatives too 
To start targeting international audiences
1

Option A
.co.uk
.com
.au
Avoiding the migration of the current site while
releasing independent domains for each new market
* Better to not lose current market status by avoid migrating the used ccTLD
* Better for higher geolocation by using ccTLDs for new markets
* Worse to grow overall link popularity faster with independent properties
* Not recommended when starting in competitive markets where having an
established link proﬁle will be a higher advantage than using a ccTLD with no links
1

1
Avoiding the migration of the current site while
enabling a single gTLD w/ subdirectories
* Will also avoid losing any current market status by keeping the existing ccTLD
* Better to grow overall link popularity faster by starting to use a single gTLD with
geolocated subdirectories for additional markets
* Not recommended either when starting in competitive markets where having an
established link proﬁle will be a higher advantage than using a ccTLD with no links
.co.uk
.com/us/
.com/au/
Option B

1
Or migrating the current site to a gTLD  
to consolidate all of the international versions
.com/uk/.co.uk
.com/us/
.com/au/
Option C
* Will migrate the current ccTLD to a geolocalised subdirectory in a gTLD, so
might lose rankings for the current market in the short term
* Better to grow overall link popularity faster by starting to use a single
gTLD with geolocated subdirectories for all markets
* Recommended when starting in more competitive markets where having an
established link proﬁle will be a higher advantage than using a ccTLD with
no links

The 2nd scenario
happens when
lowering costs/
operational
complexity while
consolidating
popularity with a
single gTLD featuring
geolocalized
subdirectories
instead of ccTLDs

The 3rd scenario takes
place when it's
identiﬁed that the
value of targeting
different countries
doesn’t compensate
since user behavior is
very similar, the trafﬁc
low and you could
instead target the
language

US US
EU
EU
The 4th scenario
happens when
realising that the
regional domains
such as .eu or .asia
are not geolocated
by Google and a
country (or
language)
targeting is
needed instead

For each scenario
is key to take
international SEO
factors into
consideration…

The pros & cons of the international Web structure  
to be replaced and the one to be used in each context
Yes
Country Language
Are your top
competitors
using ccTLDs?
Yes
Yes
USE
CCTLDS
No
No
USE GEOLOCALIZED
SUBDIRECTORIES
YesNo
USE
SUBDIRECTORIES
USE SUB-
DOMAINS
No
WHAT’S YOUR INTERNATIONAL TARGET?
Is the domain
authority of your
competition
higher?
Is the domain
authority of your
competition
higher?
Do you need
a ﬂatter &
differentiated
structure?

The role of the Web structure geolocation  
serpchecker, seominion

As well as the ranked domains link popularity  
in the target markets to be competitive
cognitiveseo
3 ccTLDs, 12 gTLDs 5 ccTLDs, 13 gTLDs

The country and language source of your existing  
links vs. your competitors in each target market
Cognitiveseo

The content to be kept & changed based on relevance  
& localisation for the old vs. new audience behavior

The different
geolocation signals
used by Google
that you should
also include and/or
modify
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en&ref_topic=2370587

The conﬁgurations
Google doesn’t
ofﬁcially use and
you should also be
aware of

… and how Google
crawls
internationally, to
avoid unnecessary
blockage, redirects
or unsupported
conﬁgurations

After assessing
these factors: Does
it still makes sense
to migrate to
achieve your
international SEO
goals?

If so, continue with the process by identifying which are
the affected URLs based on the Web migration scope
next.co.uk current.com/uk/
Next Current
next.co.uk/women/ current.com/uk/women/
… …
current.com/es/next.es
International Web
domain consolidation
+ Rebrand  
 
*Fake Example

The international assessment will drive the SEO
conﬁguration and validation during the Web migration
Pages Crawlability (HTTP Status, Robots.txt)
Content Indexability (Canonicalization, meta robots)
301-Redirects
SSL Certificate
Pages Content Relevance
Pages Internal linking
Pages Speed
Home Page
Category Page
Sub-Category Page
Product Page
Main Blog Page
Blog Category Page
Blog post
For Each Page
Verify
XML Sitemaps
GSC Configuration
Old vs. New Geolocation (GSC, hreflang)
Old vs. New content localization
Old vs. New link popularity for target market

Without forgetting to identify any SEO aspects to both
keep and improve when doing the migration
Old New
Thin, Duplicate Content
Slow Speed
Hierarchical Navigation
Relevant Titles
Page specific, expanded Content
Fast Speed
Hierarchical Navigation
Relevant Titles
To Keep
To Improve
301-Redirects

Make sure you
have capacity and
ﬂexibility to
implement all this
before moving
ahead with the
process
SEO
Design & UX
Marketing
Development

Once you have validated it, is then actually time to
start with the international Web migration

Crawl all the affected URLs and gather their SEO
metrics: indexability, trafﬁc, rankings, external links..
Deepcrawl

Identify orphaned pages, to avoid missing any  
important URLs that you need to migrate
Deepcrawl

Obtain the trafﬁc and ranked queries for  
which these pages are ranking for
URLProﬁler

So you can easily consolidate all the information of the
top pages to be prioritised in the Web migration
Top Pages Technical Configuration Relevance Popularity Traffic Ranked Queries

To assess well if they should be kept or not, and where
they should be 301-redirected in the new location

Which of these actually spark joy by bringing value:
conversions, trafﬁc, rankings & links?

Leave them out
Were they typos, didn’t
existed, didn’t brought nor can
bring rankings, links, traffic?
301-redirect to parent
category
Did they existed but were not
indexable, didn’t brought
rankings, links & traffic nor can
bring in the future?
301-redirect to new page
version
Did they existed, were
indexable and brought or have
potential to bring rankings,
links & traffic?
Deﬁne rules for their migration to give the best possible
search and user experience, based on importance

This is also a great opportunity to prune your site,  
and avoid bringing old errors to the new one

Follow the “should
you prune or
optimize a page
from your site”
ﬂowchart
http://bit.ly/contentpruningseo

Establish what to keep or to improve in the technical,
content and geolocation of the old vs new URLs
Old Pages Titles, Descriptions & H1s New Pages Titles, Descriptions & H1s

Deﬁning also new pages to create in order to keep  
the rankings of old terms if you’re also rebranding
301-Redirect
Next UK 
is now  
Current UK
current.com/uk/next/ Links to
Next UK Current UK
Next Current

While targeting the transactional and new branded
queries with the to be migrated pages
Old Pages
New Pages
Legacy Pages
Old Localized
Queries
Transactional
Queries and
New Localized
Queries
Transactional
Queries and
Old Localized
Queries

Verify that you’re not leaving anything out before
testing the international Web migration
The change is
needed to better
achieve your
international seo
goal
You have taken into
consideration all the
relevant Web
properties URLs
You have
correctly
mapped each old
URL to a new
relevant
destination
The new URL
destinations are
correctly configured
from a technical
perspective
The
new URL
destinations
content is
relevant to the
targeted
queries
The new
URLs will keep
the international
Web targeting of the
old ones and set/
update
configuration
accordingly

Once the changes are deﬁned, release them  
to validate in a closed test environment
Deepcrawl, Sitbulb, Screaming Frog, Ryte, Botify, OnCrawl

Validate the changes by manually comparing ﬁrst the  
top old vs. new types of pages in the test environment
301-Redirects
SSL Certificate
Pages Speed
Home Page
Category Page
Sub-Category Page
Product Page
Main Blog Page
Blog Category Page
Blog post
For Each Page
Verify
XML Sitemaps
GSC Configuration
test.next.co.uk test.current.com/uk/

List crawl the old URLs to check if the 301-redirects have
been set as speciﬁed & go to the relevant new locations

Do a full audit of the new Web destination in test to
check if the pages are completely optimised as expected

Pay specific attention here to the canonicalisation  
and hreflang annotations configuration

It’s all working as expected? If so it’s then time to
move on and release the international Web migration

If the migration will take a bit, return a 503 HTTP status
to tell Google there’s a maintenance going on
https://yoast.com/http-503-site-maintenance-seo/

Do a list crawl of all of the old Websites URLs again to
verify that they’re correctly 301-redirecting as expected

Look again for and ﬁx any non-301 redirects, loops,
chains, or anything going to incorrect URLs

Prioritise to ﬁx high-trafﬁc pages w/ 301-redirects going
to wrong or non-indexable pages and redirects chains

Crawl the new web location and make sure is not
only accessible but optimised as recommended

Look for pages that are
blocked, no-indexed,
linking, canonicalising
or referring in hreﬂang
tags to old URLs

Remember to set
analytics & search
console for the
new international
properties before
releasing too

Once ﬁxed, you
can submit your
new and old
URLs  
& XML sitemaps
to be re-crawled

For domains level migrations, submit it too through  
the Google’s change of address option
https://search.google.com/search-console/settings/change-address

Use a Web monitoring service to send alerts if there  
are changes in the old and new pages conﬁgurations
Little Warden, ContentKing

Start monitoring the new vs. old Web properties
indexing URLs evolution w/ the Search Console
Google Search Console

Follow-up &
compare the new
vs. old locations
main queries &
pages rankings and
CTR using Search
Console with
Google Data Studio
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/7-handy-seo-tools-functionalities-that-facilitate-a-fast-web-migrations-redesigns-validation/

#internationalwebmigrations at #dguconf by @aleyda from @oraintihttps://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/7-handy-seo-tools-functionalities-that-facilitate-a-fast-web-migrations-redesigns-validation/
It will allow you to
compare directly
the ranked queries
along their old vs.
new pages
blending the two
properties data
sources

#internationalwebmigrations at #dguconf by @aleyda from @oraintiseomonitor
Check the trend
of your top
queries for the
target markets,
organising them
in groups to
facilitate analysis

#internationalwebmigrations at #dguconf by @aleyda from @oraintisemrush
Track and compare
the previous vs.
new Web locations
SERP features too,
to identify
potential
opportunities to
improve the
format and
structured data
usage on content

Put your evolution into context comparing versus  
your competitors for your tracked terms…
seomonitor

... as well as overall old vs. new sites visibility share 
SEOmonitorsistrix

#internationalwebmigrations at #dguconf by @aleyda from @oraintiSEOmonitorwayback machine
If the evolution is
not the expected
one, compare non-
performing pages
with old and
optimize further

Request an update to the most authoritative linking  
sites to go to your new international Web pages
semrush, majestic, pitchbox, kerboo, ahrefs

Aligning SEO through the international Web migration  
to keep geolocation, relevance & popularity
301-Redirects
SSL Certificate
Pages Speed
Home Page
Category Page
Sub-Category Page
Product Page
Main Blog Page
Blog Category Page
Blog post
XML Sitemaps
GSC Configuration
For Each Page
Verify

Moving internationally requires a lot of work..

…but can be
positive in the
relevant scenarios
to better target
and compete in
international
markets

I’m Aleyda Solis…
*SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti
*SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries
*Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.”
*Crawling Mondays YouTube SEO Video Series Host
*Blogger in Search Engine Land & Search Engine Journal
*Featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Hufﬁngton Post
*European Search Personality of the Year in 2018
Thanks! Questions? 

Winning SEO when Migrating International Websites #dguconf

Winning SEO when Migrating International Websites #dguconf

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