There are many reasons that you could lose traffic after a website migration, and I provide you with five and preventable measures.

1. 5 REASONS YOU LOSE TRAFFIC
AFTER A WEBSITE MIGRATION

2. @DANIELBIANCHINI
MORE & MORE BRANDS
ARE GOING THROUGH
WEBSITE MIGRATIONS

3. @DANIELBIANCHINI
REPLATFORMINGCHANGING CMS PROVIDER

4. @DANIELBIANCHINI
SITE REFRESHNEW LOOK & FEEL / ARCHITECTURE

5. @DANIELBIANCHINI
DOMAIN BRAND MOVENEW URL / BRAND
/

6. @DANIELBIANCHINI
WEBSITE MIGRATIONS
ARE NOT EASY

7. @DANIELBIANCHINI
5 REASONS YOU LOSE TRAFFIC &
HOW YOU CAN PREVENT IT FROM
HAPPENING

8. @DANIELBIANCHINI
1.
LACK OF RESPECT FOR
REDIRECTS

9. @DANIELBIANCHINI
REDIRECTS ARE A BASIC
REQUIREMENT OF
WEBSITE MIGRATIONS

10. @DANIELBIANCHINI
~188K ERRORS
WTF?

11. @DANIELBIANCHINI
• SEO’S BOUGHT INTO THE PROCESS LATE
• DEVELOPMENT TEAM FEEL THEY HAVE IT HANDLED
• INCORRECT/POOR IMPLEMENTATION
• MULTIPLE-HOP REDIRECTS
HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

12. @DANIELBIANCHINI
HOW TO PREVENT IT?

13. @DANIELBIANCHINI
WITH THE DEVELOPER
GO & MAKE FRIENDS

14. @DANIELBIANCHINI

15. TEST! TEST! TEST!
@DANIELBIANCHINI

16. @DANIELBIANCHINI
2.
GOOGLE TAKING TIME TO
RECOGNISE REDIRECTS

17. @DANIELBIANCHINI
Speed of decline
reduced 3 weeks after
redirect implementation
All URLs 1-2-1 redirecting correctly
Speed of indexation
matched old domain
decline for one week

18. @DANIELBIANCHINI
Visibility returned to the
same levels pre
migration in six weeks.
Or did it?

19. @DANIELBIANCHINI
HOW TO PREVENT IT?

20. @DANIELBIANCHINI
Use GSC
website
address tool
Upload new
XML sitemaps
to new and old
GSC account.
Use the Fetch
as Google
feature to try
and speed up
the process.
Regularly
review the XML
sitemap for
slow indexing
sections.
WAITING FOR GOOGLE

21. @DANIELBIANCHINI
3.
REMOVAL OF PAGES FROM
THE WEBSITE

22. @DANIELBIANCHINI
• CHANGE WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE
• USER JOURNEY
• REMOVAL OF ARCHAIC CONTENT - E .G. BLOG POSTS
• REMOVAL OF CONTENT DUE TO MINIMAL CONVERSIONS
PROVIDES OPPORTUNITY

23. @DANIELBIANCHINI
I am going to remove X pages during the migration as they are
not converting.

24. @DANIELBIANCHINI
I am going to remove X pages during the migration as
they are not converting.
By doing so you will lose X% of traffic across all channels with
the likelihood of losing organic visibility, which in turn will affect
conversion.

25. @DANIELBIANCHINI
I am going to remove X pages during the migration as
they are not converting.
By doing so you will lose X% of traffic across all
channels with the likelihood of losing organic visibility,
which in turn will affect conversion.
That’s fine, as they are not converting directly and therefore the
traffic is not qualified.

26. @DANIELBIANCHINI
That’s fine, as they are not converting directly and
therefore the traffic is not qualified.
By doing so you will lose X% of traffic across all
channels with the likelihood of losing organic visibility,
which in turn will affect conversion.
But this will also have an impact on your assisted conversions, I
would suggest that we combine these pages where possible.

27. @DANIELBIANCHINI
That’s fine, as they are not converting directly and
therefore the traffic is not qualified.
But this will also have an impact on your assisted
conversions, I would suggest that we combine these
pages where possible.
I understand, but I am going ahead.

28. @DANIELBIANCHINI

29. @DANIELBIANCHINI
We have lost lots of traffic and the board are going nuts!

30. @DANIELBIANCHINI
We have lost lots of traffic and the board are going
nuts!
Face palm! – How are the conversions?

31. @DANIELBIANCHINI
We have lost lots of traffic and the board are going
nuts!
Face palm! – How are the conversions?
Down, WTF!

32. @DANIELBIANCHINI
HOW TO PREVENT IT?

33. @DANIELBIANCHINI
• IMPACT ON KEY METRICS SUCH AS CONVERSION / TRAFFIC
• POTENTIAL IMPACT ON SEARCH ENGINE VISIBILITY
• FIND ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS WHERE POSSIBLE
• MAKE A NOTE OF WHO’S DECISION IT WAS
RESEARCH!

34. @DANIELBIANCHINI
4.
CRAWLERS BEING BLOCKED
THROUGH ROBOTS.TXT
& NOINDEX TAGS

35. @DANIELBIANCHINI

36. @DANIELBIANCHINI
• SITE:[INSERT DOMAIN] INURL:STAGING.
• SITE:[INSERT DOMAIN] INURL:DEV.
• SITE:[INSERT DOMAIN] INURL:UAT.
STAGING SITE HELL!

37. @DANIELBIANCHINI

38. @DANIELBIANCHINI
HOW TO PREVENT IT?

39. CHECK ROBOTS.TXT
& NOINDEX ON LAUNCH
@DANIELBIANCHINI

40. @DANIELBIANCHINI
5.
LOST ALL TRAFFIC

41. @DANIELBIANCHINI
Migration Day!
WTF Happened….

42. @DANIELBIANCHINI
HOW TO PREVENT IT?

43. @DANIELBIANCHINI
FIRST OPTION
Ensure GA
code is within
GTM but not
published
Publish GTM
tag on launch.
1. 2.

44. @DANIELBIANCHINI
Create GA
account for
staging
environment
Publish GTM
tag containing
staging
environment
UA.
Annotate in GA
to highlight the
change in
website.
On launch.
Replace test
tag with live
account
details.
SECOND OPTION
1. 2. 3. 4.

45. @DANIELBIANCHINI
AND THAT’S ALL
FOLKS

46. THANK
YOU
@DANIELBIANCHINI
DANIEL BIANCHINI