Patrick Stox provides tips for managing website migrations and redirects, including:
1. Make a detailed plan, get the right people involved, set realistic goals and deadlines, and get enough resources.
2. Expect some issues and don't panic - not everything needs to be perfect at launch. Ensure redirects are set up properly to consolidate links and signals to the new site.
3. Monitor the old and new sites to ensure proper crawling and indexing, and that nothing is blocked or noindexed that could prevent consolidation of signals. Look at analytics comprehensively.
Different types of graphs and when you should use each + some random visuals I've always found useful.
Patrick Stox presenting at Digital Elite Day 2020
Most Valuable SEO Presentation - Advanced Search Summit - DMO Advanced 2021 -...Ahrefs
Patrick Stox presents the most valuable SEO presentation you'll ever see at DMO Advanced in Napa 2021.
What to prioritize, how to scale processes, what's really going to have an impact on your SEO.
Local Link Building - Pubcon Local 2021 - Patrick StoxAhrefs
Patrick covers different strategies to build local links such as getting listed on already ranking sites, finding common links for your competitors, competitors in your niche, and other businesses in your own city, reclaiming lost links, unlinked mentions, and internal links.
An SEO's Guide to Website Migrations | Faye Watt | BrightonSEO's Advanced Tec...Faye Watt
In this presentation, Faye will take you through the necessary steps you need to take to ensure a successful website migration, how to avoid the loss of organic traffic and search visibility, and why migrations often fail.
This presentation includes:
How to redirect a domain
How to set up a local server
A migration timeline template
A migration checklist
From the SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle, Washington June 22-23, 2016. SESSION: Solving Complex SEO Problems When Standard Fixes Don't Apply. PRESENTATION: SEO Audits & Anomalies: Fixing What's Broken - Given by Kristine Schachinger, @schachin - SitesWithoutWalls.com, Owner. #SMX #21A3
Different types of graphs and when you should use each + some random visuals I've always found useful.
Patrick Stox presenting at Digital Elite Day 2020
Most Valuable SEO Presentation - Advanced Search Summit - DMO Advanced 2021 -...Ahrefs
Patrick Stox presents the most valuable SEO presentation you'll ever see at DMO Advanced in Napa 2021.
What to prioritize, how to scale processes, what's really going to have an impact on your SEO.
Local Link Building - Pubcon Local 2021 - Patrick StoxAhrefs
Patrick covers different strategies to build local links such as getting listed on already ranking sites, finding common links for your competitors, competitors in your niche, and other businesses in your own city, reclaiming lost links, unlinked mentions, and internal links.
An SEO's Guide to Website Migrations | Faye Watt | BrightonSEO's Advanced Tec...Faye Watt
In this presentation, Faye will take you through the necessary steps you need to take to ensure a successful website migration, how to avoid the loss of organic traffic and search visibility, and why migrations often fail.
This presentation includes:
How to redirect a domain
How to set up a local server
A migration timeline template
A migration checklist
From the SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle, Washington June 22-23, 2016. SESSION: Solving Complex SEO Problems When Standard Fixes Don't Apply. PRESENTATION: SEO Audits & Anomalies: Fixing What's Broken - Given by Kristine Schachinger, @schachin - SitesWithoutWalls.com, Owner. #SMX #21A3
Migration Best Practices - SMX West 2019Bastian Grimm
My talk from SMX West 2019 in San Jose covering best practices on how to successfully navigate through the various types of migrations (protocol migrations, frontend migrations, website migration, cms migration, etc.) from an SEO perspective - mainly focussing on all things technical SEO.
Migration Best Practices - Search Y 2019, ParisBastian Grimm
My talk from SEARCHY 2019 in Paris covering best practices on how to successfully navigate through the various types of migrations (protocol migrations, frontend migrations, website migration, cms migration, etc.) from an SEO perspective - mainly focussing on all things technical SEO.
Technical SEO - Alec Bertram's Presentation from London Affiliate Conference ...Fresh Egg UK
Senior SEO Engineer at Fresh Egg, Alec Bertram's presentation on the most common and easiest to fix technical SEO issues from the London Affiliate Conference 2014
SEO for Ecommerce: A Comprehensive GuideAdam Audette
A comprehensive guide to ecommerce SEO. With bronies. Why, you may ask? Because that's my daughter's current obsession. Also because SEO+bronies=monies.
Slides broken into sections:
1. Technical SEO
2. On-page and Content
3. Social Media
4. Reporting and Analytics
5. Business Concerns
Technical SEO - An Introduction to Core Aspects of Technical SEO Best-PractiseErudite
On Thursday 28th November the group of search experts and business owners, who blog together as "the SEO Chicks" conducted a panel discussion at The Digital Marketing Show at Londons' Excel.
The presentation outlines each of the main considerations each of the presenters discussed; including critical concerns, best practise and common mistakes.
The SEO Chicks are Lisa Myers, Jackie Hole, Julie Joyce, Judith Lewis, Annabel Hodges, Hannah Smith, Bridget Randolph and Nichola Stott
Link Building at Scale: Big Links with a Tiny Team97th Floor
Presentation by Sam Oh Director of Product Education at Ahrefs, at Mastermind 2019. Sam is a tactical all-in-one marketer and digital strategist. He helps Ahrefs create educational videos and develop creative marketing strategies.
Learn more: 97thfloor.com
Similar to Website Migrations at SMX Munich 2019 - Patrick Stox (20)
Link reclamation for quick SEO wins. Redirects, mentions of your company, products, or people, outreach, Google alerts, images, quotes, statistics and more are great ways to reclaim lost links.
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Watch this webinar as we dive into the evolving landscape of content strategy tailored for today's fragmented user journeys. Understanding how to deliver your content to your users is more crucial than ever, and we’ll provide actionable tips for navigating these intricate challenges.
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In today’s era of AI, personalization is more than just a trend—it’s a fundamental strategy that unlocks numerous opportunities.
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2. #SMX @patrickstox
• Technical SEO for IBM - Opinions expressed are my own and not
those of IBM.
• I write, mainly for Search Engine Land
• I speak at some conferences like this one, Pubcon, TechSEO Boost
• Organizer for the Raleigh SEO Meetup (most successful in US)
• We also run a conference, the Raleigh SEO Conference
• Also the Beer & SEO Meetup (because beer)
• 2017 + 2018 US Search Awards Judge, 2017 + 2018 UK Search
Awards Judge, 2018 + 2019 Interactive Marketing Awards Judge
Who is Patrick Stox?
7. #SMX @patrickstox
Make Sure People Know What They Are Supposed To Do
• SEO
• Social
• Paid
• PR
• Analytics
• Apps and/or Platforms
• Email/automation
• Devs
• Infrastructure
12. #SMX @patrickstox
• Before: ABC, an XYZ company
• Before: ABC is becoming XYZ on dd/mm/yyyy
• During: ABC, now part of XYZ
• Maybe Later: DEF, formerly ABC (because someone will want to
change the name…)
Let People Know Your Branding (For Acquisitions)
14. #SMX @patrickstox
Sometimes things are rushed and
missed because of deadlines,
holidays, resources, etc.
Don’t expect everything to be
perfect or for you to be able to
delay the process.
Not Everything Has To Be Perfect Before Launch
15. #SMX @patrickstox
This = That
The Most Likely Thing To Go Wrong Is Redirects
They’re Really About Consolidation Of Signals
16. #SMX @patrickstox
There is no value lost, no decay of signals. They either consolidate,
or they don’t. That’s true for 301, 302, JS redirects, however you do
it.
How Redirects Work
17. #SMX @patrickstox
Map 1:1 as much as possible
• Don’t redirect all to one page like an announcement or
homepage
• Don’t forget other formats like Images or PDFs (I wouldn’t worry
about jss, css, etc)
• You should maintain older redirects from previous versions of
the site
Get Them Right
18. #SMX @patrickstox
If a page is 404 for long enough, signals are essentially lost. Note,
they can build back up over time as links to the page are crawled.
Why Get Them Right?
19. #SMX @patrickstox
It depends…
On a fairly stable site, consolidation will happen within a few weeks
Once that happens, signals at the original
URL are dropped! So changing a redirect
later can take time.
How Long Does It Take To Consolidate
20. #SMX @patrickstox
This is about where signals consolidate and which
shows in search results. A 301 > B = B shows in
index and signals consolidate to B
• A 302 > B = A stays indexed, B consolidates to A.
• Eventually this may be treated as a 301 and
consolidate to B.
• Other signals may come into play. A 302 > B, B
canonical to A = A stays indexed and signals get
consolidated there.
The Age Old Debate Of 301 vs 302
21. #SMX @patrickstox
With redirects, whether they actually count for your or are ignored
and treated as a soft 404 depends on how relevant the new page is
to the old one.
• 1:1 = yes
• Home > Announcement or Product page = likely yes
• Home > Family/Company Home = maybe (depending on
relevance)
• Subpages > Home, likely not, but again depends on relevance
What If: I Redirect All To One Page
22. #SMX @patrickstox
Eventually the links from those old pages will no longer consolidate
to the newest one. Signals are checked at time of crawl.
I would keep redirects from pages that have links as until the day I
die. As long as there are still links and Google is still checking, there
is still value.
What If: I Don’t Keep Legacy Redirects
23. #SMX @patrickstox
Users will be redirected, but the links aren’t going to count.
The image index is a different index than the page index. Try doing
info:https://abc.com/xyz.jpg in a search and you’ll see there’s no
information. For redirected pages, this would show the new
location and the links would also be reflected in Google Search
Console as “via intermediate link (old page)” but this doesn’t
happen for images redirected to pages.
What If: I Redirect Images To A Page
24. #SMX @patrickstox
Understanding where the redirects are happening:
• DNS
• CDN level (workers or redirect/page rules)
• Middleware (A/B Testing Platform, something between CDN and
server)
• Server level (files like .htaccess or server config, HTTP header
response)
• Language based (PHP, JS, meta refresh, etc)
• Plugin/Module/CMS
Where I See People Struggle With Redirects
25. #SMX @patrickstox
• DNS does not have protocol, you can’t use http/https at this level.
• If you route to the new site with DNS, you basically have to
preserve the path and catch redirects on the new server.
• Abc.com/xyz > newabc.com/xyz, then write a rule on the new server for
xyz to go where it needs to.
Where I See People Struggle With Redirects
26. #SMX @patrickstox
• Letting an old domain that’s redirected expire is bad.
• If you put redirects in .htaccess on the old server and then remove
the old server, what happens? Gone…
• If your site was HTTPS and you leave your old server up with
redirects there, remember to renew the certificate. Or get a multi-
domain cert and move everything to the new server. If the cert
expires, Google still counts links but users aren’t passed.
Where I See People Struggle With Redirects
27. #SMX @patrickstox
Ahrefs Pages > “Best by links” report
• 404 and has links = easy win
• 30x and has links but goes to a main page or homepage when
there might be a better match where it wouldn’t be treated as a
soft 404.
• Crawl the pages to double check the current status codes.
Looking For Redirect Opportunities
28. #SMX @patrickstox
• Check your header responses to identify where a redirect may
have fired. Usually CDN, Server, and CMS have identifying
characteristics in their headers.
• Move redirects to the edge if you can, it’s faster.
• It’s never too late, these are some of the easiest wins companies
have are to create redirects for old pages where they were either
not done or have been lost over the years.
• Setup monitoring for the old domain, security certificates,
important pages, etc.
Redirect Tips
29. #SMX @patrickstox
• When using HSTS, the redirect usually shown is a 307. This is
browser cached and there can be a 301 or a 302 behind this. Check
without cache or in Google Search Console with fetch to see.
• Content Security Policy: upgrade-insecure-requests. Having
mixed content issues? Enabling this will solve them and is fairly
quick on the servers or some CDNs can do it with a click.
• Referrer Policy. Lots of options on how to pass the referral to sites
that aren’t secure but you also might be stripping out the referral
to some parts of your site, so check this.
HTTPS Specific
30. #SMX @patrickstox
Don’t block anything, don’t noindex anything.
Use info:https://example.com/path in Google to see if pages are
consolidating correctly and you should also see links in Google
Search Console with Target URL (if different) as the old page
Crawling/Indexing
31. #SMX @patrickstox
People still see old pages indexed because they haven’t all been
crawled yet or they do a site: search on the old website and see the
site and think they need to remove the pages. This is pretty much
the worst thing they can do. Site: is going to return the old website,
you’re specifically asking for information about it.
Common Scenario
32. #SMX @patrickstox
• Blocking crawling in robots.txt on old site.
• Spiders needs to crawl the old site to consolidate to the new one.
• Using noindex on old site in head, http headers, or robots.txt.
• If it’s not indexed, it can’t be consolidated. I’ve seen an entire domain
not consolidated because of a noindex in robots.txt.
• Using the URL removal tool in Google Search Console.
• Just don’t.
Where It Goes Wrong On Old Site
33. #SMX @patrickstox
• Block crawling in robots.txt in new site.
• Spiders need to crawl the new site in order to consolidate signals. This is
typically blocked before launch and sometimes people forget about it.
• Use noindex on new site.
• If the new pages aren’t indexed, then signals can’t be consolidated
there. This is typically done before launch and sometimes people forget
about it.
Where It Goes Wrong On New Site
34. #SMX @patrickstox
Keeping a sitemap with the old URLs (for a short period of time)
can help get them crawled faster. For some there’s a popular belief
that you should only have URLs from the new site in the sitemap.
In the future, the indexing API may be used for fast re-indexing.
David already tested this and it seems to work (for now)
https://www.davidsottimano.com/playing-with-googles-new-
indexing-api-and-getting-pages-crawled-immediately/
You Want Google To Crawl Through Everything
35. #SMX @patrickstox
I have a lot of examples where people “see” drops but it’s because
they’re looking at a limited view like one property in Google Search
Console instead of a property set or they aren’t passing the referrer
correctly or just general issues with their analytics.
So many case studies show issues from migrations for http/https,
subfolder/subdomain where they didn’t look at all the things
consolidated or they have a problem with their analytics or they cut
out content or internal links. Look at the whole picture!
Make Sure You’re Looking At Your Analytics Tools The
Right Way
36. #SMX @patrickstox
Cutting content or not transferring it
has caused some of the biggest drops I
have seen. Imagine taking successful
pages and just killing them rather than
bringing them over.
Content
37. #SMX @patrickstox
Most conversations seem to happen
around website structure or taxonomy,
rather than internal links.
This is more important than your structure
as it shows a real world picture of how
things are connected and not an idealistic
view of how things are structured.
Internal Links
38. #SMX @patrickstox
Wayback Machine https://web.archive.org/
Tip: You can also see old versions of the robots.txt file which can
show if something may have been blocked in the past.
What If I Was Brought In After The Fact?