WEBSITE MIGRATIONS:
DATA IS EVERYTHING!
DANIEL BIANCHINI
@danielbianchini
MORE & MORE
BRANDS ARE GOING
THROUGH WEBSITE
MIGRATIONS
@danielbianchini
NEW PLATFORM
@danielbianchini
SITE REFRESH
@danielbianchini
DOMAIN / BRAND MOVE
@danielbianchini
WEBSITE
MIGRATIONS ARE
NOT EASY
@danielbianchini
POSTIIVE MIRGATION
@danielbianchini
NEGATIVE MIGRATION
@danielbianchini
@danielbianchini
The fault, my friends, is not always
the algorithm, but with us
@danielbianchini
MIGRATIONS
TOOLS
PROCESS
DANGERS
MONITORING
REASONS
DATA
LAUNCH
PLAN
TESTING
STAKEHOLDERS
@danielbianchini
MIGRATIONS
TOOLS
PROCESS
DANGERS
MONITORING
REASONS
DATA
LAUNCH
PLAN
TESTING
STAKEHOLDERS
PM approach Link reclamation
Pre-launch
Data gathering
Launch to early
Poor implementation
Launch during

peak
Using poor tech New domain has

bad history
KWR Pos
Pages indexed
Organic traffic
Current

visibility
Pagespeed
Replatforming
SSL
Redesign
Domain

Consolidations
URL

restructure
Out of date

techMoving TLD
Rebrand
New host
New URLS
Existing redirects
GSC linked 

pages
Analytics
Website crawl
Log file analysis
Image locations
GSC switch
Sitemaps
Redirect

checks
Robots.txt

checks
Agencies
Brand

team
C-suite PR team
Marketing

team
Developers
Infrastructure

team
Loss of visibility
Loss of traffic
Crawlers
Analytics
Log file analysis
External link tools
GSC
Redirects
Crawling
Analytics
@danielbianchini
2 AREAS DATA IS SO IMPORTANT
Benchmarking
URL data 

gathering
@danielbianchini
Benchmarking
Gathering information to understand pre-migration
performance compared to post-launch.
@danielbianchini
BENCHMARKING DASHBOARD
0	
50000	
100000	
150000	
200000	
250000	
15-Aug-15	 15-Sep-15	 15-Oct-15	 15-Nov-15	 15-Dec-15	 15-Jan-16	 15-Feb-16	 15-Mar-16	 15-Apr-16	 15-May-16	 15-Jun-16	 15-Jul-16	
Organic		
clickstay.com	GA	organic	sessions	 villarenters.com	GA	organic	sessions	
0	
2000	
4000	
6000	
8000	
10000	
12000	
14000	
15-Aug-15	 15-Sep-15	 15-Oct-15	 15-Nov-15	 15-Dec-15	 15-Jan-16	 15-Feb-16	 15-Mar-16	 15-Apr-16	 15-May-16	 15-Jun-16	 15-Jul-16	
Keywords	
clickstay.com	organic	keywords	 villarenters.com	organic	keywords	
0	
1000	
2000	
3000	
4000	
5000	
6000	
7000	
8000	
9000	
10000	
15-Aug-15	
15-Sep-15	
15-Oct-15	
15-Nov-15	
15-Dec-15	
15-Jan-16	
15-Feb-16	
15-M
ar-16	
15-Apr-16	
15-M
ay-16	
15-Jun-16	
15-Jul-16	
http://bit.ly/migration-reporting
@danielbianchini
BENCHMARKING TOOLS
@danielbianchini
SEMRUSH
▸ Weekly/monthly exports of keyword visibility and add into the spreadsheet
(SEMrush data).
▸ Add the number of organic keywords highlighted
@danielbianchini
GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
▸ Weekly exports of Google index status from Google
@danielbianchini
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
▸ Export weekly/monthly traffic figures to identify any noticeable shifts in traffic
@danielbianchini
RANKING SOFTWARE
▸ If you are moving domain, you need to add in the new URL
▸ Monitor the change in visibility across those terms your are tracking
▸ Look at positions and page distribution
@danielbianchini
BENCHMARKING DASHBOARD
0	
50000	
100000	
150000	
200000	
250000	
15-Aug-15	 15-Sep-15	 15-Oct-15	 15-Nov-15	 15-Dec-15	 15-Jan-16	 15-Feb-16	 15-Mar-16	 15-Apr-16	 15-May-16	 15-Jun-16	 15-Jul-16	
Organic		
clickstay.com	GA	organic	sessions	 villarenters.com	GA	organic	sessions	
0	
2000	
4000	
6000	
8000	
10000	
12000	
14000	
15-Aug-15	 15-Sep-15	 15-Oct-15	 15-Nov-15	 15-Dec-15	 15-Jan-16	 15-Feb-16	 15-Mar-16	 15-Apr-16	 15-May-16	 15-Jun-16	 15-Jul-16	
Keywords	
clickstay.com	organic	keywords	 villarenters.com	organic	keywords	
0	
1000	
2000	
3000	
4000	
5000	
6000	
7000	
8000	
9000	
10000	
15-Aug-15	
15-Sep-15	
15-Oct-15	
15-Nov-15	
15-Dec-15	
15-Jan-16	
15-Feb-16	
15-M
ar-16	
15-Apr-16	
15-M
ay-16	
15-Jun-16	
15-Jul-16	
http://bit.ly/migration-reporting
@danielbianchini
One of the most important part of a website
migration is having ALL the URL data.
URL data gathering
@danielbianchini
URL GATHERING TOOLS
@danielbianchini
CRAWLING - ALL URLS
▸ Run a crawl of the entire website and
export all URLs into a spreadsheet
▸ Run a crawl of the XML sitemap and
export into a spreadsheet
@danielbianchini
GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
▸ Download URL data from Search Analytics in GSC
▸ Expand date range as long as possible
▸ Export most linked pages on your website
@danielbianchini
GOOGLE ANALYTICS - PAGES
▸ Locate all pages that have received traffic in your analytics package
▸ Choose a wide data range 12-24months
▸ Export all pages to XLS
@danielbianchini
LINK DATA
▸ Gather link data from your backlink software of choice
▸ Download most linked content in spreadsheet
@danielbianchini
CRAWLING - IMAGES
▸ Export a list of your images
▸ You may receive traffic through image search, so you need to add all image URLs as
well
Does image search provide enough traffic - http://bit.ly/2cwlJ1M
@danielbianchini
DE-DUPE & CRAWL
@danielbianchini
NOW FOR MAKING DECISIONS
URL Gathering Template http://bit.ly/url-gathering
IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A MISTAKE, DO
NOT LET GATHERING URL DATA BE IT!
Thank You!
@danielbianchini
www.danielbianchini.co.uk
@danielbianchini
me@danielbianchini.co.uk

Website Migrations: Data is Everything