Google’s Tips For Moving To A New Website Without SEO Issues

On a latest episode of Ask Googlebot, Google Search Advocate John Mueller mentioned a priority many small enterprise house owners have.

Companies usually work on launching a brand new web site whereas nonetheless operating their outdated web site. Mueller was requested if house owners should delete the outdated web site when the brand new one goes dwell.

Right here’s what he advises.

Navigating The Transition From Previous To New Web sites

Mueller harassed the necessity to take away or replace the outdated web site since leaving contradictory data on-line might confuse customers and hurt search engine optimization.

Having inconsistent particulars like modified enterprise hours or addresses on each websites may frustrate clients and make it tougher for search engines like google to accurately index and rank pages.

To supply the perfect consumer expertise and search engine optimization efficiency, it’s essential to make sure the outdated web site is not publicly seen or is up to date to match the present data.

Greatest Practices For A Easy Transition

The answer, Mueller suggests, is to implement redirects from the outdated web site to the brand new one.

“Ideally, you’d redirect the outdated web site to the brand new one,” Mueller said. This not solely aids customers find the right web site but additionally helps search engines like google switch any current indicators to the brand new area, doubtlessly boosting its standing.

Mueller recommends getting assist from an online developer or internet hosting supplier to implement the redirects correctly. He suggests leaving the redirects in place for at the least one 12 months to ensure a clean changeover for customers and search engines like google.

Understanding The Position Of Redirects

Redirects are important when transitioning from one web site area to a brand new area. They assist in a few key methods.

First, redirects make sure that customers who attempt to go to the outdated web site area get mechanically forwarded to the brand new area.

Second, redirects cross on the worth of hyperlinks pointing to the outdated area over to the brand new area.

This hyperlink fairness switch is important so the brand new web site retains its search engine rating. Altering domains might harm the consumer expertise and search engine optimization with out redirects.

How To Implement Redirects

When transferring an internet site, one of the vital widespread and beneficial forms of redirects is a 301 everlasting redirect. This passes hyperlink fairness or rating energy from outdated pages to new pages.

To arrange these redirects, you need to first map out which outdated URLs ought to level to which new ones. Then, relying in your internet server, you edit both the .htaccess file (for Apache) or server config information (for NGINX) to create the redirects.

Many content material administration techniques like WordPress even have plugins that may assist mechanically create these redirects when migrating a web site.

When Redirects Aren’t An Possibility

Mueller advised a number of choices for dealing with outdated web sites when redirects to a brand new area aren’t attainable.

First, replace the outdated web site with a discover alerting guests that the content material has moved to a brand new area. If that may’t be achieved, take down the outdated web site fully.

He assured that if neither of these choices labored, the brand new web site wouldn’t be penalized by search engines like google for the outdated content material on the outdated area. Nonetheless, he warned that the outdated and new web sites might nonetheless seem in searches for some time, which can should be clarified for customers who discover the outdated content material.

After The Transition

After making the transition, you’ll need to preserve a detailed watch to verify all the pieces goes easily:

• Use analytics software program to examine that redirects perform accurately and site visitors is distributed to the appropriate locations.
• Preserve monitoring your search engine rankings to catch any sudden dips which may imply the transition has an issue.
• Let customers know concerning the change by emails, social media, web site bulletins, and so on, so they’re knowledgeable and never caught unaware by the transition.

In Abstract

Transferring to a brand new web site is a serious change for any firm. Dealing with the shift fastidiously is important to sustaining your search engine rankings and giving customers a steady expertise.

Mueller’s steerage and the additional background supplied on this article ought to help in making the transition from an outdated web site to a brand new one go easily.

Featured Picture: Screenshot from YouTube.com/GoogleSearchCentral, January 2024