Website Migration Query
-
We are going to migrate our site but we cannot do this gradually, so before we complete the whole migration, we were thinking of launching the new site on a sub-domain and gradually redirect traffic to the sub-domain, starting with 10%, moving up steadily so that we then migrate to the new site within four/five weeks.
The new site will have a new URL structure on the same domain, with a complete re-design and the IP address will be changing as well, even though the server geographical location will remain the same.
a) Should we noindex the new sub-domain while the new site is on trial?
b) Are there any other issues we should look out for?
Thanks in Advance
-
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for taking time to help us out as well.
We are checking out your recommendations, especially interesting is learning from Moz's experience.
Kindest Regards
Luciano
-
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for taking time to help us out.
Since you rightly pointed out that forwarding traffic gradually to a “/disallow” sub-domain will hurt us, we were thinking of taking this course:
- Roll out the new site on a /test/ sub-domain with the “disallow” / “no index” instructions
- Invite some visitors (also via geo-targeting) to click on a banner asking them to visit our new site (We will try not to redirect too much traffic to /test/)
- Monitor this limited traffic to weed out any problems and use crawling tools to crawl the website for two weeks, identifying and correcting any errors in the process
- Remove pages from /test/ and push new website “live”
Looking forward to your feedback.
Kindest Regards
Luciano
-
I would echo what Jeff says and take care of the migration all at once, otherwise you're bound to have duplicate issues and create a lot more work for yourself, and possibly cleaning-up to do too.
Migrations can get mega-complex, and thorough preparation is key.
I'd recommend reading this: http://moz.com/blog/web-site-migration-guide-tips-for-seos
watching Moz's own migration lessons learned Mozinar: http://moz.com/webinars/domain-migrations-lessons-from-the-moz-transition
and checking out Aleyda Solis' actually very useful infographic for migration considerations: http://moz.com/blog/achieving-an-seo-friendly-domain-migration-the-infographic
Best of luck.
-
Honestly, I don't the the gradual migration to the new site is a very good idea. If you take the route you've outlined, you're likely going to drop in the rankings due to duplicate content issues, or just the fact that you are no-indexing content. Once you no-index content, it can sometimes take quite a while for the content to be re-indexed after you remove the no-index restriction.
I'd instead recommend putting up the new site in a development / test area. If this is one a different subdomain, that's fine for now, but you should no-index / no-follow the test site.
Once everything is ready, flip the switch to have the DNS point to the new IP address for the new site, and then disable the existing site. In order to decrease DNS caching issues, you may wish to set the TTL (time to live) for the A records down to 300 seconds or so.
As your URL stucture is changing, you will want to make sure that the URLS are all 301 redirected to their new location. You can do this with a mod rewrite rule (if everything is changing from .aspx --> .php), or manually map out each page and put them in your .htaccess file.
I would test these out on a site like the http://httpstatus.io/ site to make sure it works properly.
And my recommendation is not to do the changeover on a Friday afternoon, unless you want to spend the whole weekend troubleshooting issues on the site.
Once the site is live, make sure things like the contact forms are working, and that any images on the old site are also moved over if possible (as you might be using them in email campaigns, etc.).
Hope this helps!
- Jeff
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Page Speed/Website Optimization Question
We recently relaunched our website and after running multiple page speed tests (GT Metrix, Google, etc.) our results aren't great. We would love any suggestions on how to improve our site as we are not experts in what exactly these results mean - https://gtmetrix.com/reports/loyalty360.org/DKRN0hKg. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | carlystemmer0 -
Cached version of website
Hi, Upon checking the text cache view of our home page, I noticed the mobile menu links are also coming in text format which looks weird. Please see: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:indialetsplay.com&biw=1366&bih=638&noj=1&strip=1 Our coder told us that he has created separate menu i.e. one version for the desktop and one for the mobile version. Anyway, the reason the coder created a different menu for mobile in order to support the design requirements. Does the duplicating the menu good for on page SEO? Give the best solution for handling it.
Technical SEO | | Obbserv0 -
How do I optimize a website for SEO for a client that is using a subdirectory as a seperate website?
We launched a subdirectory site about two months ago for our client. What's happening is searches for the topic covered by the subdirectory are yielding search results for the old site and not the new site. We'd like to change this. Are there best practices for the subdirectory site Specifically we're looking for things we can do using sitemapping and Webmaster tools. Are there other technical things we can do? Thanks you.
Technical SEO | | IVSeoTeam120 -
Redesiging website and how to prevent a SEO disaster?
Hey guys, I'm in the process of re designing my company website. This website runs in Kentico CMS and now I'm moving to drupal CMS. The main reason for the move is that I need a more flexible design with responsiveness and integrate better social aspects. Currently I'm having to deal with a developer whom can't be bothered to update the site. I also find kentico extremely difficult to deal with. The site has good Google rankings and I was thinking about setting up some 301 redirects when the move is completed. Now the question is this site is been live for over 2 years and I have tons of blog posts sitting in here. How can I get these moved? When this is done will they lose their 'age' ? What if I re create the blog posts as it is and then setup 301 re-directs on this? I have G+ authorship and will they be affected by this? Last question is having a responsive site will affect my SEO rankings once moved? I heard the 301 is not considered as a 'safe' thing with Google so what are my options? If anyone can share a link(s) to site upgrades/moving to new design tutorials/best practices articles based on SEO ill be grateful. Thank you very much.
Technical SEO | | Suganthan0 -
When will seomoz rank my website?
Hi all, I am really excited to be here. I joined seo moz three weeks ago. Seo moz crawled my website twice and still under competitive domain analysis my domain authority is 1 and everything else underneath is zero. I fixed some errors and warning after first crawl but still nothing in root domain metrics. Can anyone please explain whats happening? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | proaspirant0 -
Is it considered spam to promote a website in different cities?
I have a client who wants to promote their Mobile application and website design company in California based cities. Example Keyword los angeles iphone app development - Local Monthly Search 260 san diego iphone app development - Local Monthly Search 320 san jose iphone app development - Local Monthly Search 0 san francisco windows mobile app development - Local Monthly Search 0 california iphone app development - Local Monthly Search 0 Selected san diego iphone app development los angeles drupal web design - Local Monthly Search 0 san diego drupal web design - Local Monthly Search 0 san jose drupal web design - Local Monthly Search 0 san francisco graphic design - Local Monthly Search 3600 california drupal web design - Local Monthly Search 0 Selected san francisco graphic design I have 33 keywords in 5 cities. just want to know if it is considered spam?
Technical SEO | | KLLC0 -
How to attach at text to image that other websites use from my website
I often have other websites link to my website. They will do this with an image that they pull off of my website. (actually my website continues to serve the image). These inbound links are great, but they don't have alt text. Is there a way for me to attach alt text to the images, or is this something the other website needs to code themselves?
Technical SEO | | EugeneF0 -
Websites on same c class IP address
If two websites are on the same c class IP address, what does it mean ? Does two websites belong to the same company ?
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050