How to carry across/capture linkjuice during an SEO site migration

[McTaggart]

Hi there - I am planning out an SEO migration but this thought just occured to me:

If the links into a site's previous URL went to the non-canonical version of the domain name - e.g.

to: https://theguardian.com/uk and not the correct version of that URL, which is: https://www.theguardian.com/uk

Then, if I do a redirect simply from the correct canonical version of the domain: 
https://www.theguardian.com/uk - rather than the versions of the domain that are being pointed to by backlinks - e.g. https://theguardian.com/uk - then the migration will not be carrying across all the linkjuice from the previous site.

So how would you suggest dealing with this issue?

[effectdigital]

This is exactly the right answer! Also remember that unless the content at the redirect origin and destination URLs is similar, Google may decide not to transfer the SEO authority across. So if you looked at the last active iteration of the old URL which 'earned' the SEO authority (and links), and you compared the content (via something like a Boolean string similarity tool) to the new URL - and the read-out wasn't good, you might lose a little (or all of) your SEO authority

The best thing to do is actually get the backlinks amended, if you possibly can - as this circumvents the whole problem. That being said it can be time consuming to do link amends and what you actually get back can be iffy (some webmasters can even get annoyed if not approached correctly)

[MrWhippy]

Hi Luke,

Redirect from both.

so have a 301 from

https://theguardian.com/uk

https://www.theguardian.com/uk

both pointing to https://newsite.com/uk

By doing this you avoid redirect chains and still point all the links to the new relevant link.

I hope this helps

Steve