Are you ready to plunge into the journey of website migration? Explore the compelling case studies that showcase real-world examples of seamless migrations, accompanied by comprehensive checklists that provide step-by-step guidance. 

Get inspired, prepare your migration checklist, and elevate your migration game with website redesign to achieve optimal results.

What is Website Migration?

Website migration refers to the process of transferring a website from one platform, hosting environment, or domain to another. The process involves relocating website files, databases, and other resources while ensuring the continuity of website functionality, design, and user experience. 

Website migration requires careful planning, data backup, redirect implementation, and thorough testing to minimize disruptions, preserve search engine rankings, and ensure a seamless transition for users. Website migration is performed for various reasons, such as platform upgrades, rebranding, merging websites, or improving performance and security.

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Why Do Large Websites Migrate?

Large websites often undergo migration for several reasons. Here are some common reasons for large website migrations,

What are the Challenges They Face While Migrating?

Large websites face various challenges when undergoing a migration process. Some common challenges include,

• Large websites typically have a vast amount of content, complex site structures, and intricate systems in place. Migrating such a significant volume of content and ensuring seamless functionality is a complex task
• Risk of data loss or corruption if not handled properly
• Compatibility issues may arise when migrating from one platform or technology to another
• can have a significant impact on search engine rankings. If proper precautions are not taken, there is a risk of losing organic search visibility and traffic
• Any disruptions or downtime during the migration process can lead to a negative user experience
• Comprehensive quality assurance procedures are necessary to ensure that the new website functions as intended and provides a seamless user experience

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Case Studies – Website Migration Projects

Full-Scale Migration – iPullRank

A global online marketplace recently acquired an international website and sought to merge its traffic into the existing site. To ensure a seamless transition,  all the critical SEO with the acquired site was uncovered by conducting a comprehensive review. Precise technical recommendations were provided and also implemented necessary changes.

Subsequently, the client was guided through the entire process. This involved meticulous content mapping, conducting a thorough backlink audit, and ultimately executing the migration. Upon completion,  the acquired site seamlessly redirected its traffic to the client’s platform, resulting in a remarkable threefold increase in overall traffic. While minor dips were anticipated, the meticulous planning enabled to minimize traffic loss, and within a month successfully regained the previous traffic levels.

By executing a comprehensive strategy a smooth and successful migration was completed, enabling the client to consolidate their online presence and experience substantial traffic growth.

Results

Migration on 2 eCommerce Platforms – scandiweb

Airthings, having operated on two separate subdomains using different eCommerce platforms (HubSpot and Adobe Commerce/Magento), aimed to consolidate their presence under a single subdomain while maintaining both systems. Their objective was to create a modern and user-friendly online store that would be easier to manage from the backend and provide an improved navigation experience for users.

Prior to the migration, Airthings maintained two subdomains, each with 12 stores.

Results

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Red Hat Migration – Builtvisible

Red Hat embarked on an extensive international and multilingual site migration encompassing over 50 regionally targeted websites in eight different languages. This migration also entailed transitioning to a new Drupal platform and consolidating all these websites under a single domain, www.redhat.com. Given the complexities associated with such a domain migration, the primary objective was to minimize risks to organic traffic and visibility. 

Results

Complete Website Revamp and Redesign – ColorWhistle

The website has been revamped with a completely new design. The difference is not just in the design but has redeveloped the entire website moving away from Elementor to Gutenberg.

Due to the poor website speed, bounce rates were very high, and conversion rates were falling day by day hence, decided to revamp the website completely with 2 major objectives.

• Improved performance with excellent Google Page Speed scores
• Ease of use for the marketing team without the help of developers

Results

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Checklist for Big Website Migration

Creating a Staging Environment for Your Website

Establishing a staging environment for your website is highly recommended before the site migration. A staging environment is a separate, and isolated replica of your live website where you can test and experiment without affecting the actual site that your users see. It allows you to assess the impact of changes, identify any issues or bugs, and make necessary adjustments before deploying them to the live environment. By creating a staging environment, you can ensure the stability and functionality of your website while minimizing the risk of potential downtime or user disruption. It provides a controlled space where you can test new features, plugins, design modifications, or even perform full site migrations without compromising the live site’s performance. 

A staging environment allows collaboration among team members or stakeholders, as they can review and provide feedback on the proposed changes before implementation. Overall, a staging environment is a valuable asset in maintaining the integrity and quality of your website while facilitating safe and efficient development processes.

Mapping all your Valuable Content

It is crucial to dedicate additional effort to identifying all the top-performing content pieces and ensure no gaps during the site migration. These valuable pieces of content should be meticulously documented in a Google Sheet based on their type and highest organic traffic. Any content actively referenced by paid campaigns should also be included in the mapping process. The content could be – web pages, blogs, events, webinars, and more.

Remember to Pay Attention to your Contact Forms

During the process of site migration, it is essential to pay close attention to contact forms. Contact forms serve as a vital means of communication between businesses and their customers. Any disruption or malfunction in contact forms during the migration can lead to missed inquiries, potential loss of business opportunities, and frustrated customers. It is crucial to ensure that contact forms are thoroughly tested before and after the migration process to guarantee their proper functionality. 

This includes verifying that form submissions are being received, email notifications are being sent to the appropriate recipients, and any integrations or third-party services associated with the contact forms are working seamlessly. By prioritizing the integrity of contact forms during the site migration, businesses can maintain a smooth and uninterrupted communication channel with their customers, minimizing any negative impact on customer experience and business operations.

Technical Validation with Google Search Console

Performing technical validation with Google Search Console is a crucial step during site migration. Google Search Console provides valuable insights and tools to ensure a smooth transition and minimize any negative impact on search engine rankings. It helps in verifying the ownership of both the old and new domains in Google Search Console, you can submit the new sitemap and monitor the indexing status of their migrated site. It is essential to check for any crawl errors, redirect issues, or missing pages that may arise during the migration process. 

Additionally, leveraging the URL inspection tool in Google Search Console can help identify and resolve any potential indexing issues, ensuring that the new site is properly crawled and indexed by Google. By conducting thorough technical validation with Google Search Console, you can proactively address any migration-related issues and optimize the chances of maintaining search visibility and traffic.

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Additional Website Migration Checklist

Ensure that you have done the following tasks during the migration process,

• Confirm that the proper Robots.txt file is present and properly configured on your website. The Robots.txt file serves as a set of instructions for search engine crawlers, informing them which pages or directories should be allowed or disallowed for indexing. By ensuring the correct Robots.txt file is in place, you can control how search engines access and crawl your website’s content, which can impact your search engine rankings and the visibility of specific pages or sections.
• Verify that the necessary code snippets for Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics are properly inserted into the HTML header section of your website. By embedding the respective code snippets into the head section of your site’s HTML, you enable these tools to collect and process the required information. Through this, you can gain insights into your website’s performance, make data-driven decisions, optimize your online presence, and also help with accurate tracking and measurement of user interactions on your website.
• Ensure forms are connected properly, and the submissions are recorded, check whether all the critical pages have schemas

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Are you Looking for a Partner to Migrate your Big Website?

Before you start with website migration, it is crucial to assess its potential benefits and ensure it aligns with your goals. Site migration offers advantages such as improved SEO, enhanced loading speed, opportunities from website redesign costs, and leverage technological advancements.

To ensure a seamless transition, a well-thought-out website migration plan is essential. By proactively planning, you can avoid common pitfalls and safeguard your website’s search engine ranking and traffic with the help of a reputed digital marketing company.

When developing a website migration plan, consider the following key aspects,

• Clearly define responsibilities for each task across different departments involved in the migration process
• Establish a realistic timeline for the migration, considering all the necessary steps and potential complexities
•  Identify potential risks and challenges associated with the migration and develop strategies to mitigate them effectively

By addressing these considerations, you can execute a successful website migration, maintain search engine visibility, and achieve your desired outcomes.

If you are looking for professional assistance, to migrate your website you can contact ColorWhistle by sending us a message or call us at +1 (919) 234-5140, we’ll get back to you at the earliest. We provide services tailored to your requirements that suit your business.