Site Migration Mistakes to Avoid, Part 2

Recently in this space, we discussed some of the major pitfalls that can come with a site migration that isn’t done properly. A site migration is a detailed and involved process, and you need an SEO consultant that has been through it before and can guide you through it.

With that in mind, here’s part two of our blog on the kinds of errors online marketing pros should be looking out for as they consider site migrations of all types.

Starting Too Late

Most site migrations take months from the original planning stages to the full recovery and scale. If you start too late or seek help from a consultant too far in, you could have already missed several of the most important steps of the process – many of which are at the beginning.

Not Doing Enough Testing

One such area is testing before the eventual launch date of your new site comes around. This is a process that often picks up major issues with the new site before it launches, which is far more preferable than having to pull the site down or rush a fix once it’s already up. As we noted in part one of this blog, the site needs to be tested before the launch date – both by SEO and user experience teams with great attention to detail and proper implementation.

Not Anticipating Recovery Scale

In many cases, the people at the top of a business – shareholders, stakeholders, and CEOs – don’t understand SEO and UX completely, and don’t realize how involved a site migration really is. They often demand unrealistic timelines or plans, but they often simply don’t get how badly even just a few days with a buggy site can impact organic search recovery efforts months into the future. Consultants and project managers have to be convincing and firm with executives and other big-picture folks when it comes to migrations.

Issues With Bugs

All site migrations, even the best-planned ones, will come with some bugs here or there. The name of the game here is how you address and prioritize them – some are more meaningful than others, for instance, and a trained eye can spot these for you. If you respond too slowly to the inevitable bugs in your re-launch, you’ll often inflict massive damage on the new site that it could take months or even years to recover from.

For more on avoiding big mistakes in site migration, or to learn about any of our SEO services, speak to the pros at SEO Werkz today.