Purchasing a new domain? Migrating content from an old domain to a new one? Updating your existing website and its URLs? If so, it’s important that all webmasters plan ahead and avoid any detrimental mistakes that could cause your SEO rankings to tumble and your digital footprint to dissolve. Our Toronto SEO company has created this resource to help you protect your investments you’ve worked hard to build and discover new strategies to help you with your transition.
1. Notify Search Engines of Changes
During a website update, it is quite normal for some of your page URLs to change even if you are not moving it to new domain. When not planned out strategically ahead of time, this can result in a loss of individual page rankings and sales. To avoid rebuilding your digital footprint from scratch, you must inform search engines of any changes you made to your website by use of 301 redirects. A tool called Screaming Frog can help you create a list of all the URLs on your old website and identify any pages that will need to be rerouted with a permanent 301 redirect.
2. Link Analysis
In order to do a comprehensive analysis of all backlinks that are pointing to your website, a Webmaster Tool will suffice. When going down the list of links, focus only on the direct links, rather than redirect ones, because they have less moving parts and have faster access to your content. Contact each webmaster to see if they can feature the new domain/link. If not, establish a 301 redirect pointing to the new URL.
3. Complete an SEO Audit
An SEO audit must include a SWOT analysis of your current website as it stands. Use the results of this analysis to create a roadmap of what is needed to be carried over and what should be disposed of. As well, identify areas where you brand can use some improvement.
4. Add a SSL Certificate
If you are having eCommerce site, adding a SSL Certificate will increase your site’s rankings as compared to other eCommerce site without SSL. Search Engine gives priority to SSL certified eCommerce sites.
5. Mobile Optimization
Mobile Optimization is now a key factor in how search engines rank websites. If your website is not mobile-responsible, this is the time to invest in a mobile-friendly version of your website or a mobile landing page that consumers can visit when they click on the search result.
6. Add Graphics, Tables, Photos and Videos
When search engines crawl through your website, they do so looking for diverse and informative content. Making your website more interactive with original photos and videos will have a great impact on your search engine ranking. You should always remember to optimise any photos and videos for SEO.
About iRISEmedia
iRISEmedia.com is a Toronto digital media agency specializing in Website Design and Development, Social Media, Online PR and SEO. We service clients in Toronto, Ontario, the GTA and throughout Canada as well as globally.
