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How to Migrate Your Website to WordPress Without SEO Loss

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As new CMS’s are expanding into the market regularly; accordingly, the need for website migration has also come into play. Eventually, it is a mandated process. Otherwise, the chances that you might lose the search engine ranking and traffic are more.

Website migration is the process of changing or moving the website from one platform to another platform. This is performed to improve search engine visibility.

Yes, there is no doubt that it is an exhausting process. But, it is significant as well.

The possibility that you might be getting a nightmare of the losses that might occur while the migration process is higher. Because you have put all your efforts to increase the website visibility for many years. But, when there comes the demand to migrate the website to some best CMS, then there is no other option then WordPress that can give you the best results in any manner.

WordPress is an open-source Content Management System which is used to build great websites for your business. This tool aims to make it possible for you to create an online presence in some minutes only.

It has empowered almost one third of all the websites with a percentile of 34%. It is a robust website builder platform for all kinds of sites. Initiating from blogging, e-commerce to business and portfolio websites, it is showing its flexible and versatile nature.

WordPress gives endless opportunities when it comes to customizing any of the WordPress websites. With the plugins and themes, you can integrate the new features and functionalities to your site. You can even go with WordPress migration services, that can solve every single query of yours.

So, you might have got relaxed after knowing the immense benefits WordPress holds. Chiefly, migrating your existing website to WordPress is not going to plummet your website and does not let any loss of website visibility.

Here, in this article, we will give you the best tips and tricks to keep your SEO ranking intact in the WordPress migration process.

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Ways to migrate the website to WordPress without hurting SEO ranking

But, before we find the ways to migrate, let’s comprehend the migration types that one should know.

Different types of migration

Website Structure
Sometimes you may need to rename and redesign your site, which will affect how search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo view your site. Until and unless you are not taking the migration seriously, it may hurt your current SERP reputation.

Platform migration
There are higher chances that you require to migrate from an existing platform to a more reliable platform such as WordPress. It is undoubtedly changing the way search engines examine your web pages.

Web host change

You are likely to change the web host, which will inevitably change your IP address. In general, most virtual host changes are simplified, so the appearance of issues while the web host is less.

Domain name changes

This is precisely the simplest of all forms of migration. However, it should also be noted that the careless handling of domain changes does result in lost traffic.

Changing protocol

You may wish to replace your website’s protocol from Http to Https; changing the protocol signifies that your site is now encrypted.

As if, it is known that website migration can affect your website performance, but, if handled intelligently, the chances of losing SEO could be negligible.

So, let’s find out the ways of healthy migration from an existing website to WordPress.

Determine the requirement

The first thing you need to do before choosing a complete migration is to estimate the advantages and disadvantages of the website. After weighing all the mandatories, assure yourself that is migration really required? Is it necessary to continue with the process while avoiding the disadvantages and the risk of irregular migration?
So, be smart and act accordingly.

Evaluation of the migration method

It is necessary to get familiar with every migration process. Additionally, find out the other available migration types. Examine the entire process and observe what is included to have a better understanding of the whole migration process.

Maintain a backup

Never forget to generate a backup of your website. WordPress has different ways of keeping the backup. It has several handy plugins, such as VaultPress, BackUpBuddy, and BackWPup, that you can use effortlessly.

Let’s start the migration process

# Install the Duplicate plugin for an existing website.
# Activate it
# Chose the WordPress admin for Duplicator menu
# Chose the create button from Duplicator menu
*// Create button: Initializes the duplication process. It demands the name of your package. You can pick any. Or you # can stick with the existing one//*
# Create a zip package with plugins for the WordPress database and files
# After completion, the duplicator screen appears
# Download the installer files
# Package them before beginning the FTP program
# Connect the new website *// Guarantee that the directory of the new site is empty//*
# Upload the package Zip file and installer.php file
# Fill the required information (database information)
# Tick the necessary warnings, such as, “I have read the terms and conditions.”
# Select the Run Development option
# Zip package can be extracted
# Database / Plugins / Themes will be installed
# When it is done, the updated page will appear (for URL updation-manually)
# Perform the post-installation steps-saving the WP permalinks.
# Login to WP admin (new)-open settings and choose permalinks
# Save and delete files (installer-log.txt, installer-data.sql, installer.php from root directory)
# Check if anything (links, pages, and posts) is broken or missing
# If not- then; you have migrated accurately to your WordPress website.

After knowing the process of migration, it is critical to look at the other significant factors:

301 re-directs

The key to easily migrating from one website to another is to set up a robust 301 redirects. It is a continual redirect from one URL to another, crossing 90-99% of the ranking ability to the redirected page. While the migration process, ensure that the visitors are sent to the correct page, in the technical arena, this process is termed as 301 redirects.

Update the incoming links

Though it is a daunting task but is essential as well for your website SEO ranking maintenance. It is necessary to find out the sites that were linked to your existing website and send them updates regarding new links. But, make sure that you are controlling your incoming links. In the case of social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, many more) re-direction, you should change the links that can re-redirect to your new WordPress website.

Notify Google regarding the new address

Do inform Google about the new address that you have changed during the migration process. It is not a tough job to execute. All you need is to change the address from the google search console. Google console can ask you perform the below actions:

# Picking up the new website from its list
# Assure that 301 redirects work properly
# Assure about the verification methods
Submit the request of address change

Integrating a new XML sitemap to Google

After changing to the new domain, you have to update the lists of the content and pages. So, for that, the indexing of the content and pages are required. You can use the XML sitemap for that.
After generating a new XML sitemap, copy the new URL to the clipboard. Select the Crawl after that. Integrate the XML sitemap from the red button “Add/Text Sitemap.” Submit it.

Examine the Google Search Console

It will not cause any harm if you check the Google Search console for the indexing issues that might occur. Keep an eye on the reports, such as Crawl errors, index count, search queries, to assure that your new WordPress website is crawled and indexed appropriately.

Inform users
Though, it does not have any effect on your SEO ranking, but, it is significant for the users to know about your migration process (domain). It does not hamper any of your users and eradicates their confusion. You can follow the below ways to ensure that they are linking to an exact website:
1. You can make a post on your website and demonstrate to them about the change.
2. Or, build a custom 404 error page for the new website for those who have clicked on the wrong redirected link.
It is advised to perform both to maintain transparency with the users.

Wrapping Up

Now, you have performed every task to reduce the influence of the migration process on your website SEO rankings.

There might be a temporary drop, but that has not any harm. So, be patient. We know that it is a scary move to execute but is productive, as well. Hence, do not feel anxious.
If you handle it carefully, then you cannot lose your SEO ranking anyway. Do it today.

Enjoy the benefits WordPress will give you.

Hopefully, you found this article helpful! Do share your experience with us. If there will be any query related to the migration process, then let us know in the comment section below. Happy reading!!

The post How to Migrate Your Website to WordPress Without SEO Loss appeared first on BestDevList.


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