Site Migrations for News Publishers Barry Adams Polemic Digital

Starter Reading Material • Official Google Doc: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes • Great Migration Guides: https://seranking.com/blog/site-migration/ https://seosly.com/blog/seo-migration-checklist/ https://www.wix.com/seo/learn/resource/site-migrations-fundamentals

What is a ‘Site Migration’?

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I Identify Four Types of Migrations 1. Redesign; ➢ Changes in the front-end design and code 2. Restructure; ➢ Changes in site navigation and internal linking 3. Replatforming; ➢ New CMS – often accompanied by types 1 & 2 4. Relaunch; ➢ Domain/Hostname change

Change = Risk • Every change on a site represents a potential risk; ➢ Minimise changes to minimise risk • But what about improvements? ➢ This is where good understanding of SEO comes in ➢ Not every ‘improvement’ is an actual improvement -Example: Changing a URL to make it ‘optimised’ for SEO ▪ Changing URLs is almost always unnecessary ▪ Changing a URL is, in fact, an SEO risk

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Preparation Do this for EVERY migration: • Spec out existing SEO functionality; ➢ Be as detailed and granular as possible ➢ NEVER assume a function will exist in the new design ➢ Make sure these SEO specs are part of the requirements • Crawl the current site; ➢ Gather all relevant SEO attributes (titles, descriptions, headlines, links, etc.) • Export top 1000 best performing URLs from GSC; ➢ If you have API access, export it all • Download all existing XML sitemaps • Use a secure staging environment to test the new site before launch

1. Redesign • Purpose: ➢ Update the front-end design of the website -And ONLY the design ➢ No change in URLs, CMS, navigation, hostname, etc. • Usually the easiest type of migration; ➢ But there are still risks…

1. Redesign - Risks • Website effect: ➢ Front-end code changes • Which carries the following risks: ➢ SEO tags aren’t migrated across; - Missing NewsArticle SD, incorrect Open Graph tags, wrong canonicals, etc… ➢ Functional aspects are changed in a non-optimal way; - Pagination becomes JS-powered, structured data is loaded with CSR, recommended article / trending article blocks are changed, etc… • Compare Live crawl to Staging crawl; ➢ Focus on on-page SEO signals ➢ Export crawls to Excel for 1-to-1 comparisons

2. Restructure • Purpose: ➢ Change of site architecture, internal linking, and/or topic focus ➢ Often combined with a Redesign • Usually doesn’t involve a change in CMS or hostname; ➢ Can sometimes involve URL changes

2. Restructure - Risks • Same risks as Redesign, plus: ➢ Altered flow of link value through the website - Different crawl paths for Googlebot; - Different link values for your pages ➢ Changed URLs; - Loss of ranking value (even through a redirect) ➢ Change in topic authority; - Due to perceived changes in your most important sections & topics • Compare Live crawl to Staging crawl; ➢ Focus on URLs, crawl depth, and link scores

3. Replatforming • Purpose: ➢ Change / update the CMS ➢ Usually enables functionality, performance, security • Can involve multiple changes: ➢ Front-end design and code ➢ Site structure and internal linking ➢ Article and topic page URLs

3. Replatforming - Risks • Same as Redesign & Restructure, plus: ➢ URLs could change; - 1-to-1 redirects for all old to new URLs ➢ Technical SEO can be heavily impacted; - Check every SEO aspect of the new platform ➢ Performance and Core Web Vitals; - New CMS isn’t always better - Feature bloat can make a platform slow - Test every page type thoroughly

Old Example: Propertynews.com • Detailed migration plan; ➢ Every aspect mapped out and planned ➢ However… none of it was executed.

4. Relaunch • Purpose: ➢ Change the site’s (sub)domain ➢ Rebrand, audience growth, different market fit • Ideally done in isolation; ➢ Combining this with other migration types is high risk

4. Relaunch - Risks • Google News & Top Stories inclusion; ➢ This is based on the hostname ➢ Changing (sub)domain means losing inclusion • Topic Authority is (probably) hostname-specific; ➢ Changing hostname = rebuilding topic authority • Redirects do not pass full link value; ➢ Some value is lost, reflected in rankings • Communicate the dangers to key stakeholders; ➢ For a web-focused business, risks may outweigh rewards

Recent Example: TheTimes.co.uk >> TheTimes.com

TheTimes.co.uk >> TheTimes.com • Hostname change; ➢ Google News inclusion at risk ➢ Mitigated with Publisher Center settings • Minimal other changes; ➢ Design, structure, CMS – all unchanged ➢ Decreases risk significantly ➢ Allows for very rapid rollback

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Domain to Subdomain

Migrate & Rollback

Migrate & Rollback

Combined Migrations • Redesign + Restructure + Replatforming + Relaunch; ➢ Every change adds complexity ➢ Every change adds risk • Try to isolate each element; ➢ Give it time to bed in - 10-12 weeks ➢ Then roll out the next (set of) change(s) • What about ‘ripping off the band aid’? ➢ Speeds up the process ➢ Potential for more short-term pain ➢ But potential for quicker recovery and long-term growth

Combined Migration raccars.co.uk >> www.rac.co.uk/cars/ >> cars.car.co.uk

Mergers & Separations

Site Mergers Two or more websites combine into one • Example: Multiple ccTLDs merge into one gTLD • Example: Two similar news publishers merge into a new website with a unified brand • Example: A separate brand is acquired and joins a pre- existing news brand

Recent Example: TheAthletic.com >> NYTimes.com/athletic/

Another Example: GilletteVenus.co.uk >> www.gillette.co.uk/venus.list

Site Mergers: Risks and Rewards • Risks: ➢ Mismatch in topic authority ➢ Global audience gain, local audience loss ➢ Authority signals lost in redirects ➢ Incomplete content migration (due to overlap) • Rewards: ➢ Combined authority signals ➢ Broader content appeal & visibility ➢ Economies of scale

Site Separations Site section splits off to a separate website • Example: UK-news section on a gTLD news site becomes its own .co.uk website • Example: The ‘AI’ section of a financial publisher becomes its own brand and website

Old Example: www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ >> www.mirrorfootball.co.uk

Old Example: Rolled Back www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ >> www.mirrorfootball.co.uk

Site Separations: Risks and Rewards • Risks: ➢ New site lacks authority signals ➢ No brand awareness, low CTR ➢ Google News inclusion can take a long time • Rewards: ➢ Stronger topic authority ➢ Better search intent match ➢ Diversified online presence

Wrapping Up

Site Migration Pro Tips 1/2 • Use a good SEO crawling tool; ➢ Compare old & new crawls ➢ Tech SEO checks on templates; - Homepage, Sections, Tags, Articles, etc ➢ Compare internal link graphs; - Visual crawl maps & key pages’ link values • Save pre-migration page templates; ➢ Raw HTML + rendered DOM ➢ Allows for effective comparisons to new templates • Replatforming & Relaunch: Decrease domain name’s DNS TTL value; ➢ Enables faster propagation of hosting changes • Use Server Logs to identify key pages; ➢ Googlebot crawl activity = SEO value

Site Migration Pro Tips 2/2 • Use XML Sitemaps; ➢ Submit XML sitemaps in GSC with old URLs that redirect ➢ Monitor redirect uptake & indexing levels in GSC • AI-powered Redirect Mapping: https://searchengineland.com/site-migrations-ai-powered-redirect-mapping-437793 • Redirects can be deleted after 6 months; ➢ Ranking signals will be consolidated on the new URLs ➢ Exception: URLs with a lot of incoming links; - Keep redirects in place indefinitely ➢ Avoid chained redirects; - Update old redirects from previous migrations • Optimise for fast crawling; ➢ Google will temporarily increase crawl rate

Googlebot Crawl Rate Spike When detecting large-scale changes, Googlebot will temporarily increase its crawl rate:

The Keys to a Successful Migration • Prepare; ➢ Spec out every detail ➢ Don’t make any assumption • Minimise the amount of changes in one go; ➢ Plan for rollbacks • URLs are sacred; ➢ 301 redirects are not the default solution, they are the last resort

Barry Adams ➢ Dutchman in Northern Ireland ➢ Active in SEO since 1998 ➢ Specialised in SEO for News Publishers since 2010 ➢ Newsletter: SEOforGoogleNews.com ➢ Co-founder of the News & Editorial SEO Summit

I’ve Worked With…

Need help with your site migration? Get in touch: [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryadams/ https://www.SEOforGoogleNews.com/

Thank You Q&A [email protected]