The Scenario
The client had been acquired by another company. The brand was changing, the domain was changing, the technology platform was changing. All at once.
The Scenario
The client had been acquired by another company. The brand was changing, the domain was changing, the technology platform was changing. All at once.
This type of migration is high-risk. Studies show traffic drops of 20-30% even in well-executed migrations. Many never fully recover.
The Preparation
Three months before launch, we began documenting everything. Every URL on the old site, its performance, its importance to the business.
We mapped old URLs to new URLs for every page. Not just the main ones—all of them. A 1,200-page site requires 1,200 redirect rules.
We identified critical pages. 20% of the pages generated 80% of the traffic. These received special attention.
The Content
We decided not to change the content during the migration. The temptation to "take the opportunity to improve" is strong, but it adds variables.
Every change is a risk. If you change URLs and content at the same time, you won't know which caused the problem if something goes wrong.
The content would be migrated as-is. Improvements would come later, once the migration had stabilized.
The Redirects
301 redirects, not 302. Permanent ones that transfer authority.
Redirect chains eliminated. If URL A was already redirecting to B, the new rule goes from A directly to C, not A to B to C.
Automatic verification of every redirect. A script that tested the 1,200 URLs and verified they landed where they should.
Launch Day
DNS change configured with low TTL days in advance. When the time came, propagation was quick.
Constant monitoring during the first hours. 404 errors, redirect chains, pages not loading.
The first issues appeared within two hours. URLs with special characters that we hadn't escaped correctly. Fixed in twenty minutes.
The First Weeks
Traffic dropped 15% the first week. Normal in any migration. Google needs time to process the changes.
The new domain's Search Console was set up immediately. We could see crawling issues almost in real time.
We reviewed server logs daily. Any 404 was a missing redirect.
The Recovery
At three weeks, traffic was at 85% of the original.
At six weeks, we reached 94%. We never hit 100%; some rankings were lost permanently.
But 94% after changing both domain and platform is a success. Most migrations like this end up worse.
Keys to Success
Thorough preparation. Three months of documentation before touching anything.
Don't change multiple things at once. The migration was just migration. Content and design improvements came later.
Obsessive monitoring. The first days we checked the site every hour.
Rollback plan. If everything failed, we had the old site ready to reactivate in minutes.
What We Would Do Differently
Start preparation earlier. Three months was sufficient but tight. Four would have been more comfortable.
Automate more verifications. Some of the manual work could have been automated with more prep time.