SEO Migration Agency

Migrate Your Website With Confidence with our SEO Migration Services

SEO Agency

Defend your SEO and protect your rankings in the face of a website migration

You’ve made the big decision to migrate your website. Congratulations! Maybe all you are changing is the design of the site, or maybe it’s bigger than that - a new CMS, a domain name change, the entire structure of the site. Whatever the scope, you’ve not made the decision lightly, and are going ahead so as to improve the user experience on your site, and hopefully reap the benefits of more traffic and conversions. So far, so logical.

But what if the opposite happens? All the work you’ve done positioning your great content is undermined by the speed of your new site, or some technical limitations, or decisions you’ve made around layout or site structure, and you look on in horror as your rankings fall. It’s not inconceivable. In fact it’s likely, unless the migration is managed appropriately from an SEO point of view.

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Our SEO Migration Process

At Rocket we’ve put together an exhaustive process of audits and recommendations to ensure that your new site is something to celebrate and not regret. With years of experience providing website migration services, our deliverables are thorough and comprise every step of the migration process.

Content Risk Audits

Your existing rankings are a function of many factors relating to the pages on your site - their content, structure, metadata, position in the overall hierarchy and internal linking strategy. Often when you build a new site, pages are left behind, either deliberately or accidentally, or restructured in such a way that is not beneficial for SEO. Our content risk audits ensure that your most important content carries over to your new site optimally.

Technical Audits

A new site is an opportunity to fix all those technical issues that have dogged your old site for some time. Rocket’s thorough audit processes ensure that your new site meets all our best practice recommendations. From site crawling to folder structure, internal links to error handling, we’ll provide a detailed list of issues to your developers based on staging site analysis and iterate until resolved.

Redirect Mappings

The reason to undergo a migration project is to protect the SEO value of your site, and once pages no longer exist on their old URLs, you need a way to share with search engines where to find your content. By identifying the most relevant new URL for each original URL and providing this list, we eliminate dead ends for users and search engines, and maximise the chance that a new page will continue to rank for valuable keywords.

IA and Taxonomy Reviews

Often when rebuilding your website, you’ll benefit from an improved structure. A rebuild is a chance to help search engines better understand the content on your site by ensuring it reflects the hierarchy of your topics. A thorough IA (Information Architecture) and taxonomy review can identify areas where your site's organisation can be improved, such as rebuilding navigation, consolidating redundant content or reorganising webpages to improve SEO results.

Developer Support

There’s nothing worse than nearing the end of your rebuild only to realise that the front-end technology used limits how search engines can access your content - we’ve seen it happen. To prevent issues such as this, we’ve written our own proprietary handbook to help developers to code with SEO in mind, and will provide this at the start of your rebuild project. We’ll continue to work with your dev team as needed to advise on template design, secondary navigation, and anything else that will support your SEO.

Benchmarking & Monitoring

Despite your best efforts, it’s not impossible for site rankings to dip after a migration, and performance has to be monitored closely to ensure this is a short term effect and not the start of a long dip. As part of our SEO migration services, we’ll benchmark indexed content, keyword and page performance, site speed and more, and review regularly post migration. Our process means we identify any causes for concern early and take any remedial action that is required.

Industry-recognised digital agency

Rocket is a Google Premier Partner, a title awarded to only 3% of all agencies in Australia. We were Australia's first Bing Select Partner, pioneering advertising on this platform. We continue to be a Facebook Business Partner and have recently been recognised as a HubSpot Platinum Partner for the work we do in marketing automation. Rocket is also recognised as Australia's Top Full-Service Digital Company on independent review platform, Clutch and is named one of Australia's top-ranked workplaces on the 2023 AFR Boss Best Places to Work list.
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Why choose Rocket to support your site migration and protect your rankings?

We’re an SEO migration agency of 50+ digital specialists with a proven record of managing site migrations to minimise any disruption.

Detailed analysis and project plan

No two migrations are the same. Our detailed questionnaire means we are aligned in terms of the scope and objectives of your website migration and can propose a series of deliverables best able to protect your site from loss of traffic.

Comprehensive process

With years of experience and an eye on latest SEO trends, we’ve compiled a detailed list of all the more important checks that need to be carried out before migrating with confidence. As we audit your site, we will engage with your developers and ensure work is done to our standards.

History of migration success

Rocket clients availing SEO migration services know that they are in good hands. From clear and open communication to excellent results in protecting rankings, we are experts in ensuring your SEO migration goes well.

Post-migration support

We don’t stop just because your new site has gone live. From technical audits on the live site, checking that metadata has been carried across correctly, closely monitoring indexed pages and rankings, submitting new site maps, and being on the alert for any reasons for concern, we’ll adapt to new information with sensible recommendations.

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SEO migration services, whatever the nature of your migration.

Site redesigns
Domain changes
New CMS
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Redesigning templates may lead to changes in site navigation and internal linking structures, which can affect how search engines discover and prioritise content on your website. 

Redesigns may also involve reviewing and updating website content, and using a website SEO migration service can help you optimise content for target keywords, improve relevance, and enhance the overall SEO performance.

Rocket will ensure that internal links are properly updated, site navigation is aligned with good user experience, and that content is relevant and optimal.

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With a domain change, all URLs will be different, requiring proper redirects from the old domain to the new one to maintain the SEO value of existing indexed pages. 

Search engines will need to re-index pages under the new domain, so an SEO migration project would include steps to notify search engines about the domain change through proper configuration, sitemaps, and submission of updated URLs.

Finally, a domain change can temporarily impact the website's reputation as search engines reassess the new domain, and so we would ensure that proper signals are sent to search engines to maintain and rebuild your website's reputation and trustworthiness.

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Each CMS has its own technical nuances and considerations. When switching to a new CMS, technical implementations such as structured data markup, XML sitemaps, canonical tags, and mobile responsiveness need to be properly configured. 

A new CMS may also affect user experience and site speed, as well as introducing limitations around URL structure, thereby requiring a whole set of new URLs.

An SEO migration project ensures these technical elements are implemented correctly to maintain or enhance SEO performance, and that any new URLs are mapped and redirected appropriately.

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At Rocket, we know how important it is to generate high quality leads and clients for your business. With in-depth local SEO implementation, we will help you reach customers who are actively searching for your products and services in your local area. 

These higher intent, geographically localised searches ultimately increase the quality of leads and clients interacting with your business!

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Considered one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies, SEO can expand brand awareness among locals by optimising a business's online presence for local search terms.

Implementing a thorough local SEO strategy will allow you to reach audiences you could otherwise miss with a more generic website or Google My Business profile.

Let's talk

Partner With The Best SEO Migration Agency in Australia

1

Let’s talk

Speak to one of our Senior Consultants to clarify your site migration objectives.

2

Kick-off SEO migration project

Our team of SEO specialists will propose a timeline of work based on the scope of engagement, and perform a series of deliverables both pre-launch and post-launch.

3

Breathe a sigh of relief

Any downturn in rankings is likely to be small and short-lived, as your careful preparation has set you up for ongoing SEO success.

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Our SEO Process

Over the 5+ years we’ve been in business as an SEO migration agency, we’ve developed a hyper-focused approach to providing SEO services in Australia. It’s this approach that allows us to direct our efforts onto the many aspects that constitute ‘good SEO’, while also being able to tailor our strategies to suit each business’ distinct market landscape.

1. Competitor research

Competitor research is more than just understanding what your competitors are doing - it’s appreciating how they are doing it. SEO competitor research involves researching the website structure of your competition and determining how they are utilising links, content and keywords to achieve a higher SERP (Search Engine Results Page) ranking. This analysis provides us with an industry benchmark that we can build upon when crafting your own SEO strategy.

2. Site audit

A site audit is the process of identifying technical errors and limitations that are impacting your website’s ranking. This audit will reveal various insights into your site’s health including:

  • Your website user experience for both desktop and mobile interfaces
  • Whether your website has been properly crawled, rendered and indexed by Google (or other search engines)
  • The current state of on-page and off-page SEO
  • Determining whether your website’s performance is being impeded by duplicate or thin content

Site audits will also involve the setting up of systems to track ongoing website performance. Down the track, the real-time data we collect from these systems will help us refine your SEO strategy.

3. Keyword research

From current industry trends to common issues affecting your target audience, keyword research offers guidance into not only your SEO efforts but also your broader marketing strategy.

Rocket’s SEO specialists have access to leading technologies that provide real, quantifiable data for SEO in Australia. Using this data, we extract high-performing keywords that can either be slotted into your existing website or provide the backbone for the creation of future content that will target your audience’s search intents.

4. Copywriting

You wouldn’t read a boring article filled with spelling mistakes, so why would your audience?

SEO copywriting is the practice of transforming the data and insights collected from the previous stages into tangible, useful content. Copywriting can take various forms including blog posts, web pages and white papers (i.e. eBooks, guides and other downloadable articles). It’s important to invest in high quality copywriting as your website’s content is what will ultimately reel your audience in and encourage them to further explore your website.

At Rocket, our team of copywriters create diverse and engaging content that provides the substance your audience is looking for.

5. Link building

Link building is the process of acquiring links on other web pages that will direct users to your website. Google looks favourably on websites with backlinks as it’s a sign of credibility. Backlinks are also how Google crawls the internet to index new pages and determine their relevance.

There’s a fine line between implementing purposeful keyword optimised links and turning your website into a haven for spammy blue hyperlinks. Our SEO company specialists thoughtfully incorporate valuable hyperlinks that ensure your website is indexed by Google without being guilty of over-optimisation.

6. Technical SEO

Technical SEO handles the nuts and bolts of website functions that users take for granted. While other elements of SEO focus on on-page elements, technical SEO concentrates on behind the scenes. Think page speed, XML sitemaps, domain names, URL structure, breadcrumb navigation, HTML, JavaScript and CSS. While highly technical, these details are key to ensuring Google properly indexes, renders and crawls your website.

The complicated demands of technical SEO require IT specialists who know the ins and outs of website structure. Rocket’s technical SEO experts make calculated adjustments to the hidden details of your website in order to boost its overall performance.

7. Local SEO

Chances are, your target audience doesn’t live in rural Iceland or a small town in Brazil. Local SEO services in Australia ensure that your website is visible to people in your specific geographic area who search for products or services that your business provides.

According to Google, almost 50% of searches are related to location. You don’t need us to tell you that’s a huge number. Local SEO targets these ‘near me’ searches through several means including:

  • Managing your Google My Business profile
  • Optimising websites for location-based keywords
  • Local link building

Rocket helps businesses to optimise their website for local SEO in Australia by making localised changes that will catch the eye of nearby Google users who are actively looking for a business like yours.

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Visit Our Offices

 Our Sydney office is located in the creative heart of Surry Hills, just a 3-minute walk from Central Station. You'll find Rocket's second home in QV Melbourne, right near the State Library. If you're nearby, we'd love to catch up over a coffee.

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We’d love to help protect your SEO rankings as part of a site migration project.

Drop us a line.

If you’ve got a challenge we’d love the chance to come up with a solution. Most of all though, we’d love to help grow your business.
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SEO Migration FAQs

What is a site migration and why is it important for SEO?

A site migration refers to the process of making significant changes to a website that can impact its URL structure, design, content, hosting, or platform. This could involve moving a website from one domain to another, changing CMS platforms, restructuring URLs, or redesigning your entire site. 

Rebuilding your website is a big deal, and usually undertaken in an attempt to improve it from a user experience perspective, but really it’s a great opportunity to improve it for search engines as well. Properly organising your content and navigation, reviewing content to ensure it’s relevant and valuable, and implementing technical enhancements are all things that should help your SEO. Conversely, though, a migration that is ignored or managed incorrectly from an SEO perspective, could well have a negative effect on your site visibility and organic traffic.

How can a site migration impact my website's search engine rankings and organic traffic?

If not handled correctly, migrating your website can lead to temporary or even long-term negative effects.  URLs may change, leading to a loss of search engine visibility for your existing indexed pages. Content that is modified or not properly migrated can result in a loss of keyword relevance and overall SEO value. And technical issues, such as broken links, duplicate content and website speed can negatively impact search engine rankings and user experience.

But there are also opportunities. A site migration is a great time to take stock of your website and ask yourself how it can be improved both for users and search engines. An improved information architecture, better-organised content, the use of SEO modules as part of an internal linking strategy - all of these should improve your SEO performance in the long run. 

The most important thing to minimise the negative impact on search engine rankings and organic traffic is to have a comprehensive site migration plan in place.

How long does a site migration typically take and what factors can affect the timeline?

It depends on how much involvement you would like your SEO agency to have. A comprehensive migration aimed at getting the very best results from your new website would start at the very beginning of your rebuild project, consulting on strategy and supporting your developers along the timeline of the build. Equally in many cases we will get involved in the final month before the go-live date and ensure that the migration goes smoothly. 

What is most important is that you factor in the time for an SEO agency to audit your staging site once your developers have finished their work and all content has been built out. There should always be a period set aside for testing, and this is the best time to ensure that the site is in good technical health, content risks are minimised and redirects are in place.

Ultimately the main factor affecting the timeline of an SEO migration is delays at your end. Having been involved in hundreds of such projects, we can confidently say that web rebuilds rarely go according to plan.

Will my website experience any temporary drop in rankings or traffic after the migration? If so, how do you mitigate it?

This is definitely possible. Even the smallest website changes can have unpredictable effects on rankings, and the bigger the rebuild, the greater the unpredictability. In addition, rebuilds often involve a large number of new URLs. Even in cases where content is unchanged, search engines need to index those URLs which takes time. 

We can mitigate this by following a clear process which includes conducting thorough SEO audits, mapping URLs, implementing proper redirects, optimising content, monitoring technical aspects of your website, and continuously tracking performance post-migration.  

A realistic expectation of the effect of a site migration that is managed well would be a temporary drop of 5-10% of organic traffic while search engines crawl new content and then a return to pre-migration figures (or higher if the migration has introduced improvements).

How do you handle redirects and URL mapping during a site migration?

This is the single most important step in the process. We’ll crawl your entire website and ensure every single page on the original site either exists on the new site, or redirects seamlessly to one that is relevant to that page’s content. Simply mapping deprecated pages to a catch-all page like the home page is insufficient - if a page ranks well for certain keywords, the mapped page needs every opportunity to rank for those same keywords and so needs to be relevant. This is a simple process for small sites, and a large and time-consuming process for complex sites with thousands of pages.

The output of this process is a list of all URLs from your original site that no longer exist and the respective page on the new site to redirect to, which we will pass on to your developers.

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