NYC Website Migration SEO Services

We provide website migration SEO services for NYC businesses so that organic traffic is not negatively affected by a rebrand, CMS change, or hosting change.

We’re Brooklyn-based, and we ensure that you don’t lose SEO traffic during a migration and we even work to increase it.

We work with brands who are migrating either due to a rebrand or CMS (content management system) change.

We advise you and your team so that your organic traffic is not negatively affected by the migration.

Our Results

At the end of 2022, Edwardsturm.com underwent a website migration of its own.

We had existing SEO traffic to look out for but wanted to do a rebrand, cleanup, and page builder change within our CMS.

We prepared diligently and, in late December, executed the migration.

Below is what happened.

This screenshot is from Google Search Console, Google’s proprietary tool for accessing their search index.

The spike in SEO traffic was reflected the day after we deployed.

We grew our own traffic by 1,000% in a single day with our migration.

Website Migration SEO Issues We Look For

Here are some common SEO issues with website migrations.

We actively look for all of these and are experienced in correcting them.

Issue

No 301 redirects

301 redirects have not been implemented at all or fully, creating duplicate websites or pages. Search engines don’t know which websites and pages to rank, making it so the wrong content or no content at all shows in SERPs (search engine results pages).

Issue

301 redirects to the wrong locations

301 redirects are implemented but direct visitors to the wrong pages. These new pages don’t properly satisfy visitor intent, and users bounce from the website, causing search engine performance to decrease.

Issue

Duplicate content

The migration creates identical clones of pages, and search engines don’t know which page to rank. This can be due to improperly set up 301 redirects or other issues.

Issue

Thin content

The migration generates dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of pages with very little content. This uses search engines’ crawl budgets, and SEO results are dramatically hindered.

Issue

Loss of metadata

Meta tags did not copy over properly. Pages are without page titles, meta descriptions, alt text, and more.

Issue

Meta tags have changed

Meta tags were copied over to the migrated entity, but not correctly. Pages are set to noindex, or nofollow. Semantic tags have special characters added or missing, tags are cut off, and some are duplicated.

Issue

No or incorrectly implemented robots.txt

The robots.txt file was incorrectly configured, leading to the blocking of search engine spiders or the routing of search engine spiders to crawl-budget-heavy locations.

Issue

The new website cannot be crawled

The website has been developed as or was converted to a JavaScript-reliant single-page application (SPA) with no server-side rendering. Search engines cannot crawl the website, so they cannot properly rank its content.

Issue

Poor interlinking

Pages are either buried deep within the website, requiring many clicks to access or are not linked to at all and are orphaned. This says to search engines that these pages are not important which causes them to get deranked.

Issue

Redirect chains

Pages 301 redirect to other 301 redirects causing load times to increase or stall. Visitors bounce while waiting for their page to load or do not get to their page at all.

Issue

Slow website speed

Large files or hosting issues were created during the migration, causing pages to load slowly. Visitors bounce while waiting for their pages to load.

Issue

The migration was not reflected in Google Search Console

Google Search Console does not have the sitemaps and URLs of the migrated entity. Load times increase, leading to searchers bouncing or the migrated entity’s content does not rank at all.

Issue

Confusing UI/UX

Searchers arriving to the migrated website are hindered by poor or slow user interfaces, user experiences, or both. This causes them to bounce and return to the SERPs, which decreases the migrated website’s rankings.

What We Do

Here are some of the SEO website migration services our agency provides.

If the migration occurred before we were involved and there are search engine optimization issues, we come in and fix them. The above section shows common SEO issues that occur during website migrations.

If we are involved before the migration, we ensure there are no issues when deployment is performed.

What We Do

Audit the pre-migration website

We perform a site crawl, advise on backups, and oversee keyword tracking prior to the migration. This allows for enhanced quality assurance and analysis once the migration is complete. The pre-migration preparation makes post-migration issues easy to detect and remedy.

What We Do

Technical step-by-step instructions for migrating

It’s common that web developers don’t know proper SEO protocol. This is exacerbated during a migration. We give step-by-step instructions during the migration to minimize downtime and reduce the impact on search performance. With proper preparation, the migration can also lead to enhanced results, as shown in our case study above.

What We Do

URL mapping for 301 redirects

We look at all URLs of the pre-migration entity and the planned post-migration entity. We then create a map of where the old pages should 301 redirect to.

What We Do

QAing

We perform quality assurance on the migration staging site and then on the final migrated entity.

What We Do

Deploying

We assist with deploying to minimize impact when the new entity is made live.

What We Do

Keyword tracking

We track high-value keywords before and after to ensure there is no negative impact over time.

What We Do

Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools implementation

We manage the migration on Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. This includes submitting new sitemaps, removing old ones, QAing, and submitting hub pages directly.

What We Do

Continued monitoring and support

We continue tracking performance over time and provide support on any issues that arise post-migration.

Our Experience

We’ve performed SEO for blue-chip companies such as Microsoft, Time Inc., Proctor & Gamble, and countless SMBs and funded startups. We’ve been covered in top publications such as the ones below.

Our CEO and founder, Edward Sturm, is an SEO thought leader with 70+ thousand followers on TikTok and 20+ thousand followers on Instagram. He’s authored many articles on search engine optimization and has gotten millions of views on the subject. Here are three of his high-performing SEO videos.

Get In Touch

We promise to give you the best SEO website migration experience possible.

Get in touch with us below.

Based Proudly in NYC 🗽
Sturm Media LLC
90 South 1st Street
Brooklyn, NY
11249

NYC Website Migration SEO Services

Our Results

Website Migration SEO Issues We Look For

No 301 redirects

301 redirects to the wrong locations

Duplicate content

Thin content

Loss of metadata

Meta tags have changed

No or incorrectly implemented robots.txt

The new website cannot be crawled

Poor interlinking

Redirect chains

Slow website speed

The migration was not reflected in Google Search Console

Confusing UI/UX

What We Do

Audit the pre-migration website

Technical step-by-step instructions for migrating

URL mapping for 301 redirects

QAing

Deploying

Keyword tracking

Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools implementation

Continued monitoring and support

Our Experience

Get In Touch

RESOURCES

EDWARD

LEGAL

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