SEO – How to – SEO Transfer
Purpose of this How To Guide: To provide a framework and checklist for SEO Transfers.
Applicable to: SEO Executives
Customers: All
Timescale: Dependent on the size of the website
Introduction
An SEO transfer is required at the end of a website being re-developed, and prior to it being launched.
The purpose of this guide is to ensure that, when the new website does go live, it is in the same SEO state as it was previously, and therefore the client’s SEO campaign encounters as minimal disruption as possible as a result.
SEO Transfer Process
- The SEO team’s line manager will receive an SEO Transfer request in Accelo.
- The team’s line manager will then assign this to one of the SEO Executives and a task will be created for that executive to complete the transfer by the due date listed. For particularly large websites, more than one SEO Executive might be involved.
- The team member to whom the task is assigned will complete the transfer in accordance with the Pre-Launch Checklist (see section below), and also make any observations from a user-experience point of view. In cases where the customer’s developers will implement all changes, a list of recommendations should be sent to them instead. If the transfer has already been completed by a developer, it is the SEO Executive’s responsibility to check this.
- Once the Pre-Launch Checklist has been completed, the task should ideally be checked over by another member of the team.
- Any final input required from the D&D team should also be raised at this stage.
- Once the transfer has been checked and signed off, the task should be marked as “complete” and the SEO Executive should alert the D&D Project Manager via Accelo that the transfer has been completed and they are happy for the site to launch.
- When the site has been signed off by the customer, the developers should notify the SEO Executive who carried out the transfer when the site goes live.
- Once the site is live, the SEO Executive in question can them complete the Post-Launch Transfer Checklist section below.
Pre-Launch Checklist
Sitemaps to identify any missing pages or key changes:
- Check URLs on all pages – have any categories been added or removed?
- Have any pages been removed? Strategize how this will be addressed or request that they be added.
- Have any pages been added? Give them fresh optimisation.
- Have any pages been combined? Inform the Account Manager of impact/risks and come up with a solution.
- Do all pages have the same URL parameters? E.g. www. or none, http vs. https etc.
- Have any URLs been changed? Change them back to optimised version if possible, otherwise implement a 301 redirect (see “301 redirects” below).
Crawl existing site with Screaming Frog to gather meta data
- Input meta data on all pages
- Transfer all meta descriptions
- Transfer all header tags – inclusive of H1s (and H2s on critical ranking pages)
- Transfer all title tags
- Ensure all internal links are retained
- Check canonicals match with existing site
Check content
- Ensure all content has been fully carried over on all pages (with internal links)
- Ensure that all content is readable – have any buttons with the keywords been added/removed?
- Clarify with developers if blog posts are due to be carried over
301 redirects
- Compile a 301-redirect spreadsheet containing dead/changed URLs and their new URLs. These redirects will either be implemented by the SEO Executive (in the case of a WordPress site), or sent to the relevant developers.
- Ensure that any changed URLs from the test site are redirected so there are no dead internal links
- Notify the PPC department of any URL changes (if the customer has an AdWords campaign)
Code/Technical Points
- Verify there is a sitemap on the new site – ensure this is put in place dynamically if not already
- Verify there is a robots.txt file on the new site and check this matches the one on the existing site (aside from the noindex tag at this stage)
- Ensure that the analytics tracking code has been transferred to all pages from the existing site
- Ensure the verification method for Google Search Console is still in place
- Check goals in Google Analytics will not be affected by URL changes – amend if necessary
- Check if Schema markup is present and if this should be updated.
Post-Launch Checklist
Code/Technical Points
- Ensure that any noindex tags have been removed from all relevant pages on the website and the robots.txt file
- Check Google Analytics is still tracking traffic
- Check Google Search Console is still verified
- Check sitemap – regenerate this if using a static sitemap
- Resubmit the sitemap via Google Search Console
- Fetch the website via the “Fetch as Google” tool in Google Search Console
- Annotate the new website going live on Google Analytics
Crawl website with Screaming Frog
- Redirect any remaining 404 errors
- Ensure there are no broken links on the site – address if there are
- Annotate the amount of redirects set up on Google Analytics
Keyword Tracking in SEMRush
- Track movement in keyword positions every day to identify any potential SEO issues
- Address any new issues identified in SEMRush