Talk by Lee Odden at SES Conference & Expo in London, February 2012, on SEO Site Migration

1. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Photo Credit: picsonlyforu
@LeeOdden
TopRankMarketing.com
TopRankBlog.com @leeodden

2. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
@LeeOdden
lee@toprankmarketing.com
gplus.to/leeodden
OptimizeBook.com TopRankMarketing.com
April 2012 (Wiley)
TopRankBlog.com
@leeodden

3. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
SEO Site Migration for:
• $100bn U.S. Co: Consolidated 25 sites, CMS
• UK PR Industry Co: Consolidation, Design, CMS
• U.S. / UK Sites: Int’l Consolidation, Design, CMS
• Site w/ 500k+ Pages: Consolidation, Backend
@leeodden

4. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Enough About Me, What About You?
Have you, are you, or are you planning to:
• Change or consolidate domain names?
• Re-design your website?
• Change (add/remove) substantial amounts
of content?
• Implement a new website CMS?
• Move your blog to WordPress?
Great! Then you’ll want to avoid this…
@leeodden

5. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
@leeodden

6. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Say Hello to SEO Migration Hero
There’s no
need to fear,
I’ve got your
301 redirects
right here!
@leeodden

7. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
A Failure to Plan is A Plan to Fail
• Identify common
situations and approach
• Standard SEO migration
example
• Content Marketing
focused SEO migration
@leeodden

8. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
SEO Migration Considerations
Technical Process People
• CMS • Design • Designers
• Redirects • Content • Developers
• Links • Linking • Marketing
• Maintain SEO • Benchmarks • PR & Others
• Sitemaps • Monitoring • Webmaster
• Custom 404 • Link Friends
• Analytics • SEO
• Webmaster Tools • Executives
@leeodden

9. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Acquire Another Business
• One domain
Big • Incorporate Product X into Big Corp
Corp
Bigger Corp CMS & Design
&X • Redirect Product X pages to Big
Product X
BC Product X Corp site
Acquisition
• Redirect 1 to 1 as possible
• Register Webmaster Tools
Absorb the • Update HTML & XML sitemaps
• Reclaim top links
acquired co. into
• Ensure 404 & monitor broken links
Big Corp website • Maintain Product X SEO on new
structure pages
@leeodden

10. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Acquire Another Business
• Update corporate stylebook
• Communicate key URL changes to
Bigger Corp other departments
&X • Inventory all external brand
content & update where possible
• Update key URLs in social profiles
• Review analytics for top referring
links & ensure continuity
@leeodden

11. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Businesses Consolidate
• Multi-Corp Merger
Corp 1 Corp 2 Corp 3
• Partnership
• Products Combine
• New Design/Brand
• New Domain
Combined
Company • Product & Service
Integration
@leeodden

12. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Businesses Consolidate
• Design new site with SEO
Migration in mind (KW, CMS)
• Crawl each site for assets & links
• Map old pages to new on CC site
• ID top converting content
• ID most powerful external links
• Update URLs in social profiles
• Boost new link acquisition & PR
for new domain!!! (ongoing)
@leeodden

13. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
SEO Migration In Progress
Old
Gorkana
• Acquisition Gorkana
PR
• Consolidation
• New CMS Durrants
New
Gorkana
• New Design
Metrica
@leeodden

14. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Investigate
• What are the best Benchmark:
performing keywords? Visits
• What are the best Time on site
incoming links? Page views
• Use the change as an Conversions
opportunity to Bounce rate
implement best practices
SEO with new site
@leeodden

15. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Ensure New CMS SEO Features
• Editable title tags, meta
description, keywords
New CMS • Separate title tag, on-page
titles
• Image alt text editing
• URL editing
• Embedded GA code
• Auto-update XML sitemap
• Authorship markup
@leeodden

16. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Migration Prep
• Map content from each “old” site
to new site content
New Site • If none, assign to closest match
• Maintain Old/New SEO integrity:
Title tags
Meta description tags
Body copy
Link anchor text
Image alt text
H1 tags
• Implement SEO best practices
with new content
• Webmaster Tools “Change of
Address”
@leeodden

17. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
301
301
New Site
New CMS
Consideration:
Maintain integrity of old 301
redirects
@leeodden

18. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Everybody’s Happy
@leeodden

19. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
SEO Migration Issues to Watch For
• Number of pages indexed drops
• Site and search traffic drop
• Lower ranking
• Increase of 404 errors
• Site not being indexed
• Lower quantity or rate of
conversions
@leeodden

20. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Ensure Continuity
• Content
• Links
• For Customers
• For Search Engines
• For Link Partners
• For Content Producers
• For Marketing, PR,
Employees, Customers,
Prospects!
@leeodden

21. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Search Engines Change
• Digital Assets
• Better Content
• More Social &
Social Integration
@leeodden

22. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Customers & Information - Change
@leeodden

23. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Optimize Shift
for Customers
Audience Discover Consume Share/Act
Optimize Attract Engage Inspire
Interests Content Share
Needs Media Buy
Pain Points Social Refer
Search Device
Social
@leeodden

24. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Standard SEO Model
• Keywords Keyword Rich Title
• Content Optimization
• Tech SEO Optimized
Content
Really great
• Links content. Also
optimized!
• Social
Social Topics
• Analytics
@leeodden

25. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Customer Optimization Model
Awareness > Interest > Consideration > Purchase
Research Keywords Content & Optimize
Customer Topics Promotion Socialize
Segments Message Plan Promote
Preferences Search & Topics, SEO Social & SEO
Pain Points Social Data Calendar, Networking,
Behaviors Sources Repurpose Link Building
@leeodden

26. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Consider the Effect of Migration on
Buying Cycle Optimization
Suzy Business Owner
Buying
Keywords Social Topics Content Type
Cycle
Low cost office What are alternative
Awareness Blog Post
cleaning cleaning services for SMBs?
Suzy
Business
Interest Cleaning robots What are cleaning robots? Demo videos
Owner
Cleaning robot Who makes the best Product pages,
Consideration
reviews cleaning robots? comparisons
ZRobot Cleaning Where can I get a good
Purchase Store locator, Offers
Robot model 99 deal on a ZRobot?
Reduce maintenance on
ZRobot
Retention your ZRobot in 3 easy Video How To’s
Customer Pain Points Maintenance
steps.
• Minimal Budget Connect with other small
• Small office space business owners who want
ZRobot Wellness
• Cannot afford weekly cleaning crew Advocacy to keep employees healthy Facebook Group
Summit
• Wants to keep employees healthy and their office clean
• Needs office to look nice for
potential investors and clients @leeodden

27. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
Maintain Customer Experience
Corp 1 Corp 2 Corp 3
• Awareness
• Interest
New
• Consideration
Site
• Evaluation
• Purchase
• Advocacy
@leeodden

28. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
No SEO Migration is Perfect
Expect potential search and
link traffic fluctuations
Broken links are inevitable –
404!
Reclaim links – ongoing
Amp up social PR & promotion
@leeodden

29. London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon
@LeeOdden
lee@toprankmarketing.com
gplus.to/leeodden
OptimizeBook.com TopRankMarketing.com
March 2012 (Wiley)
TopRankBlog.com
@leeodden