33% Traffic Increase after 100% Smooth SEO Website Migration

33%

Increase in organic traffic

64%

Keywords in top 10 positions

0%

Increase in domain rating

Book a call with Maria, Head of SEO

Consultation is free. No credit card required. Instant booking!

See Project Details

Project Overview

Our client is a leading network and home entertainment provider operating across 25 markets worldwide, including the Caribbean, Central America, and the Pacific. The company offers a wide range of services, including mobile and fixed-line telecommunications, broadband internet, and cable TV. Additionally, it is known for its huge efforts with investments to drive acceptance of people with disabilities through education and awareness programmes in the regions it serves.

Goal

The goal of the migration was to make sure the new site was SEO-friendly and lined up with all technical requirements. This involved analyzing data to identify pages with the most clicks and impressions, as well as conducting a detailed backlink analysis. While all URLs were migrated from AEM (Adobe Experience Manager) to Squidex, special attention was given to the high-performing pages with the most clicks and impressions. The focus was on preserving search performance, optimizing the site for technical SEO standards, and maintaining the visibility and authority of key pages. The key challenge of this migration was the company's 25 markets across 25 countries. Additionally, due to the CMS peculiarities, the entire URL structure had to be changed. This is why it was significant to carefully plan and implement URL redirects to save search performance and organic traffic, maintain backlink equity, and make the migration to the new platform smooth.

Solutions

We joined the Latin American Telecom Company in August 2023, two months before the migration scheduled for October 2023, when the new Squidex site was still in the customization phase.

To ensure the migration's success, we prepared guides for the developers, covering everything, starting from asset naming conventions to the implementation of all the necessary SEO tags, This was based on insights from the initial technical SEO audit of the staging website.

The staging Squidex site underwent a detailed audit based on 160 checkpoints, from which we created an Action list of tasks that were assigned to the team. These tasks included:

Creation of sitemap and robots.txt.

Backend options for essential tags, such as canonical tags, index/noindex, and disallow functionality for individual pages.

Implementation of metadata, including meta titles and descriptions, as well as OG (Open Graph) directives for improved social sharing.

Making sure all SEO elements, such as headings, image alt tags, and structured data, were optimized.

Simultaneously, we conducted a thorough review of template pages for every market and service type using Figma. To make sure the site is SEO-friendly, mobile responsive, and based on UI/UX best practices, we provided detailed notes and suggestions.

Javascript SEO

We paid special attention to the crawlable elements of the site. Initially, the company hired designers who created banners and other graphics with text embedded in images. This made the content inaccessible and challenging to search engine crawlers. The menu and other navigational links were built using client-side rendering techniques, which, in turn, limited the crawlability and indexability of the pages.

To address these issues:

All menu links were converted to HTML and placed within the <nav> tag for proper structure and accessibility for search engines.

All internal links and anchor texts were migrated to HTML and appropriately wrapped in the <a> tag.

All text embedded in images was extracted and properly added as HTML content on the site so it could be crawled and indexed.

This approach made sure that the site’s critical navigation and internal linking were fully crawlable, improving its technical SEO health and overall search engine visibility.

Redirect Mapping

We carefully extracted all 25 market URLs from the old site and created a redirect map. Each market had its own market-specific slug and language variations, resulting in 25 markets, with some operating in 2 or 3 languages. This created a large volume of URLs that required classification.

Here is where the manual work began. The entire URL structure changed, and the categories and products were mixed or merged, making automated solutions ineffective. As a result, we had to conduct a thorough manual review and organization process.

We sorted through all the URLs and provided the client with a detailed document for review. During this process:

Pages that were not to be recreated on the new site were assessed, and appropriate, relevant pages were chosen as redirection targets.

For high-traffic pages that were to be deleted, we recommended recreating them to preserve their performance and search visibility.

As a result of this manual and thorough effort, we made sure that all old URLs were appropriately redirected to their new equivalent pages. This approach guaranteed that no traffic or clicks were lost during the migration, preserving the site's SEO performance and user experience.

Pre-Migration Checkup

Before the migration, a final pre-migration checkup was conducted to be sure the site was fully prepared for a smooth transition. At this stage, redirections were implemented, and all metadata was migrated to the new site. Every key aspect was double-checked before the site went live. Alongside the usual checks for SEO elements, including the sitemap, robots.txt, and metadata, special attention was given to page speed, as this was the ideal time to test and optimize how quickly pages loaded on the near-final version of the site.

Additionally, schema markup was suggested to enhance website annotation for search engines. A buffer period was provided to the developers to implement the markup and make any final adjustments. Once all the thorough checks were completed, and the site met all technical and SEO requirements, the team was given the green light to go live.

Post-Migration Checkup

At this point, everything had already been successfully implemented, and the migration was complete. A number of manual checkups were conducted to make sure that our plan was executed to its fullest. We verified that the sitemap and robots.txt were live and accessible. Additional checkups were performed to confirm that schema markup was implemented correctly, all internal links and navigation elements were fully crawlable, and page speed met our expectations.

Results

100% Smooth Transition

After the migration, a small drop in traffic is inevitable, as it is a natural part of the process. Migration also serves as an opportunity for a site clean-up, during which unnecessary pages or services no longer offered by the company are deleted. This ensures the important pages are kept, maintaining the site structure and increasing its overall quality.

While a drop is expected, it must be minimal and predictable. As shown in the provided screenshot, the site recovery dynamic was positive, with traffic steadily recovering and growing. This outcome reflected the success of the migration, which prioritized preserving search performance, user experience, and technical SEO health.

100% Healthy Website

During the pre-migration and post-migration audits, all the issues were addressed which resulted in an increase in health score. During the pre-migration and post-migration audits, all identified issues were thoroughly addressed, contributing to a significant improvement in the site's health score. The pre-migration audit allowed us to resolve technical problems, optimize SEO elements, and ensure all redirects, metadata, and crawlable components were properly implemented. Post-migration, additional checks were conducted to verify that everything was functioning as intended.