Phoenix Website Design – 7 Reasons Why Migrations Are Unsuccessful

What’s one thing that is constant even in the digital realm? Change! For whatever reason, you can’t help it if a website needs to migrate. As a citizen of the internet, you know well that changes – be it small or colossal – in the business can trigger migrations. It could be about coping with the latest technology or merely changing the direction of the business.

Why Migrations Happen?

Before I discuss what could go wrong, let’s first discuss the reason for migration. Below are the common situations:

• Changing the URL structure.
• Going from HTTP to HTTPS.
• Moving to a new host.
• Getting a new domain name.
• Combining numerous domain names.
• Using a new platform (For instance, from Wix to WordPress)

What Could Go Wrong?

Once migration goes off track, there could be various reason that could have cause this unfortunate incident. Most likely, the culprits are:

• Did not set clear goals and objectives.
• Insufficient resources because you did not plan well.
• Unforeseen changes in the design and user experience.
• Only asked for help when it’s too late.
• Did not do enough testing.
• Little to no response to the bugs found after migration.
• Algorithmic changes by Google.

Develop a clear strategy.

Migration is not always technical. First, you need to clear set your plan. Know what you want to achieve and ask yourself of the desired results you want to achieve. In reality, you just don’t migrate just for the sake of doing so.

If you want to change your domain name, assess carefully if it is needed. Will the new name help you get more customers? Does it have a good brand recall? Expect some roadblocks and detours unlike when you are just moving to a new host.

Of course, you have to keep in mind that all these changes must impact your SEO performance. You would want to have a wider online presence. However, migration will have its risks so you really have to evaluate and discuss with your website team.

Be particular and plan everything down to the last detail.

It’s important to formulate a detailed plan. To avoid hiccups, set realistic expectations and divide each task. Each member should know the scope of each task and how long it is expected to be completed.

By understanding the potential problems, you can avoid them and find ways to not hamper the business operations. For example, when there’s a Christmas break so people would be expected to shop more at this time. So, of course, you would not want to schedule serious tasks at this busy season.

Do launch your new website before the expected holidays. In the U.S., November and December are filled with festivities such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.

Never wait for the last minute!

If you need help, do it now. Never wait until it is too late for third-party firm to help you. If you think your team can’t handle it alone, then ask for SEO firms to help you.

Remember, migrations do not happen in a single snap. You might want to involve the SEO firms early on to ensure a smoother migration.

There are numerous critical decisions to be made before the actual website migration. Once these are set, it’s hard to go back and undo. Thus, it is also important to test the changes before launching them out in the open.