Swan 
When a website undergoes migration, there are numerous challenges to consider in order to preserve its natural SEO. Among these, internal linking is one of the most important. Indeed, internal links are essential for ensuring good navigation for your visitors and for guiding Google’s bots in their exploration of your site. In this article, we will see why it is crucial to preserve internal linking during a website migration, as well as best practices to achieve this.
Reminder on the importance of Page Rank:
Page Rank is an algorithm used by Google to measure the popularity of a web page. The more popular a page is, the more likely it is to rise in search results. Page Rank is particularly determined by the number and quality of links pointing to a page. This is why internal linking is a key element in improving a website’s Page Rank.
The risks of website migration for internal linking:
When you migrate a website, there are several risks that can impact internal linking. Firstly, if the design changes, some linking may disappear, which will impact your site’s natural SEO. Moreover, the distribution of Page Rank can change, depending on the new pages created or old pages removed. Finally, Google will need time to reanalyze the internal linking after migration, which can take several weeks or even months.
The importance of redirects for website migration:
To limit risks to your internal linking during your website migration, it is crucial to implement redirects. Redirects allow visitors and Google’s bots to be redirected from an old URL to a new one, without losing the Page Rank acquired by the page. It is important to properly plan redirects in advance of migration, listing all the old URLs to be redirected to the new ones. There are specialized tools like Swan.tools to automate this process.
Conclusion:
Internal linking is a key element of your website’s natural SEO, which can be impacted during a migration. To limit risks, it is important to plan redirects in advance of the migration, using specialized tools like Swan.tools. By following these best practices, you can preserve your internal linking and maintain your positioning in Google’s search results.
