Hi,
When migrating a site, would you change the URL/page structure for the better with the risk of losing rank on a site with top positions within its industry? I have no experience migrating a site from an SEO perspective and evaluating if it’s worth the risk.
I’m migrating a client’s site from WordPress to Webflow and do understand the risks and that a dip in rank might be inevitable.
However, I want to improve the site page structure and SEO to improve ranking in the long run. For example, create a more flat and organized page structure. Currently, it’s deep, unorganized, and messy. This means that I would need to dramatically change the structure.
If you have experience in this field, I would appreciate your advice.
Regards
If the domain is staying the same, it’s pretty simple. Webflow has a 301 (Permanent) Redirect tool in the Site Settings. For any page that is changing URL structure, just create the redirects there before finalizing the move. Example:
Google will treat them almost equal and will direct traffic to the new URL. Just keep those redirects up indefinitely.
Bear in mind, URL structure is a fairly insignificant optimization these days. It used to be very important, it is not so important anymore. That said, if your URLs are incredibly long and complex, it’s better to shorten them.
Source: Been an SEO consultant and web developer for over a decade.
Same advice as @vinberdon here
If you keep the same keyword focus on the page and keep a similar structure, the redirects will work almost frictionless; you won’t see big dips in SERP.
You can then rework the page structure 1 by one over time to avoid risking too much.
When keeping your information architecture flat and structured, the easiest for the users and Google it becomes. I will definitely recommend and I believe it is worth the small risks.
Regarding page slug, I will recommend SEMrush URL slug article as a good starting point.
Good luck with the migration. It is always a bit stressful, even after doing it 50 times.
@Sofian_Bettayeb@vinberdon thank you both for your input. The content will basically be the same, but I will optimize the pages better. So the content will not change.