The 3 biggest pitfalls in an SEO website migration
Launching a new website without a migration plan can cost you 80% of your organic traffic. How to prevent a disaster.
Why migrations often go wrong
You've worked for months on a beautiful new website. It goes live, the team celebrates, and two weeks later the traffic from Google completely collapses. A classic SEO drama.
This usually happens due to a lack of structural SEO planning before launch.
Pitfall 1: No 301 Redirect Mapping
If URL structures change (e.g. from `/diensten/webdesign` to `/webdevelopment`), Google loses track of the old page. A watertight 301 redirect map is essential to forward the accumulated "link juice".
Pitfall 2: Loss of Content Depth
Often, during a redesign, text is shortened to make the design "cleaner". However, if you reduce a 1500-word page to 300 words, you lose important semantic keywords that you previously ranked for.
Pitfall 3: Technical Regression
Sometimes the new platform (especially with visual builders) is slower than the old one, or H1/H2 structures are forgotten in the new templates. Always test a website in a shielded staging environment with tools like Screaming Frog.