Whether referred to as ‘SEO for website migration’ or ‘SEO for website rebranding’, it is such a new service, that almost no SEO agency on the marketplace is offering it as of 2020!
Of course, 301 redirect scripts have been around for quite a while… however, until mid-2019, migrating a website content to a new domain always resulted in significant loss of rankings in spite of 301 redirect scripts. However, thanks to Google technology recognizing the legitimacy of website rebranding under a new URL, as of 2019, it is now possible to inherit the full ‘SEO juice’ from one domain name to the next. This also includes transferring the SEO relevancy of the inbound links pointing to the old URL for the benefit of the new website.
There are many cases when the content of a website needs to migrate to a different URL: business takeover, obsolete name, partnership shifts, divorces, better URL made available, etc. Regardless of the reason for changing the name of the website, in all cases, it is crucial to transfer the SEO ranking eligibility of the old website to the new one. Rebranding a website from scratch without any “ranking eligibility inheritance” is a mistake. In fact, even if the new website offers different services and new products, when it comes to ranking eligibility, nothing replaces a website seniority. This is why there are so many inferior websites still ranking on the top of search results ( just because these websites have been around ‘forever’).
When transferring the SEO of a website to a new domain name, aside from transferring keyword ranking eligibility, it also transfers the seniority of the old website to the new one.
A new URL featuring a new content cannot be made eligible for priority rankings unless benefiting from the transfer of the seniority of an older website needed to be rebranded under a new domain name. This is why when rebranding a website under a new domain, starting from scratch and losing SEO is ludicrous in today’s context.
Although Google technology has now perfected its ranking algorithms for domain name rebranding, migrating the SEO of a website under a new URL takes much more than just 301 redirect scripts. An efficient SEO migration strategy involves an in-depth website audit as well as a long checklist of technical details to address and files to update delete. It is a tedious process that requires ongoing monitoring over the first year.
Although the ranking benefits of such SEO migration will show results within a few weeks, it takes at least six months for Google to fully process SEO rebranding and deindex the old URL (which must be properly hosted until Google sends its final confirmation which can take up to one year).
At MSEO.com, since June 2019, we have finally been able to be very successful with SEO rebranding, not only in English but also on multilingual markets. Whether in French, German, Spanish or Arabic, we have been able to transfer the full SEO profile from one URL to a new domain name.
For example, www.ibiza.farm was the website of Ibiza Farm, which was the first aeroponic Tower Farm outside the USA. Due to Ibiza Farm’s international growth, and after setting up vertical aeroponic Tower Farms in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in the Middle East, and in South America, the name ‘Ibiza Farm’ became too provincial. This is why the company was rebranded under Agrotonomy Corp. with www.agrotonomy.com for a new URL. It is important to mention that it was a ‘delicate transfer’ since www.ibiza.farm ranked on the first page of Google with dozens of keywords in seven languages.
Within two weeks, when typing Ibiza Farm’s keywords in English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian or Arabic, both www.ibiza.farm and www.agrotonomy.com ranked on the first page of Google search results. Over the months which followed, the search results of www.ibiza.farm slowly disappeared only to transfer its full ranking eligibility to www.agrotonomy.com regardless of language.
Of course, in Russian, we cannot transfer ranking eligibility from one URL to another on Yandex which is the major player aside from Google. In Korea, we cannot transfer ranking eligibility on ‘Naver’ when doing website rebranding either…etc. There are quite a few foreign Language search engines that do not use Google ranking algorithms and for which we cannot perform SEO rebranding. However, with a combined average of 92% + market shares worldwide, Google technology is our main focus regardless of the language involved.
When doing an SEO rebranding that involves foreign languages, it is crucial for the main webmaster to work in close collaboration with multilingual technicians all working preferably in the mother tongue.
The average cost for doing SEO rebranding for an average size website costs around $7500-$10,000, and in all cases, it is truly a service that is worth every penny.
We invite you to contact us to discuss your SEO rebranding needs.