Moving Your Website? Avoid These Costly SEO and Lead Generation Mistakes

Don’t Let Your Website Migration Derail Your Success

Migrating your website — whether to a new platform, domain, or design — is an exciting opportunity to improve user experience and scale your business. However, the process is full of challenges. If mishandled, it can result in significant downtime, loss of leads, and irreversible SEO damage.

For B2B businesses and manufacturers, where every lead matters, an SEO-driven website migration plan is critical to success. Migration errors can snowball — confusing customers, frustrating your team, and undoing years of hard-won search engine rankings.

This guide will help you avoid costly missteps. From preserving your traffic to ensuring minimal disruption, a proactive plan can mean the difference between growth and setbacks.

Why a Smooth Website Migration is Essential for SEO

When executed correctly, a website migration can transform your business — streamlining operations, connecting systems, and improving how customers engage with your brand. But when SEO takes a back seat, the fallout can be devastating:

• Plummeting rankings: Search engines may no longer recognize your valuable pages.
• Loss of organic traffic: Fewer visitors means fewer opportunities for leads and sales.
• Disrupted pipeline: Leads stop flowing into your sales process, impacting revenue growth.

For businesses that rely on online visibility to drive leads, a poorly planned migration can cost far more than a few missed opportunities — it can hurt your bottom line. A careful approach to website migration SEO ensures that your traffic, rankings, and customer experience remain intact.

1. Audit Your Existing Website Before You Make a Move

Migrating without a clear understanding of your current site is like building on quicksand. You need a complete picture of what works and what doesn’t.

• Start with a full site audit: Use tools like Google Search Console or SEMrush to identify top-performing pages, critical keywords, and backlinks that contribute to SEO success.
• Document everything: List all URLs, content assets, and page performance metrics so nothing gets lost in transition.

Your audit will reveal which pages need to be prioritized. High-performing content is too valuable to leave behind, so keep track of anything driving traffic or conversions.

Why This Matters: A thorough audit ensures that you retain your hard-earned SEO value during migration.

2. Redirect Old URLs to Avoid SEO Catastrophe

Picture this: A customer clicks an old bookmarked link, but instead of landing on the new page, they hit a dead end. Broken links don’t just frustrate users — they also tank your SEO.

• Create a 301 redirect map: Redirect each old URL to its new equivalent to preserve search engine rankings and user trust.
• Test for accuracy: Ensure that every redirect points to the right page and functions properly post-launch.

Example of a Simple Redirect Plan:

Why This Matters: 301 redirects maintain the flow of SEO authority and ensure that visitors don’t get lost.

3. Protect Your SEO-Friendly Content

Migrating to a new site doesn’t mean starting over with your content. Removing or neglecting high-performing pages can erase years of effort spent building authority and relevance.

• Keep your top content intact: Use your audit to identify pages that bring in traffic and leads. Migrate these without significant changes.
• Optimize as needed: Refresh content titles, meta descriptions, and headers to align with current SEO best practices.
• Don’t forget internal links: These help search engines understand your site structure and drive users to related content.

If you plan to improve content, do so strategically. Avoid unnecessary changes to pages that already rank well.

Why This Matters: High-performing content is your SEO goldmine. Protecting it ensures traffic and leads continue flowing.

4. Don’t Lose Mobile Users: Optimize for Every Device

With more than 60% of B2B traffic coming from mobile devices, you can’t afford a migration that neglects mobile optimization. Google also prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in search rankings, so it’s critical to get this right.

• Test responsiveness: Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure your site works seamlessly across all devices.
• Speed matters: Compress images, reduce code bloat, and optimize load times for mobile users.

A site that’s mobile-optimized improves user experience, keeps visitors on your site longer, and boosts SEO.

Why This Matters: A slow or clunky mobile site will turn away leads and hurt your rankings.

5. Test Before Launch to Avoid Costly Errors

Launching your new site without testing is a recipe for disaster. Broken links, slow load times, and missing pages can leave customers frustrated and search engines confused.

• Use a staging environment: Test the new site in a controlled space to identify and fix issues before launch.
• Run performance checks: Look for broken links, missing images, and inconsistent formatting.
• Test on multiple browsers: Ensure the site performs well on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge.

Why This Matters: Pre-launch testing ensures a polished, functional website on day one, avoiding post-launch surprises.

6. Don’t Forget Analytics: Track Performance from Day One

When migrating your website, it’s easy to overlook analytics setup. Without proper tracking, you’ll lose insights into traffic, user behavior, and conversion metrics.

• Set up Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager: Ensure all tracking tools are migrated and functioning properly.
• Validate conversion goals: Test that all form submissions, button clicks, and other goals are being recorded accurately.

Analytics are your compass for post-migration success. They show you what’s working and where adjustments are needed.

Why This Matters: Without analytics, you won’t know how the migration impacts performance or where to make improvements.

7. Post-Migration: Monitor and Adapt

Your website migration isn’t over when you hit “launch.” It’s just the beginning of a critical monitoring phase to ensure everything runs smoothly.

• Check for crawl errors: Use Google Search Console to monitor indexing and identify any missing pages.
• Watch rankings and traffic: Look for any sudden drops and address issues quickly to avoid lasting damage.
• Gather feedback: Listen to users and stakeholders to identify bugs or usability issues that need fixing.

Why This Matters: Monitoring allows you to resolve issues quickly and protect your SEO investment.

Why Partnering With Experts Makes All the Difference

Migrating a website successfully requires planning, strategy, and technical expertise. Partnering with a professional team ensures you avoid common pitfalls and achieve a smooth, SEO-friendly transition.

At TANK New Media, we specialize in seamless website migrations for B2B businesses and manufacturers. We’ll help you:

• Preserve your SEO rankings and organic traffic.
• Minimize downtime for a smooth user experience.
• Build a website that grows with your business.

Ready to Migrate Your Website With Confidence?

Don’t let common mistakes cost you leads or SEO performance. Let TANK New Media guide you through a stress-free, results-driven website migration.

Get Your Migration Plan Today

Don’t Let Your Website Migration Cost You Leads

Website migration is a big step, but with the right approach, it can become an opportunity for growth rather than a source of stress. By avoiding common pitfalls — like neglecting SEO, skipping redirects, or launching without testing — you can ensure a smooth transition that preserves your traffic, rankings, and leads.

If you’re considering a website migration or redesign, having the right checklist is key to success.

Download our free guide: 26 Website Redesign Must-Haves to ensure your new website is built for performance, growth, and lead generation.

Don’t risk losing valuable traffic or leads — set your website up for success with this essential resource.