Maintaining your SEO ranking after moving to ShinePages

ShinePages is well-regarded for our search-optimized designs and quickly loading pages but switching platforms/content management systems can cause your site's search ranking to dip. This is true no matter what platform you choose, ShinePages or otherwise.

By following some best practices and continuing to optimize your site's SEO, you can reduce the effect of the migration and potentially help your site's performance in search results in the long run.

The primary reason switching platforms might affect your SEO ranking is if your domain name/URL structure changes. Search engines referenced your previous site’s site map to identify your content. If other sites are linked to you, they’re probably using your old URLs. If these URLs change suddenly, your rank might be affected. With some preparation, you can minimize any damage.

Before you leave your old platform entirely

While your old site is still online, we recommend cataloging your site’s URL structure by writing down a list of all page URLs, including blog post URLs and product page URLS.

ie:

/about

/contact

/name-of-blog-post-1

/name-of-blog-post-2

/name-of-product-1

etc.

After you’ve moved your content to your new ShinePages site, you’ll see which URLs are different and create 301 redirects to help search engines keep track of your content. See below for further information on 301 redirects. 

Keep your domain name

When possible, keep your current domain name. No matter where you purchased your domain name originally, (GoDaddy, NameCheap, Google Domains, Domains.com, Squarespace, etc.) you will be able to connect it to your ShinePages site by just making two simple changes to your domain name's records. The instructions on how to connect your domain name are in the below article. 

Match URL slugs

Matching URLs will help preserve inbound links to your content. For example, if your old site's about page was at yourdomain.com/about, use this same URL on ShinePages. Otherwise, if your new About page was at yourdomain.com/about-us, anyone visiting the /about URL would get a "404 Page Not Found" error, unless you have done a 301 redirect.

You can update your Page URLs in Page Settings. 

Use 301 redirects

Even if you're using the same domain, some URLs might not match due to differences in how ShinePages structures URLs and your old site structured URLs.

For example, if blog posts on your old site using the URL structure: www.yourdomain.com/title-of-your-post,

your new ShinePages site will use the format:

www.yourdomain.com/blog/title.

You can make sure anyone using the old format, or links using it, is redirected to the right content by setting up 301 Redirects.

For example:

Old page: /about-me

New page: /about

Old page: /name-of-blog-post

New page: /blog/name-of-post

Old page: /product-name

New page: /store/product-name

You can create 301 redirects easily by visiting your "Website Settings" area (the cog/gear icon wheel on the left side navigation in your ShinePages Builder) and then visiting "URL Redirects" (see below) 

Here's an example of an "old" URL mapping to a "new" URL:

Customize your 404 page

A 404 page is what visitors will see when they enter an incorrect or non-existent URL. ShinePages provides one automatically but you can customize it to let visitors know you recently changed platforms or offer additional guidance. To edit/customize this page - visit your list of "System Pages" in your list of Pages & Popups and edit it within the Builder.

More information on linking to and editing System Pages can be found in the below article: How to access and link to "System Pages"

Use Search Tools

After you've migrated your content and created redirects for your URLs, you can use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to request an index of your site. This will let you see if there are any additional errors that need to be addressed.

Update Page SEO For Each Page

Within the Page Settings of each page and funnel step within your project, you can update the Page Title, Meta Description & Page Sharing Image to reflect the content of the page and to use keywords and phrases your ideal client may be searching for.

Get to this Edit Page/Page Settings window by clicking the gear wheel icon next to each page name in your Pages & Popups list. Click "Show Settings" then toggle from Page Info to SEO Info at the top of the window. 

Update Image Descriptions/Alt Tags for Photos

Another best practice when it comes to SEO and page accessibility is to provide an image description for any images that have been added to the page as image widgets or as the background to a block (note - this does not apply to images set as the backgrounds of columns)

To update the image description/alt tag, click on the Image Settings (or the Block Settings) and update the Image Description field to accurately describe the image. Describe it as though you are explaining what the image depicts to someone who cannot see the image vs. using marketing keywords.

For example, using the image below: "image of coffee and breakfast from above"

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