The missing guide to SEO domain migrations

Domain migrations are asymmetric bets. There has to be an upside, otherwise you shouldn’t be doing this. The upside might be a stronger brand, a TLD that finally reads as international, or two competing properties consolidated into one. But whatever that upside is, there’s a limit to how big it can get. The downside has no limit. A bad migration permanently loses traffic, rankings, and revenue you’d already earned. Aim for intact first. The upside comes after. I’ve advised on many of these over the years. Some end up at “intact.” Plenty don’t. The difference is rarely talent. It’s almost always preparation. A migration touches three disciplines: project management, technical SEO, and engineering. If one of those is unfamiliar to you, that’s the discipline you need to bring in. What going well and going badly look like Two real cases, both well-documented: The Guardian moved from guardian.co.uk to theguardian.com in 2013. Six months in, the site was still seeing record traffic. I did…