SEO
10 Types of Digital Marketing Channels to Try [in 2022]
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So you want to put online efforts and go digital for your business. But there are many types of digital marketing channels out there to choose from. Now what?
Your next step is to start your digital marketing efforts. The good news is, there are several types of digital marketing out there for you to check out and try.
The not-so-good news is, you don’t want to use all your energy trying to make all these channels work for you.
How would you decide which type of digital marketing channel is right for your business? Here’s our comprehensive list of digital marketing channels for you to learn, understand, and try:
- Organic search
- Website and Content
- Word of Mouth
- Podcast
- Social Media
- Paid Search
- Display Ads
- Mobile
- Video Marketing
- Key Takeaway
1. Organic Search
What do you do when you’re curious to know about certain topics? Where do you look for information about a specific product or service? You Google it, right?
One of the highest converting types of digital marketing channels is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a process of making your website rank better in search engines than your competitors.
Search engine optimization makes it easier for customers to find you. At present, there are over 99,000 Google searches done per second so it’s best that you make use of it to optimize your website and be visible in organic search.
But how can SEO make your product or service stand out from your competitors? How can you get more traffic to your website and get high conversion rates? Here are some of the SEO techniques you need to know:
- Keyword research – this is the most fundamental process in SEO. We do this to determine which keyword will help you rank and get more organic traffic for your website.
However, keyword research is not as easy as it seems. If you want to have an in-depth understanding of what it can do for your business, especially if you have a new website, you can read more about it here.
- Content – your website must have high-quality content. Why? Because not only it will drive readership from your customers, it will also help you stand out.
But how do you drive readership from your customers? It all boils down to your keywords. The more specific and relevant your keywords are to your business, the better.
In addition, when creating content for your website, don’t forget to add your keywords to your metadata. Meta Data provides Google with additional information about your website.
Meta Data includes your website’s URL or web address (Uniform Resource Locator), Title Tag, and Meta Description. Meta data lets search engines know what your website is about.
- Linkbuilding – is another integral task in SEO. The goal of link building is to get links back to your website from either the same website (internal backlinks) or other websites.
Linkbuilding is getting more “referrals” into your website so Google will see you as reputable and authoritative. Links are a huge factor in how Google ranks you. In fact, it makes up your site’s page rank to 42%!
SEO Hacker has an in-depth post on how to build backlinks to your website. You might want to refer to it in case you want to try to do it on your own first.
A quick word though. It may seem easy to build links, but don’t be fooled. Link building won’t give you results overnight. It requires a process that’s painstakingly slow to grow your website’s presence.
The same goes for SEO in general. Not only does SEO takes a huge amount of time, but it also requires immense technical SEO experience to keep up with the search engines’ constant algorithm updates. Google must make these updates to provide its users with a better experience.
Fortunately for business owners, there are SEO and digital marketing services out there that can help. SEO Hacker is an SEO and digital marketing agency that provides the best quality service because of white hat strategies and ethical processes. If you want to know how your website’s searchability is doing, you can try our FREE SEO audit tool here.
2. Website and Content
An infographic from MineWhat shows that 81% of shoppers do their online research first before they make a purchase.
What does this mean for your business? Your website must not only be visible online, but it must also have high-quality valuable content for your customers.
Your website must have all the important information and credentials your customers need. The website and content have multimedia capabilities so you can add variety to educate, entertain, and persuade your visitors.
Some types of content you might want to create are blogs, videos, infographics, case studies, social media posts, e-books, and many others.
To make website and content work for your business, you will need a content strategy. A content strategy helps you outline and define your business’ identity and purpose.
Once you have outlined your content strategy, your next step is to do content marketing. Content marketing is where you will identify which type of content you will create and promote them to increase your website traffic.
Ultimately, your goal is to solve your customers’ pain points when they visit your website.
3. Word of Mouth
To me, nothing beats this most powerful type of marketing because it speaks volumes about loyalty and trust. It reflects how we serve our business partners with their digital marketing needs. In fact, I find this to be my favorite marketing strategy! Here’s why.
Nowadays, consumers rely heavily on what other consumers have to say about the brand. Consumers rely less on the brand’s paid advertising.
A study from Invespcro shows that word-of-mouth marketing drives five times more sales than paid media. In addition, consumers are more likely to trust and buy from a brand recommended by family or a friend over a brand employee.
Contrary to what the majority believe, WOM (word-of-mouth) marketing can also be done in the form of online customer reviews.
It’s likely you’ve done word of mouth at some point as well. When you meet with your friends and you can’t help but rave about a great product or service, that’s a word of mouth marketing already!
The key to achieving successful WOM is to create a top-notch experience and service for your customers.
4. Email
Contrary to what the majority of digital marketers say, email marketing is not dead. When you sign up for any social media channels or websites, what was the first information asked of you? Your email address, right?
Email marketing is still one of the most effective types of digital marketing channels to try. Don’t believe it?
Campaign Monitor shows that 64% of small businesses still use email marketing because it works for them. Not only it is easier than other types of digital marketing channels on the list, but it also offers several opportunities to promote your business.
But, what can you do with email marketing? You can promote your product or services without spending too much on ads! Another reason why email is another great channel is that it lets you build relationships, increase brand loyalty, and gain feedback from your email list.
If you’re going for email marketing, here are some strategies you can apply now:
- Create catchy but relevant subject lines. It’s a challenge to stand out from the typical email noise out there, so it’s best that you come up with subject lines that are catchy, timely, but not too long to cut your pre-header short.
Be careful not to use clickbait subject lines or you’ll end up in the Spam folder.
- Make your message more personalized and engaging. Do you still recall a time when you get snail mails from a friend or loved one? Were you excited? Were you looking forward to their next letter?
That’s how your email should read and feel like. Write your emails as if you’re talking to a specific person in mind. Engage your email list by sharing valuable information about your business or asking questions about how you’ve helped them solve their problem.
- Segment your email list. Keep information relevant to your email subscribers by segmenting your list. It’s best to send different messages to people who clicked, purchased, viewed your product, or were inactive on your list.
Check out our updated comprehensive list of email marketing you can send out to your list.
5. Podcast
Since its launch in 2004, the demand for audio content has gone through the roof. In fact, 57% of the US population listens to the podcast, and the generation with the highest listener shares is the Millennials.
Statista also predicts that there will be 160 million podcast listeners in 2023. That’s a huge potential to meet where your audiences are.
But why you should look into podcasts? Podcasts are a great channel to interact with your audience. Podcast lets your audience listen to your episodes while they’re on a workout, on a morning commute, or on a coffee break. By doing so, you can be more conversational and show your human side to your audience.
If you want to join the podcast bandwagon but don’t know where to start, you may check out BuzzSprout’s step-by-step guide on how to start a podcast. Also, I host The Leadership Stack Podcast where we empower the world’s future leaders and invite feature like-minded professionals as our guests with our episodes.
6. Social Media
There are 4.62 billion people who use social media worldwide in 2022, and its purpose has significantly transformed over the years.
What used to be a platform to build personal connections has become something much more functional. Most B2Cs (business to consumer) invest in this digital marketing channel because customers spend most of their time there.
According to Data Reportal, there are 6 social media platforms that claim more than a billion active users per month. For this report, we’ll include Twitter, Facebook Messenger, and LinkedIn for your reference:
- Facebook – 2.9 billion monthly active users
- YouTube – 2.56 billion potential advertising reach
- WhatsApp – at least 2 billion monthly active users
- Instagram – 1.47 billion potential advertising reach
- WeChat – 1.26 billion monthly active users
- TikTok – 1 billion monthly active users
- Facebook Messenger – 988 million potential advertising reach
- Twitter – 436 million potential advertising reach
- LinkedIn – 790.4 million monthly active users
LinkedIn is the most used and effective B2B (business to business) social media channel. In October 2021, LinkedIn has at least 790 million members which makes it a perfect channel to reach out to business-minded individuals.
As for the rest of the social media platforms, observe how some brands use it to interact with their customers in real-time. Your customers can like or comment on your post, which can help you decide which content gets more engagement.
At the same time, most social media platforms have chatboxes or direct messaging that either quickly answer your customers’ concerns or inquire about your product or service.
Social media marketing is very effective since it offers a two-way conversation between the brand and its customers.
The two most powerful trends marketers use when they interact on social media are influencer marketing and short-form video content.
If you want to get started on social media channels but are clueless about how to do it, this definitive guide is for you. We’ve outlined 12 easy-to-follow steps on how you can boost your social media presence.
7. Paid Search
Another popular word for paid search is search engine marketing (SEM). SEO and SEM aren’t similar in the sense that the goal of the former is to rank in organic search. The goal of paid search or SEM is to increase your website traffic with paid ads. You can make use of this digital marketing channel through Google Ads.
One advantage of paid search is it allows marketers to increase the business’ website traffic by putting a paid ad on top of the search results page. Paid ads are made to appear before the organic results. Look closely and you’ll find there’s an “Ad” label before your searched keyword.
Many digital marketers like paid search because it’s easy for them to create targeted ads. You can easily create ads based on users’ searched keywords and location. It lets you create ads based on your targeted demographics as well.
You can outdo your competitors and step up your game with paid search. If you have a new website and you want to rank for desired keywords in no time, then this digital marketing channel might be for you.
You can either do this on your own or work with a digital marketing agency to save time. Be sure to look for an agency that’ll help you earn numerous times over every click you spend.
8. Display Ads
Display ads are another great way to attract the attention of your potential leads, increase awareness about your business, and convince your audience to take action.
These ads are usually in the form of image, text, or video ads that entice the audience to click through to a landing page and make a purchase.
You can tell the difference between a regular personal post on your social media feed and a display ad when you see a gray text that says “promoted” or “sponsored”.
Unlike paid search, display ads aren’t targeted. With this digital marketing channel, you can reach a larger audience with a wider reach.
Ideally, the goal of display ads is to retarget your audience. In the event that customers visit and leave your website and you want them to return, display ads encourage this.
Display ads come in different forms:
- Banner ads – is a traditional form of a display ad. It usually appears as a banner at the top of the website.
- Video ads – these ads are usually found on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Video ads allow you to reach and connect with your audience on a personal level by telling engaging stories. The length of your video ads doesn’t matter but be sure to make it light and engaging.
- Rich media – this ad is video, audio, and clickable engaging elements combined. This ad offers ways to interact with the audience.
9. Mobile
If you haven’t thought about reaching your potential audience via their smartphones yet, now’s the time to do so.
According to GSMA Intelligence’s latest data, there are now 5.31 billion unique phone users around the world. In addition, unique mobile users are still growing at a rate of 1.8 percent every year.
Furthermore, the rise of voice search on mobile continues. What does this tell you as a business owner?
You have to make yourself visible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. To do this, you may utilize the following mobile marketing strategies:
- SMS – never underestimate SMS’ (short message service) potential. You can keep your customers updated about your product or if you have any ongoing promotions.
- Mobile-based app – 80% of mobile users spend more time on different mobile apps, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to build your own mobile app.
It’s true that mobile apps are nice to have in businesses. However, you can still promote and create mobile ads that show within third-party mobile apps. Google AdMob lets you create ads not only in mobile apps but also in display ads like rich media, video, and text interstitials.
- QR codes – QR (Quick Response) codes encourage mobile phone interaction and engagement. It helps businesses provide more information about their product or service to their customers’ mobile devices in a jiffy.
Also, QR codes can be added to brochures, posters, billboards, or any advertising material to provide mobile users with more information about your product or offer.
- Instant messaging – it’s easy to sign up for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and Viber accounts. If you want to get in touch with your audience and respond to them in a flash, instant messaging is the way to go.
10. Video Marketing
Still on the fence about where to put your online efforts for your business? You should consider video marketing.
Gone are the days when creating videos for your business is just an option. If you want to be relevant, it’s imperative you dive into it! Nowadays, people are more likely to watch video content from a company they support.
What this also means is that video content helps increase your open and conversion rates, improve your ROI and help nurture your relationship with your customers.
A survey conducted by Statista showed that 60% of their respondents watch YouTube multiple times a day. On the other hand, 54% of their respondents engage with TikTok more than twice per day.
So, which type of video content should you create? You can do the following:
- Instructional or How-To Video – this is one of the best ways to provide your audience information or knowledge about your product and understand how it works.
- Explainer video – this is perfect for products or services with technical concepts. You may also create animated videos to explain in a simple format how your product or service works.
- Live video – this video format proves to be the most engaging type. It encourages audiences to interact by asking questions in the comments section in real-time.
- Brand video – ideal for sharing your brand’s vision and mission, or for showcasing your brand’s products or offer.
- Testimonial video – the best type of user-generated content ever! You don’t have to put a lot of marketing effort into this because your customers will do the market for you.
- Product demo video – this is where you showcase your product’s benefits and features. This type of video should be comprehensive to provide the best user experience.
The best digital video channel to start with is YouTube. Not only because it has one of the largest audience reaches, but also because it’s the internet’s second-largest search engine.
YouTube helps you cast a wide net for search traffic, so if you’re not doing YouTube yet, you’re missing out on a lot. If you want to dive deep into how YouTube can help improve your overall presence and improve your SEO, here’s our definitive guide to YouTube SEO.
However, if you want to showcase your creative marketing side and create short-form videos on TikTok, check out our post about TikTok SEO. Here we discussed why TikTok is an ideal venue for product promotions and what Google is doing to make TikTok videos appear in organic search.
Key Takeaway
It is now easier to grow leads and increase sales with so many types of digital marketing channels available. This isn’t to say you should utilize every digital marketing channel discussed here.
This also doesn’t mean you should only focus on one digital marketing channel. In order for any of these channels to work wonders for your business, you need a well-thought-out marketing strategy in place.
I also noticed how omni-channels work wonders for brands nowadays. If you want to stay ahead of the game and keep abreast with your customers’ needs, it’s important to leverage more than one to three marketing channels. Include that in your marketing strategy so you can stay competitive.
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SEO
OpenAI To Show Content & Links In Response To Queries
OpenAI content deal will enhance ChatGPT with the ability to show real-time content with links in response to queries. OpenAI quietly took steps to gaining more search engine type functionality as part of a content licensing deal that may have positive implications for publishers and SEO.
Content Licensing Deal
OpenAI agreed to content licensing with the Financial Times, a global news organization with offices in London, New York, across continental Europe and Asia.
Content licensing deals between AI organizations and publishers are generally about getting access to high quality training data. The training data is then used by language models to learn connections between words and concepts. This deal goes far beyond that use.
ChatGPT Will Show Direct Quotes With Attribution
What makes this content licensing deal between The Financial Times and OpenAI is that there is a reference to giving attribution to content within ChatGPT.
The announced licensing deal explicitly mentions the use of the licensed content so that ChatGPT could directly quote it and provide links to the licensed content.
Further, the licensing deal is intended to help improve ChatGPT’s “usefulness”, which is vague and can mean many things, but it takes on a slightly different meaning when used in the context of attributed answers.
The Financial Times agreement states that the licensing deal is for use in ChatGPT when it provides “attributed content” which is content with an attribution, commonly a link to where the content appeared.
This is the part of the announcement that references attributed content:
“The Financial Times today announced a strategic partnership and licensing agreement with OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence research and deployment, to enhance ChatGPT with attributed content, help improve its models’ usefulness by incorporating FT journalism, and collaborate on developing new AI products and features for FT readers. “
And this is the part of the announcement that mentions ChatGPT offering users attributed quotes and links:
“Through the partnership, ChatGPT users will be able to see select attributed summaries, quotes and links to FT journalism in response to relevant queries.”
The Financial Times Group CEO was even more explicit about OpenAI’s intention to show content and links in ChatGPT:
“This is an important agreement in a number of respects,” said FT Group CEO John Ridding. “It recognises the value of our award-winning journalism and will give us early insights into how content is surfaced through AI. …this partnership will help keep us at the forefront of developments in how people access and use information.
OpenAI understands the importance of transparency, attribution, and compensation…”
Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI directly referenced showing real-time news content in ChatGPT but more important he referenced OpenAI exploring new ways to show content to its user base.
Lastly, the COO stated that they embraced disruption, which means innovation that creates a new industry or paradigm, usually at the expense of an older one, like search engines.
Lightcap is quoted:
“We have always embraced new technologies and disruption, and we’ll continue to operate with both curiosity and vigilance as we navigate this next wave of change.”
Showing direct quotes of Financial Times content with links to that content is very similar to how search engines work. This is a big change to how ChatGPT works and could be a sign of where ChatGPT is going in the future, a functionality that incorporates online content with links to that content.
Something Else That Is Possibly Related
Someone on Twitter recently noticed a change that is related to “search” in relation to ChatGPT.
This change involves an SSL security certificate that was added for a subdomain of ChatGPT.com. ChatGPT.com is a domain name that was snapped up by someone to capitalize on the 2022 announcement of ChatGPT by OpenAI. OpenAI eventually acquired the domain and it’s been redirecting to ChatGPT.
The change that was noticed is to the subdomain: search.chatgpt.com.
This is a screenshot of the tweet:
Big News For SEO and Publishers
This is significant news for publishers and search marketers ChatGPT will become a source of valuable traffic if OpenAI takes ChatGPT in the direction of providing attributed summaries and direct quotes.
How Can Publishers Get Traffic From ChatGPT?
Questions remain about attributed quotes with links in response to relevant queries. Here are X unknowns about ChatGPT attributed links.
- Does this mean that only licensed content will be shown and linked to in ChatGPT?
- Will ChatGPT incorporate and use most web data without licensing deals in the same way that search engines do?
- OpenAI may incorporate an Opt-In model where publishers can use a notation in Robots.txt or in meta data to opt-in to receiving traffic from ChatGPT.
- Would you opt into receiving traffic from ChatGPT in exchange for allowing your content to be used for training?
- How would SEOs and publisher’s equation on ChatGPT change if their competitors are all receiving traffic from ChatGPT?
Read the original announcement:
Financial Times announces strategic partnership with OpenAI
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Photo For Everything
SEO
Google’s John Mueller On Website Recovery After Core Updates
John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, provided guidance this week regarding the path forward for websites impacted by recent search algorithm updates.
The discussion started on X (formerly Twitter) by SEO professional Thomas Jepsen.
Jepsen tagged Mueller, asking:
“Google has previously said Google doesn’t hold a grudge and sites will recover once issues have been solved. Is that still the case after HCU?”
Mueller’s response offered hope to site owners while being realistic about the challenges ahead.
Addressing Recovery Timelines
Mueller affirmed Google’s stance on not holding grudges, stating, “That’s still the case.”
However, he acknowledged the complexity of rankings, saying:
“…some things take much longer to be reassessed (sometimes months, at the moment), and some bigger effects require another update cycle.”
That’s still the case. That said, some things take much longer to be reassessed (sometimes months, at the moment), and some bigger effects require another update cycle. https://t.co/WDy7Q4dpzb has some more.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
Mueller pointed to a Google help document explaining the nuances. The document reads:
“Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted in Search or Discover by one might not recover—assuming improvements have been made—until the next broad core update is released.
Do keep in mind that improvements made by site owners aren’t a guarantee of recovery, nor do pages have any static or guaranteed position in our search results. If there’s more deserving content, that will continue to rank well with our systems.”
The Comments Sparking Debate
Jepsen probed further, asking, “Is a core update what’s needed for HCU-affected sites to recover (assuming they’ve fixed their issues)?”
Mueller’s response highlighted how situations can differ:
“It depends on the situation… I realize there’s a big space between the situations, but generalizing doesn’t help. Sometimes it takes a lot of work on the site, a long time, and an update.”
It depends on the situation. https://t.co/F9s3Hli9t7 and https://t.co/pLdm29PjPD has some on that. I realize there’s a big space between the situations, but generalizing doesn’t help. Sometimes it takes a lot of work on the site, a long time, and an update.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
The thread grew as user @selectgame raised concerns about Google Discover traffic, to which Mueller replied:
“Google Discover is affected by core updates as well as other parts of Search (and there are more policies that apply to Discover).”
Google Discover is affected by core updates as well as other parts of Search (and there are more policies that apply to Discover). If you’re seeing these changes when a core update rolled out, that might be what you’re seeing.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
Growing Frustrations
Prominent industry figure Lily Ray voiced mounting frustrations, stating,
“…many HCU-affected websites – which have been making all kinds of improvements over the last 7 months – have only seen further declines with the March Core Update.
I have seen some sites lose 90% or more of their SEO visibility since the HCU, with the last few weeks being the nail in the coffin, despite making significant improvements.”
Ray continued:
“And in my professional opinion, many of these sites did not deserve anywhere near that level of impact, especially the further declines over the past month.”
Mueller hasn’t responded to Ray’s tweet at this time.
John, any chance you can comment on the fact that many HCU-affected websites – which have been making all kinds of improvements over the last 7 months – have only seen further declines with the March Core Update?
I have seen some sites lose 90% or more of their SEO visibility… https://t.co/lvYRAScRQQ
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) April 29, 2024
Looking Ahead
As the search community awaits Google’s next moves, the path to recovery appears arduous for many impacted by recent algorithm reassessments of “Helpful Content.”
Site improvements don’t guarantee immediate recovery, so publishers face an uphill battle guided only by Google’s ambiguous public advice.
Why SEJ Cares
The March 2024 core update has proven disastrous for many websites, with severe traffic losses persisting even after sites try to improve low-quality content, address technical issues, and realign with Google’s guidelines.
Having clear, actionable guidance from Google on recovering from core update updates is invaluable.
As evidenced by the frustrations expressed, the current communications leave much to be desired regarding transparency and defining a straightforward recovery path.
How This Can Help You
While Mueller’s comments provide some insights, the key takeaways are:
- Regaining previous rankings after an algorithm hit is possible if sufficient content/site quality improvements are made.
- Recovery timelines can vary significantly and may require a future core algorithm update.
- Even with enhancements, recovery isn’t guaranteed as rankings depend on the overall pool of competing content.
The path is undoubtedly challenging, but Mueller’s comments underscore that perseverance with substantial site improvements can eventually pay off.
FAQ
Can SEO professionals predict recovery time for a website hit by core updates?
SEO professionals can’t pinpoint when a site will recover after a core Google algorithm update.
Reasons for this include:
- Google releases core updates every few months, so sites may need to wait for the next one.
- It can take months for Google to reassess and adjust rankings.
- How competitive the query is also impacts if and when a site recovers.
Does making site improvements after a core update ensure recovery in rankings and visibility?
After making improvements following a Google algorithm update, regaining your previous rankings isn’t guaranteed.
Reasons why include:
- Your impacted content may not recover until the next core update, provided you’ve implemented enough site improvements.
- Google’s search results are dynamic, and rankings can fluctuate based on the quality of competitor content.
- There’s no fixed or guaranteed position in Google’s search results.
What is the relationship between Google Discover traffic and core search updates?
Google’s core algorithm updates that impact regular search results also affect Google Discover.
However, Google Discover has additional specific policies that determine what content appears there.
This means:
- Improving your content and website quality can boost your visibility on Google Discover, just like regular searches.
- You may see changes in your Discover traffic when Google rolls out core updates.
- Your SEO and content strategy should account for potential impacts on regular searches and Google Discover.
Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock
SEO
5 Things To Consider Before A Site Migration
One of the scariest SEO tasks is a site migration because the stakes are so high and the pitfalls at every step . Here are five tips that will help keep a site migration on track to a successful outcome.
Site Migrations Are Not One Thing
Site Migrations are not one thing, they are actually different scenarios and the only thing they have in common is that there is always something that can go wrong.
Here are examples of some of the different kinds of site migrations:
- Migration to a new template
- Migrating to a new web host
- Merging two different websites
- Migrating to a new domain name
- Migrating to a new site architecture
- Migrating to a new content management system (CMS)
- Migrating to a new WordPress site builder
There are many ways a site can change and more ways for those changes to result in a negative outcome.
The following is not a site migration checklist. It’s five suggestions for things to consider.
1. Prepare For Migration: Download Everything
Rule number one is to prepare for the site migration. One of my big concerns is that the old version of the website is properly documented.
These are some of the ways to document a website:
- Download the database and save it in at least two places. I like to have a backup of the backup stored on a second device.
- Download all the website files. Again, I prefer to save a backup of the backup stored on a second device.
- Crawl the site, save the crawl and export it as a CSV or an XML site map. I prefer to have redundant backups just in case something goes wrong.
An important thing to remember about downloading files by FTP is that there are two formats for downloading files: ASCII and Binary.
- Use ASCII for downloading files that contain code, like CSS, JS, PHP and HTML.
- Use Binary for media like images, videos and zip files.
Fortunately, most modern FTP software have an automatic setting that should be able to distinguish between the two kinds of files. A sad thing that can happen is to download image files using the ASCII format which results in corrupted images.
So always check that your files are all properly downloaded and not in a corrupted state. Always consider downloading a copy for yourself if you have hired a third party to handle the migration or a client is doing it and they’re downloading files. That way if they fail with their download you’ll have an uncorrupted copy backed up.
The most important rule about backups: You can never have too many backups!
2. Crawl The Website
Do a complete crawl of the website. Create a backup of the crawl. Then create a backup of the backup and store it on a separate hard drive.
After the site migration, this crawl data can be used to generate a new list for crawling the old URLs to identify any URLs that are missing (404), are failing to redirect, or are redirecting to the wrong webpage. Screaming Frog also has a list mode that can crawl a list of URLs saved in different formats, including as an XML sitemap, and directly input into a text field. This is a way to crawl a specific batch of URLs as opposed to crawling a site from link to to link.
3. Tips For Migrating To A New Template
Website redesigns can be can be a major source of anguish when they go wrong. On paper, migrating a site to a new template should be a one-to-one change with minimal issues. In practice that’s not always the case. For one, no template can be used off the shelf, it has to be modified to conform to what’s needed, which can mean removing and/or altering the code.
Search marketing expert Nigel Mordaunt (LinkedIn), who recently sold his search marketing agency, has experience migrating over a hundred sites and has important considerations for migrating to a new WordPress template.
This is Nigel’s advice:
“Check that all images have the same URL, alt text and image titles, especially if you’re using new images.
Templates sometimes have hard-coded heading elements, especially in the footer and sidebars. Those should be styled with CSS, not with H tags. I had this problem with a template once where the ranks had moved unexpectedly, then found that the Contact Us and other navigation links were all marked up to H2. I think that was more of a problem a few years ago. But still, some themes have H tags hard coded in places that aren’t ideal.
Make sure that all URLs are the exact same, a common mistake. Also, if planning to change content then check that the staging environment has been noindexed then after the site goes live make sure that the newly uploaded live site no longer contains the noindex robots meta tag.
If changing content then be prepared the site to perhaps be re-evaluated by Google. Depending on the size of the site, even if the changes are positive it may take several weeks to be rewarded, and in some cases several months. The client needs to be informed of this before the migration.
Also, check that analytics and tracking codes have been inserted into the new site, review all image sizes to make sure there are no new images that are huge and haven’t been scaled down. You can easily check the image sizes and heading tags with a post-migration Screaming Frog crawl. I can’t imagine doing any kind of site migration without Screaming Frog.”
4. Advice For Migrating To A New Web Host
Mark Barrera (LinkedIn), VP SEO, Newfold Digital (parent company of Bluehost), had this to say about crawling before a site migration in preparation for a migration to a new web host:
“Thoroughly crawl your existing site to identify any indexing or technical SEO issues prior to the move.
Maintain URL Structure (If Possible): Changing URL structures can confuse search engines and damage your link equity. If possible, keep your URLs the same.
301 Redirects: 301 Redirects are your friend. Search engines need to be informed that your old content now lives at a new address. Implementing 301 redirects from any old URLs to their new counterparts preserves link equity and avoids 404 errors for both users and search engine crawlers.
Performance Optimization: Ensure your new host provides a fast and reliable experience. Site speed is important for user experience.
Be sure to do a final walkthrough of your new site before doing your actual cutover. Visually double-check your homepage, any landing pages, and your most popular search hits. Review any checkout/cart flows, comment/review chains, images, and any outbound links to your other sites or your partners.
SSL Certificate: A critical but sometimes neglected aspect of hosting migrations is the SSL certificate setup. Ensuring that your new host supports and correctly implements your existing SSL certificate—or provides a new one without causing errors is vital. SSL/TLS not only secures your site but also impacts SEO. Any misconfiguration during migration can lead to warnings in browsers, which deter visitors and can temporarily impact rankings.
Post migration, it’s crucial to benchmark server response times not just from one location, but regionally or globally, especially if your audience is international. Sometimes, a new hosting platform might show great performance in one area but lag in other parts of the world. Such discrepancies can affect page load times, influencing bounce rates and search rankings. “
5. Accept Limitations
Ethan Lazuk, SEO Strategist & Consultant, Ethan Lazuk Consulting, LLC, (LinkedIn, Twitter) offers an interesting perspective on site migrations on the point about anticipating client limitations imposed upon what you are able to do. It can be frustrating when a client pushes back on advice and it’s important to listen to their reasons for doing it.
I have consulted over Zoom with companies whose SEO departments had concerns about what an external SEO wanted to do. Seeking a third party confirmation about a site migration plan is a reasonable thing to do. So if the internal SEO department has concerns about the plan, it’s not a bad idea to have a trustworthy third party take a look at it.
Ethan shared his experience:
“The most memorable and challenging site migrations I’ve been a part of involved business decisions that I had no control over.
As SEOs, we can create a smart migration plan. We can follow pre- and post-launch checklists, but sometimes, there are legal restrictions or other business realities behind the scenes that we have to work around.
Not having access to a DNS, being restricted from using a brand’s name or certain content, having to use an intermediate domain, and having to work days, weeks, or months afterward to resolve any issues once the internal business situations have changed are just a few of the tricky migration issues I’ve encountered.
The best way to handle these situations require working around client restrictions is to button up the SEO tasks you can control, set honest expectations for how the business issues could impact performance after the migration, and stay vigilant with monitoring post-launch data and using it to advocate for resources you need to finish the job.”
Different Ways To Migrate A Website
Site migrations are a pain and should be approached with caution. I’ve done many different kinds of migrations for myself and have assisted them with clients. I’m currently moving thousands of webpages from a folder to the root and it’s complicated by multiple redirects that have to be reconfigured, not looking forward to it. But migrations are sometimes unavoidable so it’s best to step up to it after careful consideration.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Krakenimages.com
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