Fact or Myth:
Will Migrating Your Website Cost You SEO Juice?

There’s a myth floating around that claims migrating your website to a new website provider will deplete your SEO juice. Or is it just a myth? Are you anxious about what will happen to your SEO when you switch over to a new marketing agency? Look at it this way: If you’re placing your digital marketing into the hands of a capable team, you have nothing to worry about.

But before we go into all the details about making a smooth transition with a new marketing team, let’s establish what SEO juice is, first.

SEO black magnifying glass

SEO is much more than just adding keywords to copy; there are many facets making up the whole.

SEO Juice—What is It (and Why is It Called Juice)?

You may have heard the word “juice” used as a substitute for words like “fuel” or “power.” In the context of SEO, we’re referring to the quantifiable value and authority your website has amassed in the eyes of Google. When we say authority, we mean the overall trustworthiness and credibility of your website, which includes keyword research and usage, on-site optimization, backlinks, local SEO, and code. SEO is much more than just adding keywords to copy; there are many facets making up the whole.

There is (sometimes justifiable) concern that when a website is transferred to a new domain and managed by a different marketing company, it will lose its SEO juice, or value and authority. This can feel like a setback for the business, and require them to spend more time and resources getting their website back to a respectable position on the Google SERP (search engine results page).

Reasons to Rest Easy About Keeping Your SEO Juice

While some loss of SEO gains is possible, it’s not the norm. There’s no need to fear the loss of SEO juice in the process of migrating your website.

Here’s why:

Businesses Migrate Their Websites All the Time

That’s right—plenty of dental practices just like yours are migrating their websites and other digital assets to new providers without breaking a sweat. If there was any genuine risk of losing SEO juice in the migration process, you can bet that very few businesses would bother making the switch.

A Competent Marketing Agency will Ensure Correct Transfer of Assets

Any marketing agency that knows what it’s doing will be able to help you migrate your website and all its assets without issue. A good agency will be thorough and efficient, and cooperate happily with your current provider to ensure that everything goes smoothly.

You Can Keep Your Original Domain Name

Talk to your agency about maintaining your original domain name. This makes website migration easier, because it will leave all the backlinks leading to your site unaffected, and visitors will be directed to your new website with no problems.

If you do change your domain, your backlinks may lead users to your old website instead. Those backlinks will need to be fixed to redirect users to your new, correct domain. During this process, you might lose some website traffic.

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What to Do If Your Domain Name Changes

First, don’t panic. For some businesses, a domain name change is unavoidable, either due to a complete re-branding or a merger.

Regardless of the reason for the change, there are still things you can do to hold onto your SEO juice and maintain your authority in Google’s eyes.

  • Make sure your website under the new domain is as similar as possible to the website you had under the old domain.
  • Have your new provider implement 301 redirects to make sure users aren’t landing on the wrong site or page. This can lead to traffic loss. With redirects, users are immediately taken to the correct page.

Your New Agency Follows SEO Best Practices

A marketing agency that utilizes SEO best practices is worth its weight in gold. They’ll be able to help you strategize to improve your rank on Google Search and reach more people in your local market. They will help you adapt to Google algorithm changes and scale other potential obstacles with ease.

4 Signs You Can Trust an Agency with Your SEO Juice

SEO juice is a precious commodity for today’s business. Competition is fiercer than ever. But if you’ve chosen the right agency to handle your website and other digital marketing assets, you’re in a good place.

Here are 4 signs you’ve chosen your marketing partner wisely:

They Add the Necessary Redirects to Your Newly-Migrated Website

Having the proper redirects in place is so important. You don’t want people landing on your old, defunct website and having a 404-error staring them in the face. Redirects prevent that, smoothly guiding users to the right pages and providing them with a better experience on your website.

They’ll Do All the Proper Research

A quality agency does its homework. In this case, that involves checking all of the current links that lead to different pages on your website and creating redirects as needed for the new website.

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They’ll Protect Your Reputation

Your practice’s reputation wasn’t built in a day, so it needs to be protected at all costs. An experienced agency will not subject your website to shared hosting, which could unintentionally put you on the same server as gambling and pornography websites. Simply being on the same server as these unsavory sites can tarnish your SEO and reputation merely by association.

They’ll Have Your Back

Before your website is transferred to its new hosting server, your agency will make sure the old website is backed up. This will prevent any content from being lost in the process of migrating, especially if your website is built with a database-driven content management system like WordPress.

Keep the SEO Juice Flowing with InTouch

We know how important your website is to your dental practice. It’s the digital face of your business, and deserves to be handled with care. At InTouch, building, maintaining, and migrating websites is all in a day’s work. We understand what needs to be done to keep the SEO juice flowing while you focus on serving your patients and growing your practice.

To find out more about how we can help you migrate your website,
get InTouch at (877) 493-9003.