How Do You Manage International Redirects During Site Migrations?

Story Based Question

You’re overseeing a website migration for a global e-commerce company that operates in the U.S., Germany, and Japan. The company is rebranding and moving to a new platform. This means you’ll need to redirect the existing URLs to their new counterparts. You know that managing redirects properly is critical for maintaining search rankings and ensuring a smooth user experience. You’re now wondering, How do I handle international redirects during this migration, especially considering the different regional versions of the website?

Exact Answer

To manage international redirects during site migrations, implement 301 redirects for all old URLs to their new counterparts, use hreflang tags to ensure correct regional targeting, and monitor the migration closely using tools like Google Search Console to identify and resolve any issues.

Explanation

Migrating a website, especially one that operates across different regions and languages, requires careful planning to ensure SEO is not negatively impacted. Here’s a breakdown of how to manage redirects effectively:

1. Implement 301 Redirects for All Old URLs
   • A 301 redirect tells search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new location. This is essential during site migrations, as it passes most of the link equity from the old URLs to the new ones.
   • How to Implement: For each old page on your site, create a corresponding 301 redirect to the new page. This ensures that both users and search engines are directed to the right location. For example, if a user visits an old product page for a U.S. customer, they should be redirected to the new page seamlessly.
2. Use Hreflang Tags to Ensure Correct Regional Targeting
   • When migrating a site with multiple regional versions, you need to use hreflang tags to specify which version of a page is intended for which language or country. This helps Google serve the correct content to users based on their location and language.
   • How to Implement: If you’re migrating pages for the U.S., Germany, and Japan, ensure that hreflang tags are implemented on both the old and new pages. This way, Google understands the regional relevance of your content and avoids serving the wrong version to international users.
     For example:
     
     <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-US” href=”https://example.com/us-page” />
     <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”de-DE” href=”https://example.com/de-page” />
     <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”ja-JP” href=”https://example.com/jp-page” />
     
3. Set Up Redirects for All Regional URLs
   • For an international website, make sure all country- or language-specific URLs have proper redirects in place. A U.S. user visiting an old URL should be redirected to the U.S. version, a German user should be sent to the German page, and a Japanese user should go to the Japanese page.
   • How to Implement: If your U.S. page is at example.com/us/product, and the German version is at example.com/de/produkt, ensure that the 301 redirect from the old German URL (example.com/produkt) goes to the new one (example.com/de/produkt).
4. Monitor the Migration with Google Search Console
   • After implementing redirects, monitor the migration process through Google Search Console to ensure that Googlebot is correctly crawling and indexing your new pages. Keep an eye on crawl errors, 404s, and indexing issues to fix them promptly.
   • How to Implement: After the migration, check the Coverage Report in Google Search Console to identify any issues with URLs not redirecting properly. You can also use the URL Inspection Tool to ensure that each page’s new location is correctly indexed.
5. Test Redirects Before Launch
   • It’s essential to test all redirects before launching the new site. Use tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to crawl both the old and new site to check if redirects are functioning as expected.
   • How to Implement: Crawl the entire old site and verify that each old URL is redirecting to the correct new URL with a 301 status code. Make sure to test both the English and international versions of the site.

Example

Let’s imagine that you’re migrating the e-commerce site for your global brand. The current website has pages for the U.S., Germany, and Japan, and you’re moving to a new platform with updated URL structures.

1. 301 Redirects:
   • For example, if your old page URL was example.com/old-us-page and the new page is example.com/us/new-us-page, you would set up a 301 redirect from example.com/old-us-page to example.com/us/new-us-page. This ensures that users and search engines are automatically directed to the updated content.
2. Hreflang Tags:
   • On the U.S. page, you implement hreflang tags that point to the German and Japanese versions:
     
     <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-US” href=”https://example.com/us/new-us-page” />
     <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”de-DE” href=”https://example.com/de/new-de-page” />
     <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”ja-JP” href=”https://example.com/jp/new-jp-page” />
     
3. Regional Redirects:
   • On the German version of the site, example.com/old-de-page would redirect to example.com/de/new-de-page, ensuring German users are always taken to the correct page.
4. Testing:
   • You use tools like Screaming Frog to crawl the old and new sites before the launch. You find that the German page redirects properly, but there’s a mistake in the Japanese page redirect. You fix the issue before going live.
5. Monitoring:
   • After launching the new site, you regularly check Google Search Console to ensure there are no crawling errors or issues with redirects, especially for international users.

Managing international redirects during a site migration is crucial for preserving SEO rankings, improving user experience, and ensuring that the right version of the content is served to the right audience. By using 301 redirects, hreflang tags, and monitoring the process through Google Search Console, you can make the transition as smooth as possible across different regions.