Strategic migration approach increases revenue by 50%

The Challenge

Alloy Wheels Direct appointed Impression to help with a site migration when moving to a new website build.

It had built up a strong organic presence over many years, meaning that losing any of this traffic as a result of the migration was a big risk, which would have a significant impact.

Our primary goal was to provide Technical SEO consultancy to retain traffic levels during the migration process and improve them following it.

The Strategy

We were brought into the process early on in the build, which allowed Impression & Alloy Wheels Direct to take a conservative approach to the migration.

We provided clear consultancy and advised against changing too many things at once because if performance was negatively hit, we wouldn’t be able to understand the cause.
We ensured the changing of URL paths was kept to a minimum to prevent losing any ranking signals when going from the old build to the new build.
We set clear guidelines on how to handle the content element within the migration, warning against using this process as a chance to remove or add significant amounts of content.
Using our own-developed string matching tool, Fuzzzy, we were able to handle the vast majority of redirects with a high level of accuracy. This greatly reduced the total amount of time needed to get the redirect map correct.
A detailed technical audit of the original site was conducted to allow us to provide guidance on any previous issues, ensuring they are avoided upon migration to the new build. This was made possible by being brought into the process so early.
As with any migration, there was a longer timeline than initially expected, but this helped Impression & Alloy Wheels Direct cover all bases from a technical and content perspective. By planning well ahead of any prospective date the new site would go live, it enabled us to be on hand for all key dates.

The Results

Results below reflect performance since the migration has gone live

50%

Increase in clicks from Google (Google Search Console)

60%

Increase in impressions (Google Search Console)

53%

Increase in page 1 keywords (Ahrefs)

168%

Increase in site visibility (SISTRIX)

Our top priority was to preserve visibility for key landing pages and high-performing keywords, while avoiding the kind of traffic drops that can often follow a major platform change. Charlie and Chris took a strategic, measured approach – offering clear guidance on content, technical SEO and redirect mapping, which was especially helpful. We worked collaboratively on many aspects of the migration, with their team leading the way and our in-house team supporting the process.

James Harris Digital & Operations Lead at Alloy Wheels Direct

Charlie brought real expertise to the project and acted as a trusted advisor throughout. His communication was clear, confident and grounded in experience – always ready to offer practical advice, and always happy to jump on a call whenever we had questions or needed input. We’re very happy with the support we received and would gladly recommend Impression to others tackling a complex, high-stakes site migration.

James Harris Digital & Operations Lead at Alloy Wheels Direct

We partnered with Charlie and the Impression team during the redevelopment of our website, and they were involved from the early planning stages of the migration. Our website development ended up taking significantly longer than expected, but Charlie and his colleagues remained patient, supportive and hands-on throughout.

James Harris Digital & Operations Lead at Alloy Wheels Direct

Our top priority was to preserve visibility for key landing pages and high-performing keywords, while avoiding the kind of traffic drops that can often follow a major platform change. Charlie and Chris took a strategic, measured approach – offering clear guidance on content, technical SEO and redirect mapping, which was especially helpful. We worked collaboratively on many aspects of the migration, with their team leading the way and our in-house team supporting the process.

James Harris Digital & Operations Lead at Alloy Wheels Direct

Charlie brought real expertise to the project and acted as a trusted advisor throughout. His communication was clear, confident and grounded in experience – always ready to offer practical advice, and always happy to jump on a call whenever we had questions or needed input. We’re very happy with the support we received and would gladly recommend Impression to others tackling a complex, high-stakes site migration.

James Harris Digital & Operations Lead at Alloy Wheels Direct

We partnered with Charlie and the Impression team during the redevelopment of our website, and they were involved from the early planning stages of the migration. Our website development ended up taking significantly longer than expected, but Charlie and his colleagues remained patient, supportive and hands-on throughout.

James Harris Digital & Operations Lead at Alloy Wheels Direct

Our top priority was to preserve visibility for key landing pages and high-performing keywords, while avoiding the kind of traffic drops that can often follow a major platform change. Charlie and Chris took a strategic, measured approach – offering clear guidance on content, technical SEO and redirect mapping, which was especially helpful. We worked collaboratively on many aspects of the migration, with their team leading the way and our in-house team supporting the process.

James Harris Digital & Operations Lead at Alloy Wheels Direct