Google’s John Mueller Sheds Light on Why Three Related Domain Migrations Yielded Different Results Despite Following the Same Process.

Google’s John Mueller Provided Insight Into Why Domain Migrations Among Multiple Language Versions of a Website Had Vastly Different Outcomes Despite Following the Same Process for All Three Websites.

Migrating Across Different Domain Names

The person seeking advice managed three websites under a different country code top-level domain (ccTLD). The ccTLDs were .fr (France), .be (Belgium), and .de (Germany). The project involved migrating each site from one domain to another within the same ccTLD—for example, moving from example-1.fr to example-2.fr. The content was the same across all three sites, each tailored to the language of the corresponding country. Given that the migration process was identical for each site, the expectation was that all three migrations would yield similar outcomes.

However, that was different from what happened.

Two of the three domain migrations failed, resulting in significant traffic loss. Only one site experienced a smooth transition without any major issues.

What Went Wrong?

The person seeking insight into the migration issues tweeted:

“Hi @JohnMu,

AlicesGarden (.fr, .be, .de, etc.) migrated to Sweeek (.fr, .be, .de, etc.)

The .fr and .be sites lost a lot of traffic in October 2023.

The other TLDs performed well.

Redirects, canonical tags, hreflang, content, and offers are correct. Search Console migration was set up correctly.

What else could be causing the problem?

John Mueller’s Tweeted Response

Google’s John Mueller pointed out that each site is unique and should be treated differently, even if they share similar content assets in various languages.

Mueller tweeted:

“I don’t know your sites, but even if the content is the same, they’re essentially different sites (especially with ccTLDs), so it’s normal for migration to affect them differently. This is quite a while back, so I’d consider these outcomes expected.

Are Site Migrations Essentially Equal?

John’s response emphasizes an important point. Site migrations can impact how a site fits into the broader Internet ecosystem, potentially influencing how users react to changes in domain names or templates. I have completed domain migrations that went smoothly, with only a minor temporary dip in traffic, but those were single-domain migrations, not multiple domains.

What’s Happening Here?

During the discussion, someone asked if AI-generated content was used on the websites.

The person who originally asked the question replied:

“Yes, we used a bit of AI for short descriptions, mostly on category pages, but nothing that could be misleading to end users.”

Could the migration failures of two sites and the success of the third be coincidental due to a Google update? Since the AI-generated content was minimal, it’s probably not the cause.

The key takeaway is what John Mueller highlighted: even if websites share similar content, they are still distinct entities. So, it’s common for domain migrations to have different outcomes.

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