The Internet Marketing Driver

  • GSQi Home
  • About Glenn Gabe
  • SEO Services
    • Algorithm Update Recovery
    • Technical SEO Audits
    • Website Redesigns and Site Migrations
    • SEO Training
  • Blog
    • Web Stories
  • Contact GSQi

Archives for August 2020

Image Migrations and Lost Signals – How long before images lose signals after a flawed url migration?

August 13, 2020 By Glenn Gabe Leave a Comment

In 2016 I wrote a post covering how long it takes before urls lose signals after not properly redirecting those urls during a migration. For example, a site had urls ranking in web search, changed urls but forgot redirects, and the old urls were 404ing. In that case, how long would the site owner have to add the necessary redirects or revert the migration before the urls lost signals and would have to start over rankings-wise?

Google’s Gary Illyes said at the time that you typically have a few weeks before most signals are lost. If too much time elapsed, then the urls would have to build up rankings again like they were new urls (if you added the urls back to the site, or if you finally added redirects). So, reverting a migration after letting a few weeks pass by probably wouldn’t yield a return to rankings like you had before. This was for web search and not image search. More on that soon.

In addition, I covered the importance of redirecting images during a migration in a previous post, which you should definitely read if you are approaching a migration. Images should be 301 redirected just like webpages. URLs are URLs… Unfortunately, many forget this step during site migrations.

URL migrations (for images) and the impact on Image Search:
What Gary explained makes complete sense, and I’ve seen situations like that before (unfortunately). But again, that’s web search and I never heard Gary explain much about image search with regard to url migrations and lost signals. We know that image search tends to lag behind web search with regard to updating based on what Google has explained over the years (and what you can see when images change on a site). Google’s John Mueller has explained this several times over the years.

And we also know that Google needs an image and landing page combination for image search. That’s an important point to understand, since some believe that if the image remains on the site (even if it’s removed from a page), that the image can retain its rankings. That’s not true. Google needs both the landing page and the image for image search.

Here is Google’s John Mueller explaining this (at 14:41 in the video):

Also, at the Google webmaster conference in Mountain View in November of 2019, Francois Spies, product manager for Google Images, explained that Google wants to highlight more of the great content behind an image. So, it’s definitely not just about the image itself. It’s about the webpage content and the image.

Here is a video of Francois explaining the backend change focused on surfacing the great content behind an image. “It’s not about the pixels, but about the page behind that.” (at 1:23 in the video):

Dropped Into A Case Study
OK, so what if you change image urls, forget to redirect the old images to the new ones, and see a drop in image search rankings? If you decide to add the necessary redirects down the line, or revert the migration, how long do you have before those image and landing page combinations lose signals? Is it days, weeks like web search, or even longer?

Well, I just saw this situation unfold recently with a company that decided to move their images to a CDN, but forgot to add 301 redirects from the old urls to the new ones. So, the images were completely new to Google.

Based on the situation, and what unfolded, the site owners were nice enough to let me write up this case study documenting what happened. It doesn’t answer all of our questions about images losing signals, but does provide a good example of how moving quickly to fix the situation can help.

Image URL Migrations – Moving images to a CDN
In order to help with site performance, the company decided to move their images to a CDN. This is a common tactic across many different sites, and Google has explained it’s totally fine to use a CDN for assets like images and video. Again, it’s about the image and landing page combination for image search, and not just where the image is hosted. Here is a tweet from Google’s John Mueller about this:

But unfortunately, the site moved all of the images for a certain page type and did not 301 redirect the old images to the new ones. The images weren’t nuked from their old location, but each page simply referenced the new image location on the CDN.

Even though Google has explained that image search can lag with picking up changes to images, the url changes were picked up almost immediately in this case. Image search rankings began to plummet very quickly (like the very next day). Now, this is a relatively powerful site and crawling and indexing can greatly vary across different sites. But it’s worth noting that the changes were picked up fast.

Here is the drop in GSC for the urls ranking in image search (for the page type where image urls changed):  

A Double Whammy: Image Packs In Web Search
It’s also worth noting that many of the images that were migrated to the CDN ranked well in web search as well (via image packs). For example, the block of images that can rank in the core web results. Here is an example of what I’m referring to:

So, as image search rankings drop, image pack rankings dropped as well (which makes complete sense). Here is the drop in web search for those urls containing the images that were migrated:

The biggest takeaway here is that image search can update quickly when changing urls and you can see the impact quickly in the SERPs (both via image search and web search).

REVERT! … but will rankings return?
During a call about a project I’m working on for the company, they mentioned what happened with the image migration. Unfortunately, I wasn’t involved with the image migration and didn’t even know it was going on. And I wish I was involved… I’ve worked on a lot of migrations and even wrote a post specifically about image redirects during migrations!

In addition, I shot a mythbusting video with Martin Splitt that’s coming out soon and the entire session is focused on migrations (where we even speak about images!)

Anyway, as the site owners were explaining the image migration situation, I was literally firing up GSC on the call and isolating the page type in the reporting. Again, the drops were clear and significant.

During the call, I explained more about how image search worked and how redirects were necessary during url migrations. And my recommendation was to either implement the redirects quickly (since we were only a few days into the migration) or roll back the migration completely.

Reverting a migration is a big decision and it’s not often I would tell a site owner to do that. But, the drop was big and the move to the CDN wasn’t mission critical, so reverting was a good idea in my opinion (at least until a stronger plan was put in place for the migration to the CDN).

Luckily, based on the severe drop they were seeing, the site owners had already made the decision to revert the migration. The site was updated and the pages were already referencing the old urls sitting on the core domain. Now we just had to wait to see how Google would respond.

Image Rankings Surge Back, Including Image Pack Rankings In Web Search
The day after our conference call yielded good news. I had started monitoring the page type to see how Google would react to reverting the image migration. Well, it responded well. The changes were picked up quickly again, and rankings began returning for many of the images and landing page combinations. It was great to see.

In addition, the images were back ranking within image packs in the core web search results. Here is what that looked like:

So for this site, quickly reverting the migration (only a few days in) yielded excellent results. Rankings jumped back across both image search and web search. There’s no way to say that will be the case for every site, but the changes were picked up very quickly for this one. Disaster averted.

Image migration tips:
To end this post, I’ll include some final tips if you are planning on migrating image urls (whether you are moving to a CDN or just changing urls for your images).

  • Just like with web pages, make sure you map out a strong 301 redirection plan for all images that will be migrated. Don’t botch the redirection plan. You will pay dearly.
  • Understand that images alone are not sufficient to rank in image search. Google needs an image and landing page combination. So, leaving images up without the landing page is not a viable plan for retaining image search rankings. On that note, it’s important to understand that Google’s broad core updates can impact Image Search as well.
  • If you forget redirects, and you fix the problem quickly, you might be able to see a full recovery. This case demonstrates that, although every site is different. Google’s Gary Illyes said you have a few weeks at most with urls in web search, so there’s a possibility that’s similar for image search (for the image urls). This site reverted the migration within a few days and rankings surged back.
  • Once a migration goes live, definitely use a crawling tool to make sure all of the redirects are working properly. In my post about redirecting images, I explain more about that. Don’t assume everything is fine. Test the redirects to make sure.
  • You can monitor image search rankings via GSC by using the Performance reporting and changing the Search Type to “Image”. Also, you can filter your reporting by page type if you are targeting a specific directory or url structure. Monitor changes and move fast to fix problems.
  • You can also monitor image pack urls in the core web search results by filtering by the page type of url structure. It’s not perfect, but can help you identify volatility for urls that are ranking in image packs. You would need to use the “Web” search type, and not “Image”, since the urls are ranking in web search and not image search.

Summary – Image migrations are still migrations. Redirects are necessary.
Based on this case study, you can see that reverting an image url migration enabled a site to recover lost rankings across both image search and web search. We don’t know exactly how long you have until most signals are lost, but it could be in line with web search results (which is a few weeks based on what Google’s Gary Illyes has explained).

So, if you are going to migrate image urls, then make sure you nail the redirection plan. If not, rankings in image search could drop, along with image pack rankings in the web search results. And then you’ll have to move fast to rectify the situation by either adding those redirects quickly or reverting the migration. And that’s never a fun place to be.

And if you are planning a migration, then make sure to check out my mythbusting episode with Google’s Martin Splitt (coming soon). We cover a number of important topics!

GG

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Connect with Glenn Gabe today!

Latest Blog Posts

  • How to compare hourly sessions in Google Analytics 4 to track the impact from major Google algorithm updates (like broad core updates)
  • It’s all in the (site) name: 9 tips for troubleshooting why your site name isn’t showing up properly in the Google search results
  • Google Explore – The sneaky mobile content feed that’s displacing rankings in mobile search and could be eating clicks and impressions
  • Bing Chat in the Edge Sidebar – An AI companion that can summarize articles, provide additional information, and even generate new content as you browse the web
  • The Google “Code Red” That Triggered Thousands of “Code Reds” at Publishers: Bard, Bing Chat, And The Potential Impact of AI in the Search Results
  • Continuous Scroll And The GSC Void: Did The Launch Of Continuous Scroll In Google’s Desktop Search Results Impact Impressions And Clicks? [Study]
  • How to analyze the impact of continuous scroll in Google’s desktop search results using Analytics Edge and the GSC API
  • Percent Human: A list of tools for detecting lower-quality AI content
  • True Destination – Demystifying the confusing, but often accurate, true destination url for redirects in Google Search Console’s coverage reporting
  • Google’s September 2022 Broad Core Product Reviews Update (BCPRU) – The complexity and confusion when major algorithm updates overlap

Web Stories

  • Google’s December 2021 Product Reviews Update – Key Findings
  • Google’s April 2021 Product Reviews Update – Key Points For Site Owners and Affiliate Marketers
  • Google’s New Page Experience Signal
  • Google’s Disqus Indexing Bug
  • Learn more about Web Stories developed by Glenn Gabe

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • GSQi Home
  • About Glenn Gabe
  • SEO Services
  • Blog
  • Contact GSQi
Copyright © 2023 G-Squared Interactive LLC. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Are you ok with the site using cookies? You can opt-out at a later time if you wish. Cookie settings ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. You can read our privacy policy for more information.
Cookie Consent