Migrating a website to a new domain can be daunting. It’s a pivotal moment that requires careful planning and execution to ensure a smooth transition.

In the case of Monday Mandala, this shift marked a turning point in its digital success.

Join us as we share how a coloring and printables site leveraged a website migration and rebranding to skyrocket traffic by 620% in just 4 months.

We’ll reveal the strategies that put mondaymandala.com on the search engine results page (SERP) and tips to replicate their success on your site.

Let’s get started.

About Monday Mandala

Monday Mandala is an online source of free printables and coloring pages. It houses a collection of over 10,000 illustrations, available as downloadable PDFs.

Its educational and leisure coloring activities cater to teachers, parents, and children.

Overall, the website is straightforward and easy to navigate. It organizes its content in a way that makes it simple for coloring enthusiasts to find the art they’re looking for.

Historical Performance

Monday Mandala started in 2015 as a passion project.

Mandalas were the main focus of its artistic content, which remained true for most of the site’s lifetime.

Traffic was minimal for the first couple of years, but between 2017 and 2022, Monday Mandala experienced steady growth.

Then, in 2023, a breakthrough occurred. Monday Mandala’s traffic skyrocketed in mere months.

But what exactly happened to propel such dramatic growth in its most recent year?

We’re going to reveal that next.

The Catalyst: How Monday Mandala Achieved 620% Organic Traffic Growth in 4 Months

Mondaymandala.com grew organic traffic by performing the following:

1. Migrating the Live Laugh Create website to the Monday Mandala domain
2. Expanding its content offering
3. Implementing schema markup

Let’s look at each of these items in detail to understand their significance and how they contributed to Monday Mandala’s success.

1. Migrating the Live Laugh Create Website to Monday Mandala

In 2023, Monday Mandala experienced a change in ownership.

Sometime between March and April, the founder of livelaughcreate.com, Inez Stanaway, took over Monday Mandala.

With this transition came the migration of her website to the Monday Mandala domain.

This move combined the best of both websites:

1. Livelaughcreate.com had the content (a robust catalog of illustrations) and the website design. However, it did not have traffic or rankings.
2. Mondaymandala.com had the traffic (averaging 40K visits a month at the time of acquisition) but lacked content diversification and site design.

Live Laugh Create used 301 redirects to merge these assets for 99% of its pages. Unfortunately, the missing 1% includes the homepage.

To correct this oversight, Live Laugh Create could apply one of these options:

1. The best option would have been a full site redirect. For WordPress websites, this is easy to implement with a redirection plugin. All in One SEO (AIOSEO) has a Redirection Manager, which allows you to relocate your entire site to a new domain with the click of a button.
2. As a workaround, a canonical tag could point traffic from livelaughcreate.com to mondaymandala.com. This setup would tell search engines that the new domain is the preferred URL. While less effective than a full site redirect, it remains an acceptable alternative.

Why this matters:

The migration of the Live Laugh Create website to Monday Mandala’s domain marked a new era for the online art hub. And had it included the homepage in its migration, it would have been a flawless transition. Luckily, this is simple to fix with a full site redirect or a canonical tag.

How to migrate your WordPress site to a new domain:

This WordPress migration tutorial shows you how to move your website to a new domain step by step.

Here is a recap of the process:

1. Back up your WordPress site.
2. Create a new MySQL database for the new domain.
3. Unpack your WordPress site on the new domain.
4. Set up permanent (301) redirects.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll want to test the site and ensure everything works properly. It’s also courteous to notify your audience about the move.

Tools for WordPress website migrations:

AIOSEO makes setting up a full site redirect easy.

After entering the new domain in the Redirection Manager, click Save Changes, and that’s it. We’ll implement the permanent redirects for your original domain.

2. Expanding Its Content Offering

Following Monday Mandala’s rebranding, its content offering diversified.

Stanaway brought with her a more comprehensive collection of art than mandalas. This variation attracted a broader audience and won the recognition of search engines.

In April, the impact of this expansion became evident, with new rankings continuing to grow in the following months.

During this time, Monday Mandala started to experience increased traffic and higher rankings for a wider range of keywords.

We see this in its rankings keywords, which show themes beyond mandalas.

Why this matters:

Monday Mandala was limiting itself to a largely mandala-based catalog. This niche makes it difficult to grow an audience and serve their other interests.

By expanding its content portfolio, Monday Mandala catered to the diverse creative needs of its audience. Stanaway used this opportunity to showcase her illustrations and capitalize on untapped keyword potential. This approach creates a more well-rounded user experience and boosts rankings for relevant keywords.

How to use keyword research to diversify your content:

Keyword research is the first step to building out your content.

There are various ways to approach this process, but we recommend this keyword research guide for a comprehensive and easy-to-follow overview.

We also recommend reading this blog on topic clusters.

Topic clusters aim to collect and organize an extensive list of keywords for content ideas. They’re the key ingredient to creating effective content strategies.

SEO professionals use topic clusters, and it’s easy for anybody to learn how to do them.

Tools for keyword research:

You can also perform keyword research directly in WordPress with AIOSEO’s Semrush Keyphrase Suggestions.

After setting the focus keyphrase for your page or post, click Get Additional Keyphrases in the WordPress editor.

AIOSEO will fetch relevant terms from Semrush for you, which you can then add in 1 click. You can also add these terms to an ongoing keyword list and save them for future content.

Here are the results for a blog about patio furniture:

TruSEO, our on-page analysis tool, will then check your content for the new keyphrase optimizations. It’s super simple to use and makes keyword research faster than ever.

Now that we understand Monday Mandala’s website migration and new content portfolio, let’s explore how they got on the SERP with schema markup.

3. Implementing Schema Markup

Monday Mandala used schema markup to drive traffic to its newly acquired keywords.

Schema markup, or structured data, is specialized code within a web page. It communicates essential information to search engines and helps provide the content and context of your page.

It’s a critical component of a strong SEO strategy because it helps get rich results on the SERP.

Rich results, or rich snippets, are enhanced search listings with additional information. They’re a powerful way to get more eyes on your content and have proven to increase clickthrough rate (CTR).

Here is an example of a rich result:

The above screenshot shows image schema markup in action, which Monday Mandala uses prolifically throughout its site.

This Semrush report shows the efficacy of this strategy for keyword rankings:

August’s top 6 keywords all have image rich results. They’re also ranking very high for them.

This is the power of schema markup when implemented correctly.

Why this matters:

By including structured data in its code, Monday Mandala wins more rich results on the SERP. These enhanced search results gain more user attention, boost clickthrough rates (CTR), and drive traffic to the site. A powerful combination for websites looking to grow their online visibility.

How to implement schema markup on your site:

There are several ways to enter structured data on your site manually.

This article shows three ways of adding schema markup to WordPress without a plugin.

Each method involves a few steps to obtain and copy code snippets into the appropriate fields.

Tools for implementing schema markup:

Implementing schema markup is easy with a WordPress SEO plugin. AIOSEO’s Schema Generator allows you to pick the schema type you want, and then we’ll format it for Google.

Here are the schema types available in AIOSEO:

Standout SEO Wins

Before we wrap up, there is an additional SEO technique worth highlighting at mondaymandala.com:

1. They value content freshness.

Monday Mandala continued releasing new art after the website migration.

During the 4 months that followed the migration, Monday Mandala added over 300 new pages to the site.

This is important because Google values fresh content.

By continuing to add new illustrations to the site, Monday Mandala provides ongoing value to its audience and shows freshness to Google.

Because of this, Monday Mandala’s online presence continues to expand and win more recognition from search engines and coloring enthusiasts.

Tool: AIOSEO helps you combat content decay, the enemy of freshness. Our Search Statistics module tracks keyword performance so you can see when a page starts to lose traction. These insights allow you to take proactive steps to revitalize your content.

Takeaways

In our analysis of Monday Mandala’s organic growth, we’ve uncovered the strategies that led to its success.

Now, let’s review which ones to apply to your website and which ones to reconsider.

Top 3 Strategies to Emulate

1. Setting 301 redirects for its website migration. Permanent redirects are critical when migrating websites. They point search engines to the correct URL while preserving SEO performance. This strategy ensures uninterrupted traffic and a seamless user experience.
2. Expand your content portfolio to reach a wider audience. Diversifying your content allows you to attract a larger audience and tap into new keyword opportunities. Take a note from Monday Mandala, and keep new content relevant and on brand.
3. Implement schema markup for more rich results on the SERP. While schema markup doesn’t guarantee a rich snippet, it increases your chances. Using structured data can help you win attention-grabbing results on the SERP and drive more traffic to your site.

Bottom 3 Strategies to Reconsider

1. Not setting canonical tags. Monday Mandala has several pages without canonical tags, which can lead to issues with duplicate content. Every page should have a canonical URL, even if it’s self-referencing. AIOSEO can help you add and customize them easily.
2. Using noindex directives on high-level pages. NoIndex directives tell search engines not to serve a page in search results. They have good uses, but they could unintentionally hinder SEO performance in Monday Mandala’s case. They’re using noindex tags on high-level category pages, which should be indexed. If you want to use a noindex directive, AIOSEO can help you switch effortlessly between showing and hiding your content in the search results.
3. Missing easy metadata wins. Monday Mandala does a pretty good job optimizing its metadata, but there’s room for improvement. Some pages do not use character limits to their full potential. They could enhance their metadata by previewing it in a SERP snippet tool or using an AI metadata generator to write titles and descriptions.

Steal Our SEO Winning Strategy: A Checklist for Your Website

Looking to replicate the Monday Mandala’s growth on your website?

We’ve got you covered with an exclusive SEO checklist featuring 50 essential items to propel your success.

Forging a New Era of Online Visibility With AIOSEO

Whether you’re migrating your website and need help with a full site redirect or aiming to enhance your current domain’s SEO, All in One SEO provides a powerful suite of tools for improved visibility.

Trusted by over 3 million website owners and with thousands of 5-star reviews, AIOSEO makes it easy to optimize your WordPress site and reach your target audience. This plugin is the most user-friendly on the market, so you can help your site rank higher while saving time and energy.

Some of our favorite features include:

• Redirection Manager: Relocate your entire site to a new domain with the help of our Redirection Manager. This tool makes it easier than ever to set up full site redirects and import settings from other plugins.
• Semrush Keyphrase Suggestions: Perform keyword research without ever having to leave WordPress. AIOSEO connects with your Semrush account to pull keyword ideas from its database and serve them to you in the WordPress editor.
• Schema Generator: Our comprehensive catalog lets you pick and embed structured data without touching code. Websites with schema markup get more rich results on the SERP, a proven method for driving more traffic to your site.
• Search Statistics: Get valuable insights into your content’s performance and keyword rankings. If a page starts to slip, you can take proactive steps to restore its SEO performance.
• SERP Snippet: See how your meta titles and descriptions look before publishing with our SERP preview. You’ll see if your content meets character limits or needs adjustments.
• AI Title & Description Generator: Harness the power of AI to craft unique and compelling metadata. This new feature saves you time on manual optimizations and helps users and search engines understand your content.