Migrating E-Commerce Platforms PROTECTING YOUR STORE FROM UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Migrations can come with great rewards, but the risk can be equally impactful.

Be Prepared for

E-Commerce Store Migration

Migrating between e-commerce platforms takes careful planning.

Making sure that your products, customers, order history, and informational content migrate to the new platform without error is just a small part of the migration process.

Have you considered the impact a migration will have on your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts?

Don't tank your SEO overnight.

The margin for error in a website migration is slim. A simple mistake can undo years of search engine history. You can protect yourself from major complications by following some best practices.

Make a proper migration plan and checklist.

Properly prep your data and your store.

Triple check your SEO elements.

What is Involved in a Store Migration?

Planning

Making a proper plan and migration checklist will help prevent costly mistakes, timeline delays, and critical errors.

Prepping

There is a large amount of work that needs to be done prepping both your data for migration and the new store for launch.

Data Migration & Integration

You must ensure data integrity when moving your data to the new platform. You'll also need to hook up your 3rd party integrations.

Pre-launch Testing

Knowing what to test and check before launching is essential to prevent poor user experience and downtime for your store.

SEO Precautions

Failing to maintain your SEO elements can have a serious impact on your traffic and revenue. It's crucial to get this step right.

Post Migration Analysis

Your new site looks good, but is it performing? Immediately auditing the site after launch is critical to catching errors early.

Planning for a Store Migration

PROPER PLANNING SAVES YOU TIME, MONEY, AND YOUR SANITY.

Follow these tips to get your ducks in a row before starting your migration project. Not all e-commerce platforms are built equally and no platform is "best". Taking a solid inventory of your needs will allow you to be matched with the platform that best suits your business and growth.

Identify your pain points and advantages.

Make a clear list of your necessities.

Choose an e-commerce platform that is right for your specific needs.

Make sure you have ample analytics data.

Conduct a thorough SEO audit of your current website.

Make sure you have access to your domain registrar, tracking accounts, and Google Search Console.

Have planning discussions with your developer as well as anyone managing your product feeds, ads, or 3rd party integrations.

Prepping for a Store Migration

Before importing your data into your new store, you'll want to prep your data to ensure integrity. Make sure your new store has been setup to reflect your company's brand and policies.

Prep Your Data for Migration

Identify all pages on your current store.

Create a plan for how you will configure your URLs and map your 301 redirects.

Create a plan for mapping your custom data fields.

Create backups of your data offline.

Identify a data point that you can pass into a custom field on your new platform to keep record of the identifier from the old platform.

Prep Your New Store

Block access to your new store while in development so it doesn't get indexed

Choose a base theme that is optimized for Core Web Vitals.

Complete your theme setup and customize your design for your brand.

Configure your Payment Gateway, Shipping Rates, and Tax settings.

Recreate any valid coupon codes

Recreate or create a contingency for your gift certificates

Data Migration and Integrations

MAKING SURE YOUR DATA IS IMPORTED PROPERLY AND MAINTAINING FUNCTIONALITY

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Import your product data into the new store

Verify that all your custom fields are mapped correctly

Make sure you have an identifier field for product feed correlation

Import your product categories into the new store

Recreate your navigational menus

Import or recreate your informational pages

Migrate order and customer data

Reinstall all of your tracking codes

Install any necessary 3rd party apps

Persevere Your SEO

These eight tasks are some of the most critical things to keep an eye on during your migration. Each of these things can make a very large impact on your SEO if not done properly.

301 Redirects

Setup your 301 redirects in the new store for any URLs that have changed. These can usually be bulk imported via CSV.

HTTPS / WWW

Verify the new store is using the exact same website protocol as the old store. Check for http vs https and www vs no www.

Canonicals

Verify canonical tags are present on the new store and are consistent with the old store.

ALT Tags

Verify the your ALT tags were imported for your product images and insets. Check any new images / banners for ALT tags.

Meta Data

Verify your meta descriptions, page titles, and H1 tags were imported.

JSON-LD Schema

Verify you have JSON-LD schema properly installed.

Orphans

Check your new store for any unintentional orphan pages.

Sitemap & Robots

Verify your sitemap is setup and ready to go. Review your Robots.txt file for changes.

Getting Ready to Go Live & Beyond

To finish off a migration smoothly requires an abundance of testing and quality assurance. After your new store is live, auditing will help you catch any errors or problems quickly before they turn into long term issues.

Pre-launch

Have multiple people walk through your store to look for errors.

Place test orders.

Ensure all your transactional emails are setup and the language is correct.

Test your tracking codes.

Verify your design looks good on all devices.

Verify your contact information and CTAs.

Going Live

Make sure your site can now be indexed

Update your DNS settings.

Test all functionality on the live site.

Place test orders.

Post Migration

Submit a new sitemap through Search Console

Run an SEO audit to catch any technical errors.

Correct any broken links, images, missed redirects or 404 pages.

Test PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals

Closely monitor Search Console, Analytics, and position tracking reports for changes.

Ready to Talk Migration?

We can migration you to or from Turbify, BigCommerce, Shopify, or WooCommerce (even from other platforms)!

Let's Get You Migrated

Our team can help you from the planning stage all the way through post-migration audits. Whether you need a trial store, a brainstorming session, or you're ready to get started, we've got the help you need.

Let's Grow