How to maintain traffic and sales when migrating to Shopify
Migrating your website over to Shopify holds a lot of promise for your online ecommerce business. However, this transition isn’t just about moving, it’s about avoiding pitfalls that could affect your Website traffic, SEO, and sales.
From our own experience and the stories we have been told by our clients, there are many things that can go unnoticed or untouched that can result in a huge drop in traffic and even worse sales. There is no one foolproof strategy but we can steer you clear of the usual stumbling blocks encountered when moving to Shopify. From safeguarding your SEO to preserving traffic and sales, we’ve mapped out a plan to get you started.
"Be sure to get a full site SEO audit and assessment completed to see what potential impact there would be on traffic and sales once launched as this is an area we often see overlooked."
Steve Irvine - CEO Lionsorbet
We have organised these strategies into these three stages, allowing for a more systematic approach to address potential issues before, during, and after migrating to Shopify, thereby reducing the impact on traffic and sales.
Before Migration:
SEO Audit and Strategy: Assess the current SEO profile by competing a full site audit. Identify critical keywords, and plan a migration strategy to ensure all essential SEO elements are carried over to Shopify. A performance audit will highlight speed and user experience whilst a technical seo audit will identify opportunities enhance your website for search visibility and increased traffic.
Run a report through SEMRUSH, AHREFs or SEO Analyzer
Assess current site health and ensure no errors in content, internal links, and duplicate content are either fixed before migration or fixed during migration.
Look at high ranking content such as blog posts, collections or specific products. Make a priority list to ensure these are migrated properly and content, links and urls are maintained as much as possible.
Identify high traffic and high rank keywords for your website and ensure that the new page content has these set up correctly to ensure your rank for these keywords is maintained
Need Help with your SEO Audit? Book a call >
301 Redirects Planning Plan and set up 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones to maintain link equity and ensure a smooth transition for both users and search engines. Link equity refers to the value or authority passed from one web page to another through hyperlinks. When a reputable or authoritative website links to another site, it passes some of its credibility, trust, and ranking power.
Look at your backlink profile using the audit tools above. Are there any quality, high ranking sites linking back to specific products, collections or content? Be sure to maintain these by putting redirects in place or by making a note of important ones and requesting they link to new content when live.
Set up redirects directly in Shopify in the Navigation Menu. View instructions at: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/menus-and-links/url-redirect
Identify any existing URL redirects in place from previous/older websites that may become obsolete or stop working. Decide if any need to remain, be updated or deleted.
Content Optimisation: Optimise meta tags, titles, and descriptions for SEO purposes before migrating content to Shopify to maintain search visibility and click-through rates. Delete or remove old content and update existing outdated content. do this or Pages, Blog Posts, Collections and Products. You can decide to do this just on your new website build to prevent duplicate work but keep a track of what has and hasn;t been updated to ensure you maintain or elevate your SEO profile.
Apps and Site Features: Make a list of all apps you use and website features that you want to maintain. These often get overlooked and do not appear on the new site. These might be app integrations, favourites lists, automated email marketing or tracking software, POS systems and Stock systems. Be detailed and make sure each feature you want to see on the new site is recorded and added to the plan. Tring to add these after launch can become far more costly if they wern’t considered in the original project scope.
Access to Domain Registration: As simple as this sounds this is a common problem and in many cases the new site is about to go live and no one knows who has access to the domain registration. Find this early. Check current hosting arrangements along with email providers to ensure there is no disruption to service one the new site goes live.
A website health audit can identify site errors and issues before you migrate to ensure they are not carried over to the new site
During Migration:
Backup your old site: Before you switch your Domain over, be sure to fully backup your website, pages, content, products and collections. Export a database of all customers and orders. You will be able to import all of these into Shopify (except for order history) if you have csv files for transfer.
Data Migration Accuracy: Ensure accurate migration of product information, customer data, and order history to prevent user frustration and maintain trust and sales levels.
Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure the new Shopify website design is fully responsive across devices to retain and engage mobile users, preventing a drop in traffic and conversions. This area is increasingly overlooked as agencies tend to showcase in desktop view. View all pages on your mobile devices to ensure good design, easy navigation and clear messaging.
Performance Testing: Test the performance and loading speeds of the new site rigorously to prevent increased bounce rates and maintain search rankings. Use a tool like https://pagespeed.web.dev/ to test your website in mobile and desktop to analyze any potential issues that may affect performance.
Test site performance and speed for both desktop and mobile to maintain SEO, accessibility and best practices.
After the Website is Live:
Submit New Sitemaps: As soon as you launch, submit your new sitemaps to google console. These can be found in shopify at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Head over to Google Console and click on Sitempas in the left hand column and enter your new sitemap URL.
Remove old sitemaps: If your old sitemaps are no longer active and you have set up proper 301 redirects in Shopifys Navigation I would delete your old sitemaps. This will prevent google from trying to index old pages that are not active anymore. To do this click on the old sitemap in Google console, and in the top right corner click on the three dots and click ‘remove sitemap’.
Check email functionality: When pointing the domain at Shopify, be sure to check your email accounts are not affected and continue to work.
Install tracking codes: A common mistake is to forget to install Google analytics tracking codes. I not installed into the new site you will have a loss in data for that period.
Post-Migration SEO Audit: Monitor the site closely post-migration for any issues like broken links, missing pages, or performance issues. Use tools such as SEMRUSH or AHREFS to quickly identify any site problems that could affect SEO, site visibility in search and overall site traffic.
Continuous Optimisation: Implement continuous improvements, gather user feedback, and make necessary adjustments to optimise user experience, thus positively impacting traffic and sales.
Once launched check for dips in traffic and site indexing issues in Google Console and Google Analytics
Conclusion: Your Seamless Shopify Migration
Embarking on a migration to Shopify is an exciting opportunity for your e-commerce venture. Yet, it's not just about moving; it's about moving wisely. By sidestepping these common pitfalls, you pave the way for a smoother transition, safeguarding your traffic, SEO, and sales.
Remember, before the leap: conduct a thorough SEO audit, plan redirects diligently, and optimise your content for a seamless shift. During the migration, prioritise mobile responsiveness, and performance testing. Post-launch, monitor vigilantly, audit your SEO, and continually optimise for an exceptional user experience. keep a keen eye on Google Console for any ranking issues and Google Analytics for any traffic drops. Tackle these quickly to prevent ongoing issues.
Your transition to Shopify isn't just about changing platforms, it's about maximizing potential. Follow these guidelines, and as you navigate this shift, envision the possibilities that await: increased visibility, better rankings, and heightened sales.
With careful planning, meticulous execution, and ongoing optimisation, your Shopify migration becomes not just a change but a catalyst for your e-commerce success.
Need Help Migrating to Shopify?
Lionsorbet are Shopify migration experts and are the ideal company to facilitate your transition to the Shopify platform. With our expertise and dedication to delivering exceptional results within the luxury goods industry. We can ensure a seamless migration process that maximises the potential of your business
