What are the most common mistakes made when migrating an online store? What should you watch out for when migrating a website? What should a successful online store migration look like? Find out in this article.
What to watch out for when migrating a website?
Migrating an online store is a process that requires precision, knowledge, and experience. So what should you watch out for when migrating your store? A poorly executed migration process can have a number of very negative consequences. We describe three of them below.
Drops in search results position
Loss of visibility and a drop in search engine rankings is undoubtedly one of the most painful factors. Why? The work involved in SEO is incredibly time-consuming, consuming not only time but also financial resources (including budgets for paid articles and links). When working to improve a store's position in Google, loss of visibility caused by errors during the store migration is even more painful. Changing the sales platform is intended to elevate an e-business to a new, higher level, not to undermine the store's long-established position.
Lower conversion
Lower conversion rates and the resulting negative consequences are, of course, another factor to watch out for when migrating a website. A number of factors can contribute to lower conversion rates, but it's crucial to ensure a clear, intuitive shopping path during the process of migrating a store to a different engine, avoiding any "revolutionary" behavior. Loyal customers are accustomed to certain elements, so it's crucial not to overhaul the purchasing process. Instead, when migrating a store, ensure you implement e-commerce best practices and facilitate the customer's purchasing decision.
Higher bounce rate
A higher bounce rate can also be the result of common mistakes made during store migration. This point ties in with what we mentioned earlier – if we don't ensure a consistent, user-friendly store design and intuitive navigation, we can certainly expect a higher bounce rate.
A poorly executed migration process will result in the above issues occurring. These are certainly not all the things you should watch out for when migrating your store, but drops in search engine rankings, lower conversions, and higher bounce rates are among the most significant.
The most common mistakes made when migrating an online store
The most common mistakes made during online store migration include missing or incorrect 301 redirects, incorrect data migration, lack of content migration, lack of backups, lack of SEO optimization, lack of a Google Analytics script, lack of team training, lack of communication with customers, excessive downtime, and working under time pressure. We describe these in more detail below.
It's worth emphasizing that these are the most common mistakes made during online store migration, but they're certainly not the only ones. Changing your sales platform is a process that requires precision, accuracy, knowledge, and experience – without these elements, migration can be a struggle against time, cost, and stress.
Missing or incorrect 301 redirects
When switching sales platforms, a common mistake, and one of the most serious, is the absence of, or incorrect, 301 redirects. Why? Stores often spend years working to achieve their Google ranking, investing significant financial resources (paid links, articles, etc.). A properly prepared 301 redirect map is crucial.
Incorrect data migration
Incorrect data migration is another common mistake when migrating a store. It's important to remember the following:
- Customer data
- Sales reports
- Product database
- Discount codes
- Order history
Of course, depending on the store we are migrating from, data migration may be more or less time-consuming, and in some cases (e.g. from a custom engine) even difficult to carry out.
No content migration
Content migration is, to some extent, related to issues related to missing or incorrect 301 redirects. Content is crucial in a store (this includes static pages like about us, payments and shipping, terms and conditions, and returns, but also, and perhaps most importantly, content like the blog). Failure to migrate content can cause a store's Google ranking to plummet.
Lack of SEO optimization
Lack of SEO optimization is also a serious mistake. Regardless of whether a client switching sales platforms has a long-term relationship with an SEO agency or not, when switching to a new engine, the implementing agency should ensure basic SEO optimization in line with industry best practices.
No Google Analytics script
Google Analytics is undoubtedly one of the fundamental analytical tools in any e-business. The lack of a Google Analytics script in a new store deprives owners of data that, for example, cannot be verified in the Shopify reporting panel (although it's worth noting that these are very extensive). It's crucial to remember about integration with:
- Google Analytics 4
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Merchant Center
Lack of team training
Changing the sales platform also introduces a number of new features for the team, so a major mistake when migrating a store is not training the team. Store managers should be familiarized with the administration panel, template customization, and purchasing process, among other things. Conducting a series of training sessions before launching the store can help avoid much unnecessary stress.
Lack of communication with customers
Errors during store migration are also related to a lack of communication with customers. What does this mean? When a store launches on a new platform, offers new features, and, for example, changes the ordering process, it's worth notifying customers about such changes. Sometimes, simply notifying a customer by email about upcoming changes is enough – this will have a positive impact and demonstrate that the store owner cares about keeping customers up to date with what's happening in their store.
Too long interruption in the store's operation
When a new store is ready for publication and we're going through the store transition phase, it's crucial to have everything 100% verified. A prolonged downtime, caused by unexpected, previously unverified issues, can be a serious mistake. To avoid this, it's crucial to have an implementation checklist and a comprehensive project plan. software testing , thanks to which we are sure that each of the conditions for publishing a new store has been met.
Working under time pressure
Working under time pressure can also be a common mistake when migrating a store. A number of factors influence the project timeline, but working under pressure can lead to oversights and migration errors. It's important to establish appropriate buffers for each project stage.
Correct migration of an online store
Correct migration of an online store should be based on several elements, the key ones of which are:
- A workshop meeting during which topics such as migration assumptions and problems with the current platform that are to be resolved by changing the sales platform are discussed.
- Defining the scope of the migration to know precisely what needs to be migrated.
- Carrying out the main migration, which consists of all established elements (e.g. product database, order history, content).
- Performing a supplementary migration is equally important because during the main migration, we only migrate data up to a specific day, such as Thursday. If the store is published on Tuesday, we also migrate data from Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday during the supplementary migration.
- 301 redirects and SEO optimization.
- Testing the new engine.
- Training for the team in store operations.
IT industry and eCommerce trends As things change, so do customers and their needs around online stores (from both the buyer and seller perspectives). When deciding to implement a specific platform, it's important to carefully consider whether it's scalable and will allow for future growth. Even if a client chooses a specific platform, in the future, by avoiding common mistakes during store migration, they can take their e-business to a new, higher level by changing the engine.
