How to Migrate Your eCommerce Store Without Losing SEO Rankings

Migrating your online store can be complex, requiring meticulous planning and execution. Although the eCommerce website migration process​ may feel overwhelming, it is a golden opportunity to fix faults and inefficiencies in your website and unlock new possibilities.

But what happens when you move domains or restructure your website architecture? The SEO rankings that you have worked so hard to achieve become vulnerable. It can also lead to loss of traffic and domain authority.

When replatforming or shifting your online store to a new domain, a meticulously planned migration can help you safeguard your website authority without harming your SEO gains, traffic, and revenue. With the right strategy, you can not only maintain those but also further boost organic traffic and conversions on your new website.

To help you get deeper insights, we have curated this guide for an eCommerce migration without losing your SEO.

Without further ado, let’s begin.

What is eCommerce Migration?

eCommerce migration, commonly known eCommerce platform migration, is the process of transferring your online store from one platform or domain to another and changing the eCommerce website architecture​ to align the website with the changes in business objectives and workflow.

The migration involves the transfer of crucial data, such as customer information, content, orders, product catalogs, etc., to a new platform or domain that offers better flexibility, scalability, functionality, and performance.

eCommerce developers​ prefer migration to improve site speed, enhance customer experiences, streamline backend management, and include advanced features like plugins and other apps.

Key Challenges During eCommerce Migration in SEO Terms

Integrating migration into your custom eCommerce website development​ can be a challenging process but definitely rewarding. Listed below are some of the challenges involved in migration in terms of SEO.

• Losing organic traffic

If you change your platform or domain and fail to tell the search engine where your content or internal links have been moved, this will affect your visibility, leading to a loss of organic traffic. Search engines regularly crawl your site to record certain web performance metrics, such as bounce rates and loading speed, that factor into rankings.

• Poor user experience

Customers demand a seamless shopping experience. If they land on an online store with broken links, vulnerable payment gateways, or irrelevant content, they will leave.

• Lower conversion rates

Loss of organic traffic and poor user experience will impact your conversion rates. Factors like duplicate content and 404 errors can also lower conversions.

With such challenges involved, it is important to have a robust migration plan that does not harm SEO. To get an SEO-enabled migration strategy, you can get in touch with an eCommerce consultant​ and ensure a smooth transition.

A Step-by-Step eCommerce Migration Checklist​

The most crucial part of a successful migration is following a step-by-step eCommerce SEO site migration checklist​. Given below are some key pointers that you should consider when migrating your online store without losing your SEO rankings.

Step 1. Back-Up Your Old Site and Metrics

Back up your old site and maintain a staging site for the new changes. This is to reinstall the old version if you face any issues. Also, have a backup of your metrics and data.

Step 2. Audit the Current Pages

Large eCommerce websites might have a lot of pages. When migrating to a new site, instead of transferring them all, you can review them and take high-value and performing pages along with you. This will reduce the website's weight and make your site faster.

Step 3. Fix 404 Issues

Fixing 404 is at the core of the migration strategy for eCommerce websites. Replatforming is a great way to fix 404, including the old links you might have missed during redirection.

Step 4. Reduce On-Page Changes

SEO experts suggest reducing your on-page changes to keep your site as identical as possible to your older version to prevent your current search engine rankings from falling.

Step 5. Track Duplicate Content and Use Canonical URLs

Duplicate content can affect SEO. Watch for pages with the same content, images, and URLs. Search engine algorithms are against duplicate content as they fail to find relevant URLs for the search term. In many cases, both the URLs with duplicate content can get ranked lower.

Step 6. Consider Mobile Responsiveness

Google prioritizes mobile responsiveness. Google’s mobile-first indexing uses the mobile version of the web page for ranking and increasing website visibility to help visitors find what they are looking for easily. Thus, consider mobile-first or responsive designs in your modern eCommerce website development strategy to support your SEO rankings.

Step 7. Submit Your Sitemap

Use Google Search Console to submit a new XML sitemap. This speeds up the indexing of your new eCommerce website.

Step 8. Check Your Analytics

Set your website correctly in the Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to ensure seamless tracking. The real-time analytics report can be used to understand the percentage of website traffic your new website gains and make the required changes to increase the rate.

The last step is to monitor your SEO performance regularly and fine-tune it as needed to make sure that your new eCommerce site is visible and drives conversions. You can also invest in eCommerce website migration service​s to ensure a seamless transition without losing your SEO rankings.

Summing Up

Planning and executing the right SEO migration strategy for your eCommerce website will allow you to safeguard your SEO rankings, enhance customer experience, and ensure business continuity. A properly structured approach will help minimize risk, prevent SEO ranking drops, and ensure a seamless migration.

To streamline the process further, you can also seek the assistance of an eCommerce website development company​ and ensure long-term success. While choosing your partner, be mindful of the experience and tech stack to ensure a smooth transition.