Migrating e-commerce platform (same domain). Do I need to be concerned about these changes?
-
We are moving a domain from oscommerce to prestashop.
We will setup 301 redirects for each page and have made sure that new platform is following SEO best practices.I read a lot that it is critical to keep changes to a minimum when migrating to a new domain, but is this also critical when migrating just to a new e-commerce platform (same domain)? Change of URL is unavoidable, but what about these other changes below? Would you be very concerned about doing them at the same time, or rather would you do them some time after the migration?
- title tag (about 30% of text in title tag will be different)
- meta description tag (more customized and varied meta description than before)
- h1 (expanding product name with some relevant keywords for a number of products)
- additional table with product features (additional content in product pages)
- adding additional products to store
- moving to https instead of http
Product descriptions and product images and category descriptions will remain the same.
Replicating title tag, title description and h1 from old site would actually imply quite a lot of additional work at this point and we would have to make the change anyway at a later point, so if it is not a major risk I would prefer to do it in one go.
Any thoughts?
-
Many business asked about migrating data with change of ranking. I suggest SEO URLs migration plugins to supports users to transfer data successfully and safely. Check it: http://litextension.com/seo-urls-migrations-plugins.html
-
Then do them during the migration, but make absolutely sure that you won't launch the problem with any issues on the site.
-
I just moved my site from Volusion to Big Commerce and made all of the changes you listed above.
Somethings I noticed is that it took us a little longer to regain organic traffic than if we had not made any additional changes aside from moving platforms and changing URL structure. It wasn't a huge difference, only about 2 weeks.
Once the changes had been implemented, the site was fully indexed and all of the 404 errors were fixed we surpassed our previous organic traffic by 25% and moved our keywords up significantly. I also noticed that I had far less duplicate html errors in GWT while the old site was deindexing and the new site was becoming indexed.
I would make the changes up front. If these changes are better in the long run, why not get them done when it is convenient? Just make sure to add all of the versions of your site to GWT and set the preferred version to the https.
-
Martijn, thanks.
Regarding potential: We would want to make the changes anyway at some point.
So would you do all changes now with platform migration or would you do them later (which implies significantly more work), maybe in several stages? -
I would be very concerned but on the other side I would also be interested to see what the potential of changes is.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Keyword Rich Domain
We purchased a keyword rich domain name to use with an existing website. What is the best way to use this domain? Below are some thoughts, I welcome any input. Use this domain as an add-on to the main domain, but only have it load one page off the main domain? Would that cause duplicate content issues? Create a single static page of content for the domain (separate from main domain) Redirect domain to page on master domain, would we loose any benefits of the keyword rich domain? Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | idlwebinc0 -
Consolidating Multiple Domains into A Single Domain
I have a client who's website is an amalgamation of multiple domains. jacksonhole.net is the main domain but the site passes traffic back and forth from the following domains/sites. My questions is, would it it be better for SEO to consolidate all of these domains under the single high authority domain and 301 redirect the rest or is that a really bad idea? Thanks for your help. jacksonhole.net (Domain Authority 31) jackson-hole-rental-condos.com (Domain Authority 22) jackson-hole-rental-homes.com (Domain Authority 21) j acksonholehotelguide.com (Domain Authority 19)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dbaxa-2613381 -
Can i migrate to a new domain without losing rankings?
we are looking at migrating to a new domain name, but worried about current rankings.. can we do this and keep our rankings if we 301? if we can expect a dip, how long will that generally take? thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Direct_Ram0 -
Legal Client Wants to Change Domain Name... What's the best way to pass authority from old domain?
Hey Mozzers,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WhiteboardCreations
I received a call on Friday from a 6 attorney law office who have been my client for a long time. They have an established brand/domain in their market which isn't very big, but has a lot of competition. 2 of the attorneys are leaving to start their own firm and they want to remove a letter from their name abbreviation, thus their domain name as well. So, the other partners want to change the domain to reflect this. They want to buy a EMD [city]lawyers.com for about $1,600 along with some others to protect their new brand and name. I have a good idea as to what I need to do, BUT would love to hear advice from the community for this type of drastic change. 301 redirects? New Google Analytics code or same just different profile? Webmasters verifications? Content from old site? Old domain forwarding or keep active for a little bit? Is not the time to get them an SSL? Also, what should I prepare them for in terms of website traffic expectations and Google authority drops or remains the same? I know their Moz DA/PA will drop to 1/1, but anything else to look out for? Thank you in advance!
Fellow Pro Member - Patrick1 -
What is the best practice for URLs for E-commerce products in multiple categories?
Hello all! I have always worked successfully with SEO on E-commerce sites, however we are currently revamping an older site for a client and so I thought I'd turn to the community to ask what the best practices that you guys are experiencing for url structures at the moment. Obviously we do not wish to create duplicate content and so the big question is, what would you guys do for the very best structure for URLs on an E-commerce site that has products in multiple categories? Let's imagine we are selling toy cars. I have a sports car for sale, so naturally it can go in the sports cars category and it could also go in to the convertibles category too. What is the best way you have found recently that works and increases rankings, but does not create duplicate content? Thanks in advance! 🙂 Kind Regards, JDM
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Hatfish0 -
Need to know if this could be dangerous
We have recently launched an store, and we had created 301 redirects from the old product pages to the new ones. But we found that the new website performance was a quite slow, and that it would improve a lot if you add a number at the end of the product page url. But that implies to change the 301 redirect and to add a new one for the pages that has already been updated by the search engine. I mean. www.store.com/oscommerce/catalog/productpage.html has been now 301 redirected to www.store.com/sectionname/productpage this was 48 hours ago. But now, (I know it, we should check this before...) we need to change the url to www.store.com/sectionname/productpage/5487 this way the performance improves a lot. But we are afraid of doing two 301 in just 48 hours. any advice?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | teconsite
Shoud we find another way of solving the performance issue? Thanks0 -
Switching domains, need tips and trick?
I currently have my sub-product hosted on a subdomain that I have, for example say it is: x.mysite.com. I plan to migrate and move this to mysite.com. I was planning to do this by having mysite.com pointing to x.mysite.com and do a 301 redirect x.mysite.com to mysite.com. Is it as simple as that? Any other consideration, tips and tricks that I should be aware of so that my SERP doesn't get messed up. Any articles or guides on this subject matter would be highly appreciated
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | herlamba0 -
E-Commerce Multilanguage - Better on Subdomains?
Hi, We have an e-commerce store in English and Spanish - same products. URLs differ like this: ENGLISH:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs2010
www.mydomain.com/en/manufacturer-sku-productnameinenglish.html SPANISH:
www.mydomain.com/es/manufacturer-sku-productnameinspanish.html All content on pages is translated, e.g, H1, Titles, keywords, descriptions and site content itself is in the language displayed. Is there a risk of similar or near dupe content here in the eyes of the big G? Would it be worth implementing different languages on subdomains or completely different domains? thank you B0