Need very urgent advice on Wedsite Migration questions please.

[MarshallThompson31]

Good afternoon,

I am in the middle of re branding my Computer Repair Business that has been established for the past 5 years now and does very well in GOOGLE for all things computer repair search related queries.

I have a done tons of research on the Migration process and all elements involved for the past month now and I have been doing SEO for the past 5 years and am quite knowledgeable and very fluent with search engine optimization.

I have a bit of a unique situation going on in my particular instance. Not only am I re branding the business and trying to maintain my GOOGLE rankings trying to pull this off  at the busiest time of the year (summer months) but I am also going to be physically relocating my business after the busy (Summer Season) from my current location of Wilmington, NC to Charlotte, NC.

Yes, I do understand that Winter would have been the best (time) to do all of this massive changing around but, my hand is forced and this is being done out of necessity for monetary survival purposes and I really have no choice in the matter currently!

With that said here is my dilemma.

I am setting up a SILO Site Architecture using the "Thesis Framework" and WordPress which will be an improvement by 5 fold of what I have in my current well established JOOMLA site that has done very well in GOOGLE Search these past 5 years (all first page results) for anything (Computer Repair) related in Wilmington, NC.

So, I am trying run damage control on this situation and I have a number of questions that need a strategic well thought out answer from a different perspective on this matter.

301 Redirect question:

I want to include my geo targeted location in my URL String as it has served me well in the pass however, seeing how I am going to be Physically relocating myself and the business to Charlotte, NC from my current location of Wilmington, NC after the summer months what will I need to take into consideration with this situation in regards to the 301 redirect?

_ "If I include my current location (Wilmington NC) in the destination (New Domain) URL string for any given 301 redirect from my existing website to the new website and then physically move to another city 3 months later is this setting myself up for a BIG Failure??"_

Seeing how I have no idea of how this technically works with GOOGLE as far as how long this (migration process) takes to Fully complete where the OLD domain completely drops off and everything is Fully passed over to the New Domain in terms leaving the 301 Re directs in place on the Old Domain Server.

How long does this process usually take with GOOGLE?

Information that you should know:

• This is my First Experience doing a Site Migration!
• The NEW DOMAIN is on a Different Server and IP
• I will be performing 301 Redirects on a Page to Page Basis!
• I DO plan on keeping the Old Domain Server Account online for  4 months after the migration process.
• Both OLD and NEW domains are on HOST GATOR (separate accounts)
• I am Migrating from JOOMLA to WordPress
• I am using the Thesis Framework for the new WordPress site (New Domain)
• I have created and established a well thought out SILO Site Architecture for the (NEW DOMAIN) using Parent and Child Pages in WordPress (not posts) supported by many hours of keyword research for my SILO Themes
• I am changing My Existing /computer-repair.hml URL Structure to  WordPress **/computer-repair/ ** remember.. (using WP - Pages) not posts!
• I am re branding my Company business from Community Computer Repair to PC Medics On Call
• I am  reducing my on page Content because it is too long in the Tooth for my customer base and although the search engines love it, in it's current state (long winded and well written) it is having a negative effect on the people that actually pay my bills (my customers) but my new Site Hierarchical Structure will rectify a lot of the negative fall out from this change that would otherwise kill me in the search rankings from doing this.
• In addition to being an proficient SEO I am also a developer and a coder.
• The New Domain is Currently ALLOWING only my IP Address while I sort this out and until I complete the new site structure and get the content and ON Page done.

For the Destination Domain URL Structure, is including my current City (Wilmington NC) going to be an issue with the 301 Redirects seeing how I am moving to Charlotte NC around September?

Having the Geo Targeted City in my URL Structure will help offset some of the damage caused by the changes that I need to make.

Plus, the URL looks less spammy looking at the examples below when icluding location after the keyword phrase

**Example -1   -  ** VIRUS REMOVAL SILO

With GEO Targeted Location after Keyword

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-removal-wilmington-nc/malware-removal/

Without - GEO Targeted Location after Keyword

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-removal/malware-removal

** Example -2 -**   COMPUTER REPAIR SILO

With GEO Targeted Location after Keyword

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/computer-repair-wilmington-nc/laptop-repair/

Without - GEO Targeted Location after Keyword

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/computer-repair/laptop-repair/

As far as the potential problems with icluding the Wilmington NC in the Targeted URL destination for the 301 Redirect and then changing my Actual City location for the business 2 1/2 - 3 months later is this going to be an issue?

Pertaining to the 301 redirect question above, how exactly would I handle this if I used Wilmington, NC after the Keyword when I initiate the 301 Redirect to the site? Can I later change this in the  OLD Domain .htaccess 3 months later to reflect the Charlotte Location and also do the necessary 301 Redirect in the NEW DOMAIN to reflect the permanent move?

I hope I have not confused this any by the way that I am asking?

Here is a screen shot of the NEW DOMAIN layout for the Links below and above.

NOTE: Currently, ALL Silo Menu Themes have -  wilmington-nc/ incorporated after the targeted Keyword

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-removal-wilmington-nc/malware-removal/

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-removal/malware-removal

SEOMOZ-PC-MEDICS-ON-CALL-1.jpg SEOMOZ-PC-MEDICS-ON-CALL1.jpg

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Marshall,

I do not see a spammy link structure in fact if that is your top ranking URL it can be re-created using word press so it is exact. I believe that the reason that URL is so powerful is because of the great content you put in the page. Not because of the URL structure

I believe you would rank as well if not better if you were to use a single parameter however it seems that it is really up to you as I think it would be faster  when the bots crawl your site to have one parameter

Remember if you 301 redirect that link into another that is identical or change the structure you will still be sending all that page rank to the new URL as long as the new URL has all the things needed to rank for local you will rank regardless of the URL structure.

Here is some more information and take a look at the way the URL is made.

http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/#structure

This is working well however you can build a two parameter link using the site structure that shows simply

http://example.com/%postname%/.

I have some news.

I should've remembered this off the bat, but WordPress will not allow you to redirect a link and not follow it's designated perm link style. the preferred method is to have

http://example.com/%postname%/.

it is clean and you are talking about having very long pages that would be a way to make more pages and also keep your keywords in the URLs

you may opt for

http://example.com/%category%/%postname%/.

however this would make every single link have a category or two-stage parameter

this tool may come in handy if you have some difficult URLs

http://yoast.com/wp-content/permalink-helper.php

you cannot pick both. Without a custom plug-in however from what I've scene and what I've read this is not ideal.

You want to make a decision and stick with the link style.

http://yoast.com/wordpress-seo-url-permalink/

Out of the box, WordPress is a pretty well optimized system, and does a far better job at allowing every single page to be indexed than every other CMS I have used. But there are a few things you should do to make it a lot easier still to work with.

1.1URLs

1.1.1Permalink structure

The first thing to change is your permalink structure. You’ll find the permalink settings under Settings → Permalinks. The default permalink is ?p=, but I prefer to use either /post-name/ or /category/post-name/. For the first option, you change the setting to /%postname%/:

To include the category, you select “Custom Structure” and change the value to/%category%/%postname%/. If you previously had ?p= as your permalink WordPress will take care of all the redirects for you. This is also true if you change from/%postname%/ to /%category%/%postname%/. If you change from any other permalink structure, you might want to consult my article on changing your WordPress permalink structure and the tool that you’ll find within it.

P Now you can pick from a group

http://yoast.com/wp-content/permalink-helper.php

but I do see one that could possibly be broken into new pages instead of adding on a parameter. And last were talking about tagging a page or using a category in the blog.

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Awesome tool.

Pttp://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1235687&topic=2371325&ctx=topic

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seomoz-for-local-optimization

I will send you my info now and please except my apologies for taking so long and getting back to you. I got four phone calls and row and had to take them.

Sincerely,

Tom

[MarshallThompson31]

Thank you for your detailed reply again Thomas.

Thesis / Genesis -  I have a developers license for both and headway and woo themes and many others. Personally, I prefer Thesis because their support forum is white glove and it literally takes me an hour to get my question or questions addressed. Genesis, is a great framework and I have spent a lot of time developing with Genesis however, when it takes 48 - 72hrs to get a basic question answered on the forum and at times, (many in the past) they will stone wall you saying this xyz question falls beyond the scope of our support which in actual fact was a basic CSS or PHP question so that to me is counter productive to getting anything done when you end up waiting 3 days to get an answer!

Think of it as Thesis Support is a trip to the Spa while Genesis Support is like a trip to the YMCA.

What is your opinion specifically on how this URL below looks?  I think it looks like $^^&$ and very spammy as is. But hey, I am over analytical so it could just be me! never the less I would value and appreciate your opinion please Thomas

www.pcmedicsoncall.com/computer-repair/laptop-repair/

I have entertained the thought on changing the "Computer Repair" Silo Theme to "Computer Service" do to the overly spammy URL structure but that would be a pity seeing how I would get the most strength from having "Computer Repair" in the Mast Head seeing how it gets 823,000 Local Monthly Searches and Computer Service gets 246,000.

Using COMPUTER SERVICE  as the SILO  - Updated Screen Shot Below

www.pcmedicsoncall.com/computer-services/laptop-repair/

Quick question: would this below be practical

www.pcmedicsoncall.com/computer-repair/laptop/

COMPUTER-SERVICE-SILO-THEME.png

[BlueprintMarketing]

I'm not in any way stating to you that putting your location in a URL is going to hurt your search engine optimization efforts in whatever area you target.

I'm not telling you to go after the hardest words in your industry to go after. The Way, Google works will aid you if you use it correctly by implementing the things I'm going to speak about.

You might not rank for he Phrase "Computer Repair" as well as "Laptop Repair"

nationally ever. However if you type in Pizza to Google from your computer preferably in chrome browser using incognito this keeps your search history from changing the results.

I guarantee you will see a lot of pizza places near you. But dominoes, Pizza Hut etc. all those guys will rank right around the same as local pizza parlors. This should be the case for services like yours that are correctly added to local databases as getlisted.org will help you do.

please look at the attached photo below. I live in Winter Park Florida so the results are what I would like. Google as made the search custom tailored based on my IP address from my Internet service provider they know where I am. That's where being in all the http://getlisted.org in combination with Google+ incorporating Google places linking to your site correctly and using rich text snippets will get you in that list that you see. You can see the big guys are all advertising however you can also see that the smaller companies our ranking for the key words that are obviously extremely hard to rank for nationally.

another method his long tail keywords. Any keyword that you have mentioned along with anything that you can think of that somebody would in real life type into Google. So if you specialized in Xeon processors (I'm using this as an example) you might want to list the processors names and make in your website so you can be found for words like

"computer repair Mac Pro Xeon processor"

if you are listed in the locals you should come up in computer repair.

What I should've done is gone into in more detail because SEOmoz does not seem to have an easy to find the link to what I referred to as get local in fact I mistakenly I told you the wrong name for the service. Which you get for free with SEOmoz it is called Get listed and the URL is here

https://getlisted.org/

The power comes from being listed in all these local high quality search engines or directories like the Yellow Pages anything found and get listed.

Normally I hate directories however in this case you can safely use anything and get listed

I must ask you how many other websites of you ever seen that have the location at the end of their URL?  the reason is because your title tag, H1 tags and inbound links from highly credible sources stating that you are in whatever city you claim. Along with content that may include a map I know for Bing and Yahoo downloading the Geo-coordinates using Google Earth will affect your ranking. However, that is just for Bing and Yahoo not Google when you list your address on your contact us page I would recommend having a map. I would recommend using Google's structured data tool however I would use this to illustrate my point of how you would highlight your address and information and it will create micro data for you

You will see there is a local part to this.

http://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/u/0/

Here is why it is important to Google and how much it will actually help

htttp://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99170

this is a fantastic plug-in that allow to do everything they're talking about creating Rich snippets inside WordPress.

http://raventools.com/blog/schema-wordpress-plugin/

What I'm getting at is while I do believe you it most likely does bump up your efforts because Google considers everything in the URL and takes in and consideration.

What Google takes into consideration as well and more so in certain cases. Is your title tag in fact your title tag may outweigh your URL in many cases.

Now I would not go around putting anything on the URL every time unless that is my company name. And I would not worry about that because it's in your URL or domain

I would simply optimize your website by getting a Google+ account this is one of the most important things you can have. If you use it correctly with and authorship plug-in and give Google your address of your business. You will start ranking for longtail keywords that include your city or town In your Google + business page that you should create and use your personal page that will make you create as the author page

a fantastic resource for authorship information is in the link correctly below I recommend using Yoast's plug-in as he is known for making very high quality code and the plug-in does much more that will help your new website.

http://raventools.com/blog/ultimate-list-of-relauthor-resources/

http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/

http://www.authorsure.com/

I also want to show you what I mean. Using googles Structured Data Testing Tool that you can check any website with using this URL

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

I have taken the liberty of putting my own website through the data testing tool and you will see below by having and authorship as well as a business places account with Google+

this is what the search engines see.

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=www.blueprintmarketing.com&html=

If I can also ask you did you choose thesis 2 I'm not say anything negative about the framework however I have had better luck with Genesis personally and many others have as well. I want you to no that if you have it set up already the way you like it then keep it however if you read this blog talking about the two frameworks I believe you will see why I brought it to your attention.

http://chrislema.com/genesis-and-thesis-comparison/#/

please accept my apologies for not answering your question is thoroughly as I should've. And I in no way shape or form am questioning your methods that you know work.

What I'm doing is adding to that list of things that work and what I know work very well for somebody who been in search engine optimization for about the same time you have been working on this as well. I have the greatest respect for somebody that knows what works and you do. However now Google has changed things and this is the better way.

If you would like I would be more than happy to give you to completely free phone analysis of your website and explain anything that I did not do a good job of explaining here. I will send you a private message with my information.

Respectfully,

Thomas

0JLT2b9.jpg

[MarshallThompson31]

Thanks for the very well thought out reply. I do appreciate the great deal of effort that you have extended towards me on my behalf.

Some how this got a little lost, I am using WordPress Pages/Child Pages for the Silo Site Structure not "Categories" utilizing the WordPress Post scheme. Posts will be only used on the Blog section of the site and nowhere else.

OK, lets say I ditch the Geo Targeted location after the Keyword Phase in my Main Silo Theme. Which creates yet another dilemma,  The Phrase Computer Repair as well as Laptop Repair are 2 of the most high trafficked and targeted search phrases used when people are searching to get the desktop or laptop repaired. So, how do I balance this below without it looking spammy seeing how computer repair I am not going to change in the silo slug and I am also targeting Laptop Repair as well?  Is the URL Below going to be perceived or viewed as SPAMMY by the search engines?

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/computer-repair/laptop-repair/

Curious, why are you claiming that adding your location is a BAD thing? If anything it helps GOOGLE as well as users know that you are a local business and it does indeed help your rankings. I having been doing this with the location in my URL for 5 1/2 years now and I can attest that you are wrong on your opinion. Sorry but that is true.

You also asked why do this ?

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-removal**/malware-removal**"

Simply put, Malware Removal is a "Variant" of a Virus and deserves it's own page which of course keeps people searching for Malware Removal coming to my site and it also allows me to focus on the topic at hand which is "Malware"  which is a variant of a Virus and does not fall into the Primary Classification of Virus.

Also too, this represents and targets focused keyword research and focused reading without diluting the topic and search criteria at hand. It also provides  yet another page for my website and prevents me from writing a combined page of Virus and Malware Removal that would end up being 700 words long that people with computer repair problems don't give a damn about reading. I have tried for years to take the educational approach with customers in my business with my website page copy and to tell you the truth, no of them want to learn anything and they choose to remaining ignorant and stay a victim as with just about all people that use computers in society. Regretfully, this is very true!

[BlueprintMarketing]

just to be completely clear agreed with Dana if you currently believe that a link like  the ones you have below.

"NOTE: Currently, ALL Silo Menu Themes have - wilmington-nc/ incorporated after the targeted Keyword

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-removal-wilmington-nc/malware-removal/

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-removal/malware-removal"

The first link is way worse. Do not do that at the town to the end of every link that is one of the worst things that you could possibly do I urge you not to do this.

please know is not normal for CMS and please know I don't know if you do or not I just am getting this from reading your post in the photographs.

http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-removal/malware-removal"

Should be simply http://www.pcmedicsoncall.com/virus-malware-removal/  do not add another layer for Google bot to have to fight through in many cases it will not travel that far to index your website. Thus leaving you in the lurch.

You should never put your categories in the link than put another / if you can help it is extremely easy to bypass that in WordPress and simply use WordPress SEO plug-in click do not show categories in links. I do think if you move the website correctly you can recover in a short period of time under 3 months sometimes. I'm basing that on myself moving a site from HubSpot's CMS to WordPress and seeing only one month of dip in the serps please keep in mind I worked extremely hard to make sure that everything that the new site needed that it had it and more Moving from one CMS to another without properly 301 redirecting your links is shooting yourself in the foot even if you know how to Move your site itself if you don't know the SEO part I would do what you're doing right now and ask for help. If you want to speak more on this I would be more than happy to speak with you. Sincerely, Thomas

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Dana & Marshall,
I think you're making the right choice moving from Joomla to WordPress. I also think Dana is completely correct about speaking to an expert about managing your migration. I also believe that you would be best off to add a link saying read more and either allow it to expand the page or bring the customer to a new Page That Way, Google gets the content as well as the customers who choose to read it. I would not destroy the content.

Your links are something you want as few parameters as possible in so to not keep adding / to your links. Use SEOmoz's get local tool to help you optimize your website for whatever city you are interested in optimizing it for.

However and I would like Dana's opinion on this. I have seen fantastic results using CMS to CMS the links are right here.

http://www.cms2cms.com/
http://app.cms2cms.com/wizard/

This is an extremely inexpensive way to move everything over including all the 301 redirects.

Google suggests you check for broken links prior to moving your website.
I suggest if you're running Windows use
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

Xmenu as they suggest however if you're running a Mac or something else and you wish to use a different tool or a web interface here are some suggestions.

Using one of the free tools below if your site is over 500 pages Internet marketing ninjas tool can go up to 1000
if it's less than 500 use screaming frog spider SEO
http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Also if you want a web interface as opposed to a download Internet marketing ninjas this web-based where screaming frog downloads for free to Windows, Mac and Linux they do charge if you want to go over 500 URLs.

Internet marketing ninjasIs it
http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/seo-tools/google-sitemap-generator/

When you make the move you're going to want to let Google know this ahead of time. Using Google Webmaster tools
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83106

Important: In order to use the change of address tool, make sure that you've added and verified both your old and new sites, and read the guidelines on moving your site to a new domain. You should be especially carefully to use 301 redirects to tell search engines about the new location of your pages. In addition, make sure your original site is not a subdomain (for example,http://newsite.example.com).

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83105

You had mentioned you are changing IP addresses but staying with the same host. Here's Google's information on this.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83106

I would strongly suggest using the managed WordPress host unlike Joomla WordPress is a much more popular content management software that's a good thing and a bad thing considering the increasing frequency of forced entry attacks on WordPress and the fact that your website is a business I would strongly suggest a managed WordPress host.

By using a managed WordPress host you will have a site that is protected using extremely powerful combinations of firewalls and other methods specifically to protect WordPress. If your site is ever hacked and this is universal for all of the web hosts I'm mentioning you will get your site fixed for free and if it is ever blacklisted it will be room moved for free almost instantly as they all use http://sucuri.net/
Your site backed up least once a day, have access to download the backup in addition you can have it sent to you as well. Have the increased speed Google and more your customers over will care a lot about. And increased security the hosting companies I'm about to suggest all only host WordPress sites this is a big plus as anything that happens with your site they are going to be able to most likely fix for you this is not the case at other hosts where they just have to keep the server up and running. Managed WordPress hosting is in my opinion the only way to go if you're running a business.

My suggestions are WP engine, Zippy kid, Web synthesis and Pagely
WP engine a great host that is extremely fast content delivery network is available they spread $29 with CDN $49 25,000 visitors a month 24 7 support along with phone support for 3rd level. Pro perks at
SEOmoz offers you the ability to get 4 months of free hosting.

Zippy kid a great host two extremely fast content delivery networks built in base price $25 100,000 visitors a month with that you get managed anycast DNS (DynECT is normally $200 a month), Akismet is free instead of the $5 a month norm, right now they are offering a site optimization by engineers from Google and Net DNA at no cost to anyone who has a site with them. 24 7 support along with phone support for all levels.

Web synthesis a great host from copy blogger they have a very fast server and will help you integrate a content delivery network they suggest using media Temple's CDN their base price is $27 a month with the CDN it would come up to $47 a month for 2,500 page views a day. While they don't offer phone support they do answer tickets very quickly.

Pagely a very good host backed by one of my personal favorites fire host they have a strong emphasis on security as do the others they charge $24 for their base plan of 25,000 visitors a month however if you want there content delivery network you must choose their business plan at $67 a month plus pay for the CDN in additional $25 a month making the total cost just under $100 a month. You can get 30% off Pagely for life using SEOmoz Pro perks.

If you don't mind paying for the content delivery network my choice would be WP engine however if you want that same level of superb hosting & want everything you need and require phone support Zippy kid makes an excellent choice with 100,000 visitors a month and no need to pay for other things like AnycastDNS for spam plug-ins they also offer full git integration along with the complete site optimization it makes an extremely good deal.

Don't get me wrong you cannot go wrong with any of these choices. However I would take into account that WordPress has a database and that makes it slower than pure HTML so using a web host that specializes in WordPress along with a strong content delivery network will make certain your site is extremely fast I find that it is faster in a regular HTML site when using one of the suggested hosts.

I hope I have been of help to you,
Thomas

[MarshallThompson31]

Hi Dana and good evening  : )

Thank you for that. I appreciate your   view point  and have taken this into consideration.

Logically, yes I absolutely expect some fall out from this situation  seeing how I will be reducing the on page word count to about half. So, in many instances (just about all) going from 600 -700 words per page of content to around 400 is definitely going to effect the outcome of my rankings which I am expecting...naturally.

I am actually torn whether or not if it is even worth the B.S involved migrating the site seeing how I am drastically changing so much at one given time and reducing on page word count by half. I am a realist and a strategist and the only reason why I don't just start over is because why not salvage what I can out of years of hard work?

The Search landscape has changed so much in the past 2 years I really don't know how long it would take a new site with the perfect site architecture and every other on page and site SEO Factor  be 110% to get on the front page of GOOGLE again?

I know that there are many variables involved primarily the  online competition for local computer repair shops (if you would call that competition) from a SEO factor but, as a example and an actual fact, 4 years ago when I built the website I started with 30 pages of well written content and I was on the Front page of GOOGLE in 4 weeks time No B.S!

I seriously doubt that would be the case these days. Thoughts?

A far as migrating from  Joomla to WordPress? That is a piece of cake and not to worry about that my dear.

I would still like to hear some thoughts on the 301 Redirect for the GEO Targeted Location in regards to my questions in the initial post above please.

[danatanseo]

Hi Marshall,

The advice I have for you is broad and probably more philosophical in nature than the technical and logistical advice that you are seeking. I am chiming in because my company is in the process (or soon to be in the process) of moving to a platform. It's not as serious as a migration (moving from one domain to another), but still, some of the same issues apply.

1. If you can afford it, hire a consultant who has successfully migrated sites from Joomla to WordPress to help you iron out details.
2. Prepare to endure a big dip in traffic and business that may be prolonged (5-6 months), and, honestly, from which you may never completely recover.
3. Determine now what resources and strategies you are going to use to power through this dip and keep traffic coming to your site [i.e. Google Adwords, Remarketing campaigns, offline advertising like print and radio, etc)
4. If you report to someone who is directing this move, be sure you are managing their expectations. I can almost guarantee you that at least initially, you are going to lose the positioning you currently have.

Keep this in mind, it's possible to do absolutely everything right during a migration and still experience some really negative repurcussions. As with any major business move, there will inevitably be problems come up that you didn't anticipate. Hopefully, you already balanced the pros and cons of a move before making the decision to do so.

That being said, if you've got a solid business plan and solid business model, you should be able to power through the inevitable "dip" and come out better on the other site.

I'm sure there are a number of people here who could recommend consultants who have experience in this type of migration. I'd say the investment would be very worthwhile.

Dana