SEO Considerations for a Platform Change

[AndrewY]

We are getting ready to move our e-commerce platform from Zencart to Magento as the original Zencart framework is pretty dated.   while I'm excited to move to a more modern platform, I'm terrified at the potential SEO risk involved with doing so given that all URLs will likely be different and we're considering updating many product listings.  Almost all of the site's traffic is organic, so maintaining rankings is extremely important.

I'd love any advice, but especially that related to:

1. Best way to redirect all new URLs sitewide

2. The prudence of heavily editing product listings at the same time of redirecting the URL (i.e. updating product descriptions)

3. Site structure:  Should I strive to keep the new site link structure as similar to the old as possible?

4. Resources or guides on transitioning a site from a SEO perspective

5. Other major facets I'm missing

I appreciate any help or sights you can offer!   Thank you....

[brycebertola]

I'd say to start with an excel spreadsheet and then copy them all over in one big batch. You're probably going to need some coffee.

At the very least, you should keep the redirects there for 6 months. If you drop the 301's then you also lose the inbound links, so it's best to keep them there as long as possible.

[AndrewY]

Bryce,

Thanks for your reply!  A follow-up question:

Is the best way to do 300+ page-to-page redirects simply by entering them all into the .htacess file?  If so, how long do I need to keep these .htaccess redirects available?  Once Google indexes them, and indexes the redirects, will they be permanently stored in the Google cache?  Or should I leave them permanently just in case?

[brycebertola]

1)  Best way to redirect all new URLs sitewide

Page to Page redirects is the best solution, even though it's a major pain. I would take a look at your traffic data for at least the past 90 days, possibly even further, and create a 301 map from every page with inbound traffic to the correlating page on the new site.

2)  The prudence of heavily editing product listings at the same time of redirecting the URL (i.e. updating product descriptions)

If you're up to it. However if rankings drop then you won't be able to track it back to a particular change.

3)  Site structure:  Should I strive to keep the new site link structure as similar to the old as possible?

If the current site structure converts well, then maybe you should stick with it. The nice thing about switching to a new platform is it's a great opportunity to reinvent your site if you feel like it needs it.

4) Resources or guides on transitioning a site from a SEO perspective

This article might be a little dated, but it should point you in the right direction. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-things-relaunch-your-website

Good luck!