Changing the sales platform. How to avoid a position drop?

What is a site migration?

Site migration is the process of transferring an existing website from one platform to another. A site migration involves moving a website from its current hosting environment, CMS, or web design software to a new platform. This can involve a range of activities such as transferring content, custom coding, images, links, and databases.

Site migrations are often done for reasons such as updating to a more modern platform, optimizing performance, improving security, increasing scalability, or making design changes. The goal of any site migration should be to maintain the same look and feel as the original website while improving the overall user experience.

Choosing a sales platform is the first most important decision

When you are ready to open a store online, the very first decision you have to make is which sales platform to use. This can be a difficult decision. When considering the right platform for your business, you should start from research. Read reviews and get advice from experts in the industry. You should also make sure to consider factors such as cost, scalability, flexibility, security and customer service.

Before switching platforms, it’s important to take stock of your current performance. Ensure that you have taken note of metrics like number of visitors, conversion rate, average order value and lifetime value of customers before making any changes. Otherwise this could lead to loss of visibility or sales.

When should you decide to migrate to an online shop?

There are several situations when it might be appropriate to migrate a store. If your current platform is outdated, does not provide the features you need, or is no longer supported, then you should look for a better solution. Additionally, if your current sales platform is unable to handle an increase in customer demand, then migrating to a more robust system may be necessary. Another reason for a site migration could be a desire for better scalability or flexibility. If you’re looking for more customization options and control over how your store looks, then you may want to look into migrating. It’s also important to keep up with modern trends and technologies to ensure that customers have a positive experience while using your store.

Why can switching platforms lead to a decrease in ranking?

• Search engine algorithms are designed to favor websites that are constantly updated with fresh content and updated with the latest technologies. When you switch to a new platform, your content may not be indexed as quickly as it should be.
• Additionally, the new platform may require you to use new meta tags, header structures, descriptions and content, or ALT attributes which could further slow the indexing process. This can lead to the new website not appearing in the search engine results until the indexing process is complete.
• Furthermore, different platforms can utilize different coding languages which can also slow down the indexing process. Not only does this slow down the indexing process but it can also lead to errors which can lower your ranking in the search engine.
• If you have any broken links or any redirects that are incorrect, it can lead to a decrease in ranking as well. Finally, changes to the layout or design of your website can also cause a decrease in ranking as it can confuse the search engine crawlers and disrupt their ability to properly index your website.

Un-lucky thirteen. What should be taken care of?

When migrating to a new sales platform, there are several important things you should take into consideration to ensure your ranking does not drop.

Meta tags

The main meta tag to consider is the meta title tag. This tag is what appears in search engine results, and should be keyword rich, concise, and descriptive of your page. Other important tags include the meta description, which provides a short description of your page’s content, and the canonical link, which tells search engines which version of your page should be indexed.

Header structures

In order for your new site to be optimized for search engine rankings, it is crucial to keep the same headers you had on the old website. Your headers need to be both descriptive and concise and should provide a clear overview of the page’s content. A good practice is to start with the most important pieces of information first and then add more details as needed.

ALT attributes

ALT tags are brief descriptions of the content of an image which allow search engines to better understand the context of the image. These tags help search engines understand what the image is about, which can help your ranking on search engine results pages. Tag should include keywords that accurately describe the image and its relation to your website.

Descriptions and content

Keeping the same content when moving to a new platform is essential for keeping your search engine ranking the same or better. All descriptive text and other content should be transferred in full, without any changes. Make sure to keep any necessary formatting and links intact when you copy over this data. Content should also be kept up-to-date to reflect current trends and products.

URL structure

The right URL structure will ensure that customers can find your products and pages quickly and easily. A good URL structure should be simple and easily readable by search engine spiders. Also, do not use special and diacritic characters for a given language. In addition, Internet users are not used to them. They are also more difficult to read in the address structure. The same applies to the case of letters. Hyphens (“-“) and slashes (“/”) are used to separate words in the address. Do not use the spacebar under any circumstances.

Internal links

When switching sales platforms, it is important to make sure all internal links are updated and redirected correctly. You want to ensure that any internal links in the old platform will still work after the migration.

External links

Try to get natural links from websites that are related to your content and that you consider credible. Look for websites that provide relevant information that could be useful to your customers, as this will help you build a reputation. If you are switching platforms, you need to make sure that any external links you have pointing back to your old platform are updated to point to the new one.

Sitemap.xml

Sitemaps are an important tool for informing search engines about the pages on your website. It is a protocol used by search engine bots to discover and index pages on your site. When you switch sales platforms, it is important to update your sitemap.xml file. This ensures that the search engine bots can find all of the new pages on your site and any changes that have been made.

Robots.txt file

The robots.txt file is an important part of your website when it comes to migration. It serves as a directive for search engine crawlers and informs them of which areas of the website should be indexed or not. When migrating your online shop to a different platform, it is important to ensure that the robots.txt file is properly updated to reflect the new URL structure.

.htaccess file

When it comes to switching sales platforms, the .htaccess file is an important part of the process. This is a configuration file for the Apache web server that can be used to modify server settings and enable/disable certain features. It’s possible to set up redirect rules in the .htaccess file so that links on the old platform will redirect users to corresponding pages on the new platform. In particular, it can help you avoid a position drop when switching sales platforms.

Adaptation to mobile devices

When switching platforms, make sure the new platform is optimized for both desktop and mobile devices. It’s important to test the platform on both to ensure that all content, images, videos, and other elements display properly on both types of devices. If the process is too cumbersome or time consuming, customers may be discouraged from completing their purchases.

Page loading speed

Therefore, it is important to ensure that the new platform has a good page loading speed before the migration. This can be done by checking the server response time and by optimizing images, compressing files and minifying code. If the server response time is slow, it can be improved by utilizing a CDN, caching, or by upgrading the hosting plan.

Configuration of Google Search Console and Google Analytics panels

If you already have GSC and GA accounts set up, you’ll need to update them with the new URLs that point to your store on the new platform. Once you’ve updated the URLs, you’ll be able to see the performance of your website on the new platform in both GSC and GA.

Wrapping up

Switching to a new sales platform can be an intimidating task. It requires time, energy and resources that are not always available. While it can be a great opportunity to improve your sales, there are a few things you should take into consideration in order to avoid any position drops in ranking or lost visibility. So, be careful!