If you’re an established and growing eCommerce store and are considering migration to a platform free of the limitations of your current system, there are several steps you must take and parties you must involve to ensure that your platform upgrade doesn’t destroy your rankings and screw up your new site.
Domain Name
If your move involves a new web host, you’ll have to make sure your domain registration is in order. This requires you to be the owner and administrative contact for the domain name so you can log into your domain account and update the domain name servers (DNS). If your previous provider has registered your domain name, you’ll need to get in contact with them to gain control of your domain so you can move it. Start on this process early to avoid problems when you are ready to begin the actual migration.
Current Processes/Third-Party Vendors
As your estore grows, you’ll find that more and more business processes require automation and streamlining from third-party vendors. You’ll have to research how your new platform integrates with payment processors, shipping vendors, and accounting systems. Your needs become more fine-tuned over time as your business matures, so be sure to confirm that your new solution offers reports and systems suited to your business, and that the solution integrates whichever third-party vendors you currently use.
Security Certificates
You’ll need to move your SSL (secured socket layer) certificate to the new server if you have one associated with your current website. If you’re not sure about the status or existence of an SSL, go to a checkout page in your site and check if the URL in the address bar shows “https://” followed by your domain name. If the address shows the address of your provider instead of your own domain, odds are you’re using a shared certificate. Check with the new provider to see if they offer a similar shared certificate or if they require purchasing a new one. Moving your certificate usually isn’t difficult, but does require a bit of technical savvy. You don’t want to overlook the certificate transfer or leave it for the last minute, as some certificates aren’t compatible with all web server software. So confirm that your current certificate will adapt to your new system before making the move.
Data Migration
In order to move your products, orders and accounts from one site to another, you’ll have to export your data into a comma-delimited or tab-delimited format before you’re able to import it into the new system. The more complex your products are, the more difficult it will be to import your data, particularly if you offer diverse product options. I recommend using a data migration service like Cart2Cart to make this process easier for a small amount of money. A few hundred dollars can save you the headaches of migrating your data, and given how important and complicated it is to transfer your data, you’ll want the peace of mind using a professional to do this brings.
SEO
SEO is perhaps the most critical element in a platform migration. It’s risky even for SEO professionals to migrate to a new site for their own business, so this is an area you simple do not want to venture into on your own. Websites that have earned high rankings over many years and many thousands of dollars can see their meticulously crafted relationship with Google dissolve instantly if they are not extremely careful. There are more articles written about the SEO in regard to platform migration than there are on all other migration tip articles combined. Things like setting up proper 301 Redirects, a proper Robots.txt file, link updates, canonical tags, meta robots, URL and link updates, and much more. This is where it is essential to have a designer that is a certified partner of whichever platform you are migrating to.
This is a step that is easily overlooked by eMerchants. Make sure the email address of your current site and the address of your new site are forwarded to a stable place so that you don’t lose any new correspondence in the move. Once the new site goes live, test every address and form on the new site to make sure the email is set up correctly in the new environment.
Site Launch/Live Date
No later than 48 hours before you move your site, log into the server management account at your old provider and update the DNS records so that the time-to-live (TTL) is established within 300 seconds. This is a crucial step and a fairly technical subject; but by doing this the changed address information of your website should spread across the internet within five minutes when you actually update your DNS servers. If you’re unable to adjust the TTL, then you’re dependent on the global internet routing system to determine whether a site visitor sees your old or new site when entering your address.
Test/Schedule Transfer
Before you make your site live, place a few test orders to confirm that the new site is properly integrated with your payment processing system. It’s best to work out those bugs before actual customers access your site and place orders. Naturally, you’ll want to take the leap very early in the morning, say 1:00 a.m., before most of your customers are active. If you were able to establish the TTL, then the change should happen almost immediately and you can do your test orders to make sure all links are working properly. If you have access to the log files on both the old and new servers, you can monitor what is happening to your site’s traffic. Checking these files throughout the day will show you if visitors are getting to pages that no longer exist. It’s also a good strategy to keep the old site active for an overlapping month. This gives you time to archive all old files and make sure you didn’t miss a vital script, file, or piece of information.
A migration to a new platform is a milestone for any online retailer. Maybe you have finally grown enough to merit a more robust, capable and flexible eCommerce system. Or, maybe your cookie cutter site was a snap decision just to get up and running and now you want to give your eStore the serious support it needs to grow. These are the steps you’ll need to keep in mind when you are ready for the change. Remember, make sure the professionals you hire to oversee the migration and design your new store are up to par, or you’ll quickly lose your rankings as well as old and new customers, and you’ll have to spend big to get back to where you were.