E-commerce Website Migration Case Study

Another goals set by the client for our Shopify SEO agency included:

• Provide recommendations at the development stage of the new site.
• Preparation: audit the new Shopify website and create development specifications.
• Migration Phase: create a redirect map for 7K pages found and monitor the new website post-migration.
• Post-Migration: conduct a secondary audit one week after the release.

Shopify SEO Migration is a tough call, but the aim was to execute everything correctly to mitigate the risks of traffic drops. And we did even more!

Keep on watching:)

We started the migration process with the client in June 2024, but cooperation started a few months earlier. The online store was still in the development stage, with hundreds of products and collections yet to be transferred or created. Therefore, we provided personalized consultations even before the main phase began, over several months.

Then we conducted more than five technical audits before the migration process started.
Created redirects for 2.7K pages, excluding the homepage.

That was pretty much all the struggles of this website migration case study, but look below to see how we executed it.

During the development phase of the Shopify site, we provided personalized technical recommendations to ensure a smooth migration process.

This included:

• Advising on best practices for site structure, URL formatting, and internal linking.
• Ensuring that all products and collections are properly categorized and optimized for search engines.
• Providing guidance on setting up essential SEO elements such as meta tags, alt texts, and schema markup.
• Recommending tools and plugins to enhance site performance and SEO capabilities.

After a certain period, these problems were solved.
The next step of Shopify SEO migration involved conducting a comprehensive technical SEO audit of the new site and comparing its content with the existing content on the old site. This process was executed to make sure that all valuable content was accurately transferred and optimized, maintaining consistency and maximizing SEO performance.

The next step after the audit, was to create a comprehensive redirect map. This was crucial, because the old URLs had suffixes such as.htm, and all URLs, except for the homepage, needed redirects.

Additionally, Shopify’s category URLs had some changes, so each URL had to be matched manually or using markers like H1 or meta description to ensure accurate redirection and preserve SEO value.

We collected and analyzed key SEO metrics to ensure an understanding of our website’s performance before and after migration.

This allows us to identify any issues, measure the impact of changes, and make informed decisions to optimize our strategies, maintain search engine visibility, and improve user engagement.

On June 12, the entire team was present to monitor the website’s functionality and ensure optimal performance. Several SEO checks were conducted throughout the day. Based on these checks, we updated the tasks for the developer to address minor technical issues that arose during the migration process.

One more essential step of Shopify SEO migration is daily monitoring. Every day, we tracked the daily organic traffic and conversions, closely monitoring the positions of key keywords. We also analyzed user behavior on the site using heatmaps and scroll tracking. This ongoing analysis allowed us to quickly identify and address any issues, ensuring the website’s performance remained optimal post-migration.

Example Monitoring Table

Google Search Console

Clicks: On June 12, 2024, the total number of clicks was 253. By July 22, 2024, this number increased to 261. This represents an increase of approximately 3.2%, indicating a slight improvement in user engagement and interaction with the website’s content following the website migration.

Impressions: On June 12, 2024, the number of impressions was 7,368. By July 22, 2024, impressions increased to 7,863. This is an increase of approximately 6.7%, suggesting that the visibility of the website in search engine results pages (SERPs) has improved, leading to more opportunities for users to see and potentially click on the website’s links.

GSC data on clicks and impressions before migration

Data as of July 22, 40 days after the start of migration

Compare Last 28 Days to Previous Period:

• Clicks: Up 1.1%, from 6.65K to 6.72K.
• Impressions: Up 0.9%, from 213K to 215K.
• Average CTR: Remained steady at 3.1%.
• Average Position: Declined from 23.5 to 24.2.

Ahrefs

Basic domain metrics for the last 30 days compared to the previous period according to Ahrefs

Total Keywords: Increased by 500, reaching a total of 7K keywords. This is an increase of approximately 7.7%.

Organic Traffic: Increased by 673, reaching a total of 6.4K. This is an increase of approximately 11.7%.

The website migration that started on 12 June 2024 resulted in an initial drop in organic traffic.

However, the traffic began to recover gradually as the new website structure stabilized and search engines re-indexed the content.

As of 24 July 2024, the organic traffic has increased to 6,377, indicating a positive trend and effective resolution of migration-related issues.

The analysis of keyword rankings from Ahrefs between June 12, 2024, and July 24, 2024, reveals a positive trend in our SEO performance:

• Total Keywords: Increased from 6,604 to 7,017
• TOP 1-3: Decreased from 88 to 74
• TOP 4-10: Increased from 466 to 513
• TOP 11-20: Increased from 990 to 1,035
• TOP 21-50: Increased from 2,712 to 2,872
• TOP 51+: Increased from 2,348 to 2,523

Data on the number of keywords as of June 12, 2024

Data for the number of keywords as of June 24, 2024

This website migration SEO case study, shows us how the SEO migration for the e-commerce store specializing in niche products was a comprehensive and meticulously planned process.

These are conclusions, and we can share some bits of advice with you:

• The Netrocket team made a smooth transition with minimal impact on organic traffic possible, through personalized technical recommendations, rigorous auditing, and continuous monitoring.

So can you.

• In post-migration process, we managed to achieve for our client these results: the store experienced a 6% increase in clicks over 30 days, improved keyword rankings, and stabilized traffic. It shows that not only maintaining the previous results is possible, but also growth is possible.
• The importance of strategic planning, detailed execution, and ongoing analysis in achieving successful SEO migration outcomes – should never be neglected.

So don’t hesitate to ask for the help of team of professionals, if your business needs it.