Ecommerce Platform Migration Issues and Search Engine Optimization Pros and Cons | This ecommerce migration slide deck will guide you through the 4 most popular ecommerce platforms. We'll cover migration pros and cons, seo pros and cons, what to watch for, etc. We've even included SEO checklists to help you with your next ecommerce migration project. Ecommerce platforms included in this migration course are Magento, Volusion, BigCommerce and Shopify. Presented by @jonathanhinshaw, www.ebwaycreative.com

1. Most Popular E-commerce Platforms
SEO pros and cons and migration issues
Internet Marketing Session for E-Commerce Business Owners

2. Presenter
Jonathan Hinshaw
Co-Founder of EBWAY
- 10 Years In Luxury Import Sales (Automotive)
- Internet Marketing Manager for BMW
- Created First Website In 1999
- Incorporated EBWAY Creative in 2006
- Musician / Singer / Songwriter / Father / Husband

3. E-Commerce Migration
how shopping cart popularity has
changed over the last year

4. 2008 – founded
200k - 240k – of live stores worldwide
~26% – e-Commerce market share
Physical locations of businesses using Magento

5. Websites using Magento in Alexa Top Million Sites

6. Some curious Magento migration stats that are worth to tweet
40% of all e-Commerce migrations are performed to Magento
In the last 12 months number of migrations to Magento increased by 24%
26% of all Magento migrations are actually Magento upgrades

7. 2006 – founded
54k -100k – of live stores worldwide
~10% – e-Commerce market share
Physical locations of businesses using Shopify

8. Websites using Shopify in Alexa Top Million Sites

9. Some curious Shopify migration stats that are worth to tweet
6% of all e-Commerce migrations are performed to Shopify
In the last 12 months number of migrations to Shopify increased by 98%
2% of all e-Commerce migrations are performed from Shopify

10. 2009 – founded
50k – of live stores worldwide
~7% – e-Commerce market share
Physical locations of businesses using Bigcommerce

11. Websites using Bigcommerce in Alexa Top Million Sites

12. Some curious Bigcommerce migration stats that are worth to tweet
3% of all e-Commerce migrations are performed to Bigcommerce
In the last 12 months number of migrations to Bigcommerce increased by 37%
3% of all e-Commerce migrations are performed from Bigcommerce

13. 1999 – founded
25k-50k – of live stores worldwide
~5% – e-Commerce market share
Physical locations of businesses using Volusion

14. Websites using Volusion in Alexa Top Million Sites

15. Some curious Volusion migration stats that are worth to tweet
Less than 1% of all e-Commerce migrations are performed to Volusion
In the last 12 months number of migrations to Volusion decreased by 20%
More than 5% of all e-Commerce migrations are performed from Volusion

16. Google Trends

17. Migration Issues!
and how to avoid them

18. Avoid before migration:
1. Third-party modules
2. Non-default templates
3. Manual database customization

19. Make sure your target store is
hidden from Google and other
search engines

20. Whitelist IPs that you are going to run your
migration from!

21. Pre/Post Migration
Recommendations for Magento, Shopify,
BigCommerce, Volusion

22. General pre-migration tips:
ü Make a backup

23. General pre-migration tips:
ü Setup proper folder permissions

24. General pre-migration tips:
ü Keep images in default folders

25. Key pre- and post-migration tips:
1. Check if your hosting is compatible with Magento
2. Map your shops correctly during multi-store migration
3. Make re-index and clear cache after migration

26. Key pre- and post-migration tips:
1. Notify your customers before the migration
2. Change non-standard letters (i.e. umlauts – ä)
3. Prepare API Key and API Password

27. Key pre- and post-migration tips:
1. Make sure all of your products are named
2. Prepare API Path and API Token

28. Key pre- and post-migration tips:
1. Check your pricing plan
2. Use .csv file format

29. General post-migration tips:
ü Ask clients to restore their passwords

30. General post-migration tips:
ü Customize your store (template, modules, other changes)

31. General post-migration tips:
ü Test your store before the launch

32. What we usually want from a platform?
• Affordable
• Reliable (high up-times)
• SEO/marketing friendly
• User-friendly with various customizable design templates
• Simple and intuitive admin dashboard
• Helpful, accessible support
• Additional features

33. Prices
. Shopify Volusion BigCommerce Magento
Minimum
Package $29/mo $15/mo* $34.95/mo free
Maximum
Package $179/mo $135/mo* $199.95/mo up
to
$1,400/mo
Transaction
Fees 0%-­‐2% 0* 0%-­‐2% 0*

34. Performance
. Shopify Volusion BigCommerce Magento
Hosted/Self-­‐hosted Hosted Hosted Hosted Self-­‐hosted
Storage 1GB-­‐unlimited Unlimited Unlimited -­‐
Bandwith Unlimited 1-­‐35GB Unlimited -­‐
Uptimes Very
good Poor Excellent -­‐
Site
speed OK More
or
less OK Slow

35. Simplicity & Friendliness
. Shopify Volusion BigCommerce Magento
Support Very
good Poor Average
Very little, only
helpyourself
kind
Templates (variety,
user
friendliness) Very
good Good Good Moderate
Simplicity Very
simple Simple Very
simple Very
difficult
Mobile
friendly Yes Yes Yes Yes

36. Additional Features
. Shopify Volusion BigCommerce Magento
Blog Yes No Yes No
Marketplace No No No Yes
Social
commerce No Yes Yes No
Abandoned shopping
cart
features Yes Yes Yes Yes
Daily
deals,
promos Yes Yes Yes No
Reviews/ratings Yes Yes Yes No
Forum Yes No Yes No
Apps
and
add-­‐ins Yes Yes Yes Loads!

37. What do we need for SEO?

38. Ecommerce platforms SEO checklist
SEO
checklist
1 301
redirects
control
2 Control
of
Titles
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates
3 Control
of
Headings
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates
4 Control
of
meta
Descriptions
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates
5 Control
over
pages
content,
possibility
to
add
custom
text
to
all
pages
6 Control
over
robots
txt
file
or
possibility
to
add
meta
robots
tag
to
specific
pages
or
sets
of
pages
7 Control
of
Alt
attributes
for
images
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates
8 XML
sitemaps
automatically
generated
and
regularly
updated
9 SEO
friendly
URLs
(control
over
URLs)
10 No
duplicate
URLs
issues
11 Canonicalization
of
URLs
12 Search
firendly
navigation
and
structure
13 Breadcrumbs
14 Blog
15 Built-­‐in
Analytics
integration
16 Schema.org
integration
17 Social
sharing
(supporting
Open
Graph
protocol)
18 HTML
sitemaps
19 Internal
linking
opportunities
20 Google
authorship
verification

39. Ecommerce platforms SEO checklist
SEO
checklist Shopify Volusion BigCommerce Magento
301
redirects
control + + + +
Control
of
Titles
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +
Control
of
Headings
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐
Control
of
meta
Descriptions
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐
Control
over
pages
content,
possibility
to
add
custom
text
to
all
pages + + + +
Control
over
robots
txt
file
or
possibility
to
add
meta
robots
tag
to
specific
pages
or
sets
of
pages -­‐ + + +
Control
of
Alt
attributes
for
images
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐
XML
sitemaps
automatically
generated
and
regularly
updated + + + +
SEO
friendly
URLs
(control
over
URLs) +/-­‐ +/-­‐ + +
No
duplicate
URLs
issues -­‐ -­‐ + -­‐
Canonicalization
of
URLs +/-­‐ + + +
Search
firendly
navigation
and
structure +/-­‐ + + +
Breadcrumbs + + + +
Blog + -­‐ + +
Built-­‐in
Analytics
integration + + + +
Schema.org
integration -­‐ +/-­‐ + +
Social
sharing
(supporting
Open
Graph
protocol) -­‐ + + +
HTML
sitemaps -­‐ + + +
Internal
linking
opportunities + + + +
Google
authorship
verification -­‐ -­‐ -­‐ +

40. Ecommerce platforms SEO checklist
• Navigation & Structure
• Breadcrumbs
• Schema.org

41. Ecommerce platforms SEO checklist
SEO
checklist Shopify Volusion BigCommerce Magento
301
redirects
control + + + +
Control
of
Titles
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +
Control
of
Headings
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐
Control
of
meta
Descriptions
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐
Control
over
pages
content,
possibility
to
add
custom
text
to
all
pages + + + +
Control
over
robots
txt
file
or
possibility
to
add
meta
robots
tag
to
specific
pages
or
sets
of
pages -­‐ + + +
Control
of
Alt
attributes
for
images
with
full
possibility
to
customize
them
separately
for
each
page
and
using
templates +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐ +/-­‐
XML
sitemaps
automatically
generated
and
regularly
updated + + + +
SEO
friendly
URLs
(control
over
URLs) +/-­‐ +/-­‐ + +
No
duplicate
URLs
issues -­‐ -­‐ + -­‐
Canonicalization
of
URLs +/-­‐ + + +
Search
firendly
navigation
and
structure +/-­‐ + + +
Breadcrumbs + + + +
Blog + -­‐ + +
Built-­‐in
Analytics
integration + + + +
Schema.org
integration -­‐ +/-­‐ + +
Social
sharing
(supporting
Open
Graph
protocol) -­‐ + + +
HTML
sitemaps -­‐ + + +
Internal
linking
opportunities + + + +
Google
authorship
verification -­‐ -­‐ -­‐ +

42. Ecommerce platforms SEO checklist
• Open Graph protocol
• HTML sitemap
• Internal linking opportunities

43. Migration impact on rankings, Precautions

44. 301 redirects
• 200 OK
• 301 Redirect
• 404 Not Found

45. 301 redirects
• Create & map a complete list of page URLs!
• Only! If for some very serious reasons the above is totally
undoable, consider the following options:
• Download for Google Analytics most successful in
terms of traffic pages and map them in the first place
• Download the most linked to pages report from your
Google Webmaster Tools and map them
• Map all of your category pages
• Redirect top-selling products (E-commerce
performance report in Google Analytics)
• Test the redirects (Xenu, ScreamingFrog (free for up to 500
URLs only))
• Create good, custom 404 pages
• Try to use server redirects if possible and use regex
redirects to minimize the server load

46. Other precautions
• At least for the first couple of months after the
migration keep the content (Titles, H1’s, texts)
the same
• Make sure to notify your customers of the
changes - possible slow load times, structure
and design and other changes
• Make sure to ONLY use new URLs in your
internal linking
• If you have control of any backlinks to your site,
change them to new URLs too
• Think about the internal linking patterns, try not
to change those much too

47. Other precautions:
• Update XML and HTML sitemaps with new
URL and submit the new one to Google
Webmaster Tools
• Measure your traffic and rankings (at least with
SemRush) before the migration and after
• When you have moved be prepared to fix at
once SEO bugs of your new platform (duplicate
URLs usually)
• Measure and test everything – your conversion
rates, load times, abandoned carts etc

48. 21.3.1121.3.11
Analytics tip:
After migration you can have 2 options in terms of
Analytics:
• Create new Analytics property and start tracking the
new site from scratch
• Use the same Google Analytics code
https://www.google.com/analytics/web/
template?uid=wgYGwhy1RtW8aBkj4Z5qfA
Create a Custom report with full URL displayed:

49. 21.3.1121.3.11
Small prediction:
Your organic traffic will decline anyway!
But if you have done everything right and keep monitoring your site’s performance,
organic traffic will be going back during 4-10 weeks after the migration.

50. Free online marketing audit
We
would
like
to
invite
you
to
take
a
free
15
minute
personalized
webinar
for
a
quick
audit
of
your
website
and
marke7ng
campaigns
by
a
Google
cer8fied
expert.
-­‐ Quick
usability
audit
of
the
exis7ng
site;
-­‐ Quick
SEO
audit
and
review
of
exis7ng
analy7cs;
-­‐ Audit
of
PPC
campaign;
-­‐ Technical
audit;
-­‐ General
strategy
audit.

51. THANK YOU
Jonathan Hinshaw
EBWAY Creative Solutions, Inc.
Twitter: @jonathanhinshaw
LinkedIn: /jonathanhinshaw
Visit us online for free resources
and downloads at www.ebwaycreative.com

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