How to Migrate Website Content to a New Platform
What's it Like to Migrate Your Website to a New CMS or eCommerce Engine?
The pandemic has brought hardship to a number of companies, and the eCommerce world is no different. With recent news that Volusion filed for Chapter 11 (although say they are hoping to stay in business), there are a lot of merchants wondering if and should they migrate their services.
If you're looking to learn more specifically about Volusion migration services, check out our page here to learn more about how efelle's your partner to do so.
First, you may be wondering what exactly is a website migration.
What is a Site Migration?
A site migration is a term used to describe when a website is undergoing a substantial change that can affect your website traffic, user experience, and search engine visibility. In terms of eCommerce, this often occurs when users switch from one platform to another.
Making sure you migrate your website well is important for both user experience and your SEO visibility. To learn more, download our full length guide to eCommerce website migration!
Migrating your website may seem like an easy task, but it needs to be done correctly and efficiently and requires a time investment. If you want to make the most out of your re-platform or redesign your content migration should be done strategically. Here are 5 steps to start planning your website migration to a new platform.
Look At Your Current Website
Along with design, the content on your site is one of the most important parts of selling to users. That means, if you’re going through a website redesign you should consider taking a step back to look at your website content as well. What pages are getting the most traffic? Do you think your About Us is still telling the right story? What pages have the highest bounce rate?
Set New Priorities
Once you’ve taken a look at your current website, you’ll be able to set priorities for your new website content and site architecture. If you’re working with an agency, they can help coordinate your current content and any changes you’re looking to make, and combine them with best practices.
For example, if you have pages that are getting hardly any traffic and aren’t working for your business, it’s important to take a step back and decide if those pages are needed on your new site, could be reworked, or even combined with another page.
Create a Sitemap
Once you’ve decided on your priorities and reviewed your current site, you’ll want to build out a new sitemap (if you work with an agency, they should definitely be assisting you with this part). A new sitemap will be the backbone to your website and help guide your entire design and build. A sitemap should be simple, with levels of navigation present and will provide a visual to help drive which content needs to be transferred, combined, scrapped completely, and where new content may need to be created.
Decide What Needs Migrating
Once you have your priorities set, you can work on figuring out what needs to be migrated. With your new sitemap in hand, you can decide which pages should go where and what content on those specific pages need to be migrated.
When it comes to eCommerce website, there’s a lot more to consider. Along with what pages you want to migrate do you need to transfer over all of your products? What about order history? Would you like to continue to use the same apps as before?
Determine the Content Migration Plan
A plan is crucial. If you get anything from this, it’s that you should have a plan to make this migration. You’ve laid your foundation and now you need to consider how you’ll migrate your content over. While there are a number of different ways to do this, we’ll share what we do at efelle creative because it’s a tried and true process that works well for both our clients and team.
- Create Sitemap at Beginning of Project
- Design Templates Around Sitemap
- Create Content Maps Based on Designs
- Build a Spreadsheet with Tabs for Each Page
- Label Every Area that Needs Content
- Create Corresponding Place in Spreadsheet with Area Labels
- Begin Transfer of Current or New Content to Spreadsheet
- Implement Content During Website Build on Cloud
- For eCommerce: Begin Creating New Products on Sandbox Store
While this may seem like a lot, if you work with an agency, they’ll help you walk through the entire process. It’s an important part of your website build but all the hard work will definitely pay off when you have a beautiful new website that works better for your team and business.
eCommerce Website Migration from the Experts
At efelle, we've got experience migrating websites to and from a number of platforms, from Volusion migrations, Shopify, BigCommerce, and more. We'll work with you to find out which platform is best and make sure your migration process goes smoothly. Fill out the form below to learn more from a Digital Strategist.