Magento Migration. Do you feel goosebumps after these words? If the answer is yes, there’s nothing wrong with it as Magento Migration is a big deal for any online retailer. A little mistake or simple inattention can turn into terrible headaches for you after the shift. One of the most painful post-migration issues is SEO. Incorrect SEO migration can just burry your whole online presence. Without any further ado, our team shares an SEO migration control algorithm with you.
Critical (permanently removed URLs from the index or ranking positions losses)
Important (a progressive loss of ranking positions)
SEO Migration Control Algorithm
In 1-2 days before the migration you need to:
- Save your sitemap
- Check redirects
- Check Http responses
- Save Robots.txt file from the live website 1-2 days before the migration. During the migration robots.txt file can be transferred from pre-live version (this version should be closed for indexing). Review Robots.txt immediately after migration and compare it to the saved file. It must be the same.
- Create a profile of meta name robots and x-robots tag
Pages for review
– Filter pages
– Different pages types that mentioned in the tab “Excluded” In Google Search Console
– Other pages that were modified before (check tasks records)
Profile Example for yourwebsite.com:
– Paginated pages: <meta name=”robots” content=”NOINDEX,FOLLOW” />
(page example yourwebsite.com/page=2)
x robots tag not in use
– Pages with parameters: ?size (color, base_color, brand, price, hand, league, ball_pack, lie_angle, gender, dir, etc)
<meta name=”robots” content=”NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW” />
x robots tag not in use
– Filter Pages: /shopby/
<meta name=”robots” content=”NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW” />
x robots tag not in use
– URLs like:
https://yourwebsite.com/mmajaxview/ajax/*
X-Robots-Tag noindex (in use in http header)
Review which sitemaps are in use and generate the same on the live version.
Example:
- Sitemap: https://www.yourwebsite.com/media/sitemaps/cms/sitemap.xml
- Sitemap: https://www.yourwebsite.com/media/sitemaps/products/sitemap.xml
- Sitemap: https://www.yourwebsite.com/media/sitemaps/category/sitemap.xml
- Sitemap: https://www.yourwebsite.com/blog/sitemap.xml
- Sitemap: https://www.yourwebsite.com/media/Google_Image_Sitemap.xml
Setup sitemaps in the admin area on the pre-live version.
Review website page types and existing microdata
(Home page, category, Product)
Key Tags: Title, Description, H1 (h2-h3), alt and title images
Text Content
Review random pages (different types). 5-10 product and 5-10 category pages + home page.
Move templates of Title, H1, Description before the migration.
There are many different parameters that influence page speed load. However, there are several that can be transferred:
Http headers and info about the cache (date expiry, directives)
Save the Http headers for different page types:
- Product Page
- Category Page
- Home Page
- CMS page (Shipping)
Post-Migration
1. Review URL responses from the saved sitemap file to prevent critical issues 1 and 2.
2. Check if the URLs have the same URL paths:
- Home page + CMS Pages (all or 10)
- Product Pages (randomly select 30 from different categories and check manually the response)
- Category Pages (randomly select 20)
3. Compare robots txt on the live version with the saved one
4. Review meta name robots and x robots tag on the live version with the old one
5. Generate sitemap files on the 1st day after migration. If sitemap’s addresses aren’t the same, add them to robots.txt and Search Console. Check the Search Console for sitemap errors every day in the first 2 weeks.
6. Compare key Html tags templates with the live version
7. Monitor the occurrence of new trash pages or errors in the Search Console every day in the first 2 weeks
Mobecls team provides both basic and advanced SEO audits. Basic SEO audit is free and includes URLs, 301 redirects, robot.txt and sitemap.txt, meta tags, alt attributes and page load speed. If you’re searching for a more advanced SEO audit, contact our experts to get the details.
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If you have an urgent issue and need to get response faster you may contact us:
+37 525 944 33 88 (Viber, Telegram, WhatsApp)
SEO Expert at Mobecls
5+ years experience
Feel free to ask me anything about SEO