How a Successful Website Migration Led to a 20% Increase in Keyword Rankings [Free Template]

To achieve the desired outcomes, we implemented a comprehensive migration strategy. Our approach involved the following key steps and activities:

Kick-off and alignment

We initiated the project with a round of introductory calls to understand the brand requirements, goals, and expectations. The discovery call is one of the crucial parts of the process. It allows us to align our strategy with the client’s vision and create a collaborative roadmap for the migration.

Here are the main questions we asked our client to get all the necessary information required to build a solid strategy and avoid errors or misunderstandings.

• Why are you migrating?

• What goals do you want to achieve with this migration?

• What does a successful migration mean for you, and what specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will you use to measure that success?

• What type of migration are you considering (e.g., platform, domain)?

• What’s your current platform, and what’s the new one for re-platforming?

• Have there been any notable changes to the website in the past that we should be aware of?

• How many countries and languages are part of the current setup, and how does this compare to the number of countries and languages in the planned new setup for the migration?

• Who will be our primary contacts, both inside and outside your team, especially with developers?

• Can we access tools like Google Analytics and Search Console for assessment and historical data handling?

• Are there any obstacles in site crawl, like blocked elements or custom headers?

• Are there plans to change the information architecture?

• Are there changes to the content strategy as part of the migration?

• Are there any legal or compliance considerations that need to be addressed during the migration?

If you want additional insights on how to start your client relationship in the best way, check out Moz’s 30 questions for getting to know your SEO clients.

Defining the Scope of Work and crafting a tailored roadmap

Drawing insights from the responses and aligning with brand requirements, we defined the Scope of Work (SOW), clarifying all the activities and resources needed to successfully complete the migration.

In outlining our activities, we prioritized client requests and identified gaps in additional SEO actions. As SEO experts, we emphasized that some activities, even beyond initial requests, play a vital role during transitions like migrations. Addressing these strategically at this stage ensures efficiency and prevents the need for future changes, saving both time and resources.

For instance, we recommended optimizing the information architecture, often overlooked, to reshape data and product organization. Simultaneously, we highlighted the importance of improving product names for SEO and using them to create an optimized URL taxonomy that is more descriptive and SEO-friendly, thus maximizing the potential of their existing product suite.

The final SOW was split into four sections, corresponding to different phases of the migration process.

1. Pre-migration planning: Gathering all the data and information we needed from the YNAP website, agreeing on KPIs and metrics to improve, and auditing the current website. This was used to inform all of our actions and decisions in the subsequent stages of the migration. Crafting a detailed list of requirements for the new Shopify website to be best optimized.

2. Pre-migration preparation: Using all of our data from the planning, we prepared for the launch of the new website and the migration from the old to the new.

3. Website launch: Hyper-care support throughout the website launch day, with critical SEO checks to ensure the website was entirely crawlable, indexable, and optimized.

4. Post-migration support: A final audit of the new website and a review of all agreed metrics.

For each section, we included all the necessary activities. You can find a more detailed breakdown in the planning phase section below.

Subsequently, we crafted a personalized and collaborative roadmap on Monday.com to effectively visualize, track, and monitor the progress of activities assigned to each team.