Easy methods to Redesign an eCommerce Web site With out Shedding Site visitors
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Having a recent search for your on-line retailer web site can enhance consumer expertise, enhance site visitors, and even drive extra conversions. Nonetheless, most retailer homeowners are cautious of redesigning their eCommerce web sites as a result of concern of dropping site visitors.
You don’t have to be nervous. So long as you’ve ample backups, overview all of your content material, and take a look at rigorously, you’ll be able to keep away from dropping site visitors and gross sales throughout an eCommerce web site redesign.
Maintain studying to seek out out precisely how you can do it. It doesn’t require an enormous funds or extremely specialised abilities, simply persistence, diligence, and a few website positioning data.
Let’s soar in!
1. Create a Backup of Your Retailer
A web site backup is a replica of your web site that you should use in case your unique web site will get destroyed or hacked.
It’s important to create a backup of your web site. In case one thing goes flawed, you’ll be able to restore to the useful unique. You must again up:
- Theme information
- Plugins
- Databases
So, how do I create one?
Backups could be created manually or robotically.
- Handbook backups. Handbook backups are created by copying the information out of your web site onto one other location in your pc or server. You’ll want to make use of FTP software program and hook up with your web site through FTP (file switch protocol).
- Computerized backups. Computerized backups are created by software program that displays modifications to your web site information and robotically creates backups when wanted.
For instance, you’ll be able to merely use a plugin device like Acronis Cyber Backup and observe the directions. As you’ll be able to see, the plugin has all of the help wanted to make use of it.
However for those who favor to do it your self, you’ll want to begin by opening cPanel. cPanel is a characteristic obtainable on most hosting platforms that means that you can create a guide backup.
To take action, merely navigate to the “Information” part in cPanel, choose “Backup Wizard,” select the vacation spot on your backup, and enter a sound e-mail tackle.
Utilizing an e-mail checker, you’ll be able to confirm that the e-mail tackle you enter is legitimate, and you’ll obtain an e-mail notification containing the backup obtain hyperlink as soon as the backup is prepared.
What if in case you have a Shopify retailer? How are you going to again up your Shopify retailer?
Easy methods to Do a Shopify Retailer Backup
Shopify enables you to again up your retailer in two methods.
First, you should use an app from the Shopify App Retailer. Apps like Rewind Backups and BackupMaster are fairly in style for this goal. They supply computerized backups alongside different options, however they’re subscription-based companies, so that you’ll have to pay month-to-month for the companies.
The opposite choice is to again up your retailer manually by means of CSV information. You should utilize this to again up knowledge similar to merchandise, clients, orders, monetary knowledge, low cost codes, and present card codes.
Merely click on on the information you wish to again up (from the menu on the left, as proven beneath), then click on “Export” from the subsequent window.
A brand new window will pop up asking for added info, like whether or not you wish to export all merchandise or present merchandise solely. Tick the related containers and click on “Export Merchandise.” You’ll get a backup as a CSV file.
Apart from the information, you may also again up your Shopify theme by downloading it in these three steps:
- Log into your admin account and go to “On-line Shops,” then “Themes.”
- Click on “Obtain Theme File.”
- You’ll obtain the theme in your e-mail as a .zip file.
2. Assessment Your Present website positioning
website positioning knowledge is essential to retain. The website positioning knowledge will allow you to overview your new web site’s efficiency in comparison with the outdated one, serving to you make knowledgeable tweaks. So, earlier than you redesign your on-line retailer, be sure you gather all of your web site’s website positioning knowledge.
Right here is how to do this:
- First, open the Google Analytics monitoring device to export the listing of top-performing pages and content material.
- Then, you’ll want to monitor your key phrase rankings utilizing your key phrase monitoring device of alternative.
- As soon as the information is downloaded, you should retailer it securely for future reference.
You additionally have to overview your web site pace and uptime.
Retailer Pace
Customers need web sites to load shortly. In case your web site is gradual, you’ll lose site visitors. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a good device for checking your web site pace. Verify your pace earlier than the redesign, and once more after the redesign. In case your web site has gotten slower, you have to to deal with this.
Professional Tip: You can even use the free Benchmark Hero app, which can audit your retailer’s pace and technical efficiency, together with purchasing expertise, trustworthiness, and advertising and marketing in opposition to essentially the most vital eCommerce manufacturers in your area of interest.
Retailer Uptime
Uptime can also be important. Uptime is the metric that determines how usually your web site stays up. In case your web site goes down ceaselessly, you’ll lose site visitors.
Probably the greatest methods to treatment poor uptime is by selecting a dependable net host supplier. Verify the typical uptime on your net host supplier. An uptime of 99.9% is fascinating. So, in case your present internet hosting supplier is struggling to present you such uptime, take into account switching to a different answer.
Shopify provides an analogous uptime assure (99.98%) to its customers. Nonetheless, you should use a device like Uptime to observe the uptime of your Shopify retailer. This device offers you real-time updates every time your retailer or third-party apps break.
Bonus Content material: Shopify website positioning: Easy methods to Get Your Shopify Retailer to Rank #1 on Google
3. Retain the Outdated Content material and Retailer Construction
When redesigning your eCommerce web site, keep in mind that the outdated content material and construction nonetheless have worth.
It helps with website positioning for key phrases, hyperlinks, and different alerts to find out how doubtless a retailer or product web page will likely be related to the search phrases a consumer entered. It additionally helps with model consciousness, since buyers anticipate to see the identical content material as earlier than.
Google’s algorithm considers the URL construction and the web page content material when deciding which pages are most related for every search time period and key phrase question.
So even when a few of your outdated URLs present up elsewhere in your new web site than they did earlier than (like possibly on totally different pages), Google will nonetheless take into account them legitimate hyperlinks and cross alongside site visitors accordingly.
However you should additionally watch out about how a lot of that outdated content material you retain. Take into account how a lot duplicate content material is on every web page and whether or not you’ll be able to merge them right into a single web page with complete info.
Let’s say your on-line retailer is focusing on the key phrases “males’s exercise sneakers” and “males’s train sneakers” on totally different pages. Over time, these pages could wrestle to rank on Google Search outcomes. That is often as a consequence of key phrase cannibalization.
What Is Key phrase Cannibalization
Key phrase cannibalization basically means having a number of webpages focusing on the identical key phrase or search question. So, with the instance above, it could be greatest to merge the 2 pages to cease them from competing in opposition to one another.
We see key phrase cannibalization lots throughout SaaS content material manufacturing. It may be an excellent larger drawback within the eCommerce business, contemplating on-line shops often have tons of to hundreds of product pages. You actually need to maintain a detailed eye on this, as it might probably damage your rankings.
You also needs to maintain any photographs which have been optimized for website positioning in place. That can maintain them from being penalized by Google as duplicate content material, since serps had already listed them earlier than the redesign.
Assessment every web page and guarantee there are not any damaged hyperlinks or lacking photographs on every web page (if there are, repair them earlier than shifting ahead).
4. Do an On-Web page Content material Evaluation
After you have accomplished your on-line retailer redesign, it’s a good suggestion to investigate your on-page content material. Content material contains all of your retailer pages, touchdown pages, weblog posts, and product pages.
You could possibly additionally take this chance to improve a few of your content material utilizing website positioning software program. Or through the use of a device like Hyperlink Whisper to make sure all necessary pages have inside hyperlinks. Inside hyperlinks are crucial to make sure no necessary pages find yourself being “orphan pages” (pages that aren’t linked to from every other webpages on an internet site).”
Other than the fundamentals, listed below are some issues to bear in mind:
- Duplicate content material
- Key phrase cannibalization
- Decayed content material
- Natural CTR evaluation
- Content material relevancy
- Archiving
Let’s take a more in-depth take a look at every.
Duplicate Content material
You wish to guarantee there isn’t a duplicate content material, as this could have an effect on website positioning rankings. This implies writing distinctive product descriptions for every product web page. You additionally wish to maintain a detailed eye in your URL construction to make sure they’re constant and clear.
For instance, serps might even see “www.petstore.com/product/” and “petstore.com/product” as duplicate content material.
To keep away from this, we suggest utilizing canonical tags to point out serps your most popular URLs.
Key phrase Cannibalization
As talked about earlier, be sure you’re creating inside competitors between your webpages. This implies creating distinctive content material for every web page.
Decayed Content material
Decayed content material refers to content material that used to carry out nicely however not does. The shift in efficiency could be as a consequence of many issues, like key phrase cannibalization, duplicate content material, and a shift in search intent, amongst others.
To repair this problem, you’ll have to audit the web page and presumably replace it. As an example, it’s possible you’ll have to replace the product description with new info to clean up the web page.
If the trigger for the decay is duplicate content material, you’ll have to create distinctive content material for the duplicate pages or merge them into one optimized web page.
In the meantime, a shift in search intent might imply that Google stopped rating product pages focusing on “males’s trainers” and began rating “better of” articles, for instance. In such a case, you’ll wish to create a weblog publish to extend your probabilities of rating for that search time period.
Natural CTR Evaluation
A web page can rank excessive however nonetheless undergo from a poor CTR. It’s essential to investigate this metric. To enhance your retailer’s CTR, you’ll have to write higher meta descriptions and title tags.
Content material Relevancy
You additionally have to determine in case your retailer content material is related. This contains the content material in your touchdown pages, product pages, and any weblog posts you might have in your web site.
One of the simplest ways to investigate your content material is by conducting a content material audit.
- First, take a listing of your web site’s present content material.
- Subsequent, you’ll want to analyze relevancy; irrelevant content material ought to be excluded within the redesign. For instance, your Valentine’s Day provides touchdown web page could not be related as soon as the sale and occasion are completed.
You should utilize a content material audit device like Semrush Content material Audit to generate an inventory of URLs and related knowledge. A device like this lets you arrange your audit and discover sure sections simply.
Archiving
When making any content material modifications, it’s necessary to archive the outdated content material in case you’ll want to revert to it.
There are a lot of causes you may have to return to outdated content material. For instance, it’s possible you’ll tweak a specific product web page just for its efficiency on the major search engines to tank. Having the outdated content material archived someplace would come in useful in such a situation.
Making a spreadsheet for the outdated and new content material is a superb strategy to arrange this. And to take your web site to the subsequent degree, take into account incorporating artistic and informative infographics concepts to interact your viewers and break down complicated info in a visually interesting manner.
For instance, you’ll be able to replace your content material to share tips about how clients can use your merchandise in an enticing infographic.
5. Check Your Design and Launch It
If you wish to get your new design out into the world, you’ll want to guarantee it’s prepared. To take action, you’ll want to take a look at your web site.
Testing is often completed on a staging server. Why? Having your design on a staging server means that you can take a look at all of the components of the web site and resolve any errors earlier than there are actual penalties.
What about Shopify shops?
Bonus: Easy methods to Set Up a Staging Web site for Shopify
First, you’ll want to create a second Shopify retailer the place you’ll run the exams. In case you have a Shopify Plus subscription, you should use certainly one of your unused enlargement shops for the staging web site.
For customers on the opposite plans, you’ll be able to arrange a free retailer utilizing the Shopify Companions program. Right here’s how you can go about it:
- Go to the Companions program webpage and arrange your companion account.
- Click on on “Create Retailer” from the primary dashboard when you’ve created an account.
- Choose “Growth Retailer” within the subsequent dashboard when requested to pick out the shop sort.
- Give your retailer a reputation.
(We suggest giving the shop a singular however associated identify, so you’ll be able to inform it aside out of your stay retailer. For instance, if the primary retailer is “petcare.com,” you’ll be able to identify the testing retailer “stagingpetcare.com.”)
The free account created by means of the Shopify Companions program is often sufficient for many testing functions. Nonetheless, for those who’re unable to make use of it for no matter motive, open a brand new retailer by means of the Shopify fundamental plan. However remember that you’ll need to pay the month-to-month costs.
Now, together with your second retailer prepared, you’ll want to put in an app like Rewind Staging to import the information out of your stay retailer and create a staging setting on the second retailer. To try this, you’ll want to observe these 4 steps:
- Head over to your stay retailer and set up the app from the Shopify App Retailer. It will act because the supply retailer.
- Set up the app within the second retailer, which will likely be your vacation spot retailer.
- Copy the important thing from the supply retailer to the vacation spot retailer to hyperlink the 2.
- Choose the information you wish to copy out of your supply retailer into the staging retailer after which click on “Start Process.” (It’s advisable to repeat all the information to make sure the staging retailer mirrors the stay retailer fully.)
That ought to copy all of your knowledge onto the staging retailer, which now you can use to run your exams. The downside to all that is that Rewind Staging is a paid app. It’ll set you again $99/month.
When you’ve completely examined your web site on the staging server, you’ll be able to launch your redesigned web site. That’s if the location is performing as supposed, in fact. In any other case, return to growth and repair any points you might have seen throughout testing.
Publish your web site to the stay server and advertise to your clients by means of social media, e-mail, or perhaps a digital enterprise card. That ought to deliver in additional site visitors, which can then generate public suggestions. It’s crucial to maintain a detailed eye on the preliminary suggestions, as it may be valuable when making closing changes.
6. Audit Your Web site After the Launch
The time instantly after you launch your web site is essential for making modifications. Even with a rigorous testing stage, errors slip by means of the online. So you’ll want to audit your retailer after an internet site redesign.
These are the varied audits it’s best to carry out:
- Verify that each one redirects are working appropriately
- Verify the website positioning of your top-performing pages
- Examine load occasions with the unique web site
- Verify all titles, headings, and meta descriptions
- Search for 404 errors
- Check on totally different browsers
- Check cellular functionality
You could audit your web site utilizing website positioning instruments similar to Ahrefs or Semerush or through the use of the free eCommerce audit device — Benchmark Hero.
Nonetheless, you should repeatedly monitor customer suggestions to make sure your eCommerce web site is optimized on your potential buyers and present clients.
To assemble priceless public suggestions, you’ll want to guarantee it’s straightforward and possibly even rewarding for customers to take action.
Due to this fact, present a transparent and easy kind or pop-up to encourage customers to report any points they could encounter whereas utilizing the location.
Conclusion
Redesigning an present eCommerce web site with out dropping site visitors is all about reviewing and testing the totally different components of the web site. You lose site visitors — and gross sales — when errors are missed and the content material isn’t as much as scratch.
Begin by making a backup of your retailer and reviewing your present website positioning. You additionally have to retain a lot of the outdated content material and construction, and the content material must be website positioning optimized and related to your web site’s goals.
Lastly, you’ll want to launch your web site however make sure you proceed auditing to seek out any minor errors earlier than you lose site visitors.
Implementing the following pointers offers you the perfect probability to revamp your eCommerce web site with out dropping site visitors. Nevertheless it’s an ongoing course of; you’ll want to monitor consumer suggestions to maintain on high of any issues.
Bought questions? Submit them within the feedback part beneath!
Nico Prins
Nico is the founding father of , a SaaS advertising and marketing company. The corporate works with enterprise SaaS shoppers, serving to them scale lead technology globally throughout EMEA, APAC, and different areas.
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