This guide aims to help you navigate the complex process of migrating to Shopify Plus, highlighting best practices, and helping you avert common pitfalls.
Shopify Plus is a comprehensive, premium solution designed for high-growth, high-volume businesses. As a Shopify Plus web development company, we recommend this platform to businesses that require advanced features, such as tax automation, dedicated support, advanced customization opportunities, and access to the Shopify Plus Academy.
Before you start migrating to Shopify Plus, decide which plan suits your business needs. Shopify offers various levels, including Basic, Shopify, Advanced, and Plus.
Consider factors like:
Determine whether your project is a simple migration (replicating your current site) or a redesign (considering new possibilities). Your decision should factor in your business’s desire, bandwidth, and budget.
Choose a theme that matches your desired aesthetic and features. Review the documentation for each theme to understand its capabilities and limitations.
Plan your migration during a slow sales season and at a time of day with low traffic. This timing will help minimize potential disruptions to your business.
Ensure you have a backup of your site before migrating your data. This backup will serve as a fail-safe should anything go wrong during the migration process.
The actual move to Shopify Plus requires a series of steps:
Setting up 301 redirects is crucial during any migration. These permanent server-side redirects inform the browser of a new URL associated with a previous one, ensuring a smooth user experience and preserving your SEO benefits.
Edit the DNS servers for your domain to point to your Shopify servers once your migration to Shopify Plus is complete.
Post-migration is an excellent time for a clean-up. Discard unused and outdated pages, plugins, themes, and bloated data sets. This clean-up helps streamline your new store’s management and maintenance.
Ensure that you have set up the correct tracking and embed codes for any third-party software used on your previous site, such as Google Analytics and HubSpot.
With mobile transactions accounting for a significant portion of all e-commerce transactions, ensure your site is mobile-friendly. Consider your content, images, and theme features when optimizing for mobile.
Migrating can disrupt your site’s rankings and organic traffic if not handled carefully. To mitigate this, set up redirects, update internal links, create an informative 404 page, update backlinks where possible, and run a crawl for broken links, broken images, and duplicate pages once the migration is complete.
Shopify offers numerous apps to enhance your storefront. However, evaluate each app for its speed and security implications. Each app adds code to your site and can impact loading times and data privacy.
Migrating to Shopify Plus may seem daunting, but with the right guidance and a solid plan, it can be a smooth and rewarding process. If you’re looking to hire Shopify Plus developers for a seamless migration, our team of experts is here to help!
