Site Migration from M1 to M2: Importance of Maintaining Image URLs
Hello everyone,
I truly appreciate all the assistance provided thus far.
I’m seeking your opinions on the importance of maintaining the same URLs during our transition to M2. It’s proving to be quite a challenge to retain the same URLs for our ecommerce site.
Should We Redirect the Image URLs?
We have approximately 50,000 images. If setting up a few redirect rules isn’t feasible, would it be advisable to focus on redirecting images for our top 100 best-selling products?
Thank you for your insights!
2 responses to “Site migration from M1 to M2 – is keeping image URLs the same important, or should they have 301 redirects?”
Migrating from Magento 1 (M1) to Magento 2 (M2) is a significant task for any e-commerce website, and maintaining SEO integrity during this process is crucial. A key component of this is handling your image URLs correctly. Let’s break down the considerations and best practices:
Importance of Image URL Consistency
Changing URLs without proper redirects can lead to broken links, negatively impacting user experience and causing a drop in search rankings.
Backlinks and User Experience:
Redirect Strategies
301 redirects transfer about 90-99% of the link equity (ranking power) from the old URL to the new URL.
Handling Multiple Redirects:
Consider how your web server or CMS might allow you to implement bulk redirects with regular expressions or wildcard handling.
Prioritizing Important Images:
Additional Considerations
Consistent Naming Conventions: If URL consistency cannot be maintained, aim for a consistent naming convention on M2. This can aid in easier future management and redirection rules.
Review and Update Sitemaps: Ensure that your XML sitemaps are updated with new image URLs after migration. Submit updated sitemaps to Google Search Console and other webmaster tools.
Audit and Monitoring: Post-migration, use crawling tools to identify broken links or missing redirects. Always monitor your website’s performance in search results to make any necessary adjustments.
Conclusion
While keeping image URLs the same minimizes disruption, implementing proper redirects is
Hello!
Transitioning from M1 to M2 is indeed a significant undertaking, and your consideration of image URLs plays a crucial role in maintaining SEO value and user experience. Maintaining the same URLs for images can help preserve any existing backlinks and search rankings, which is essential for driving traffic to your site.
However, given your large image library with around 50,000 items, I understand that it may not be feasible to maintain all URLs. Focusing on the top 100 best-selling products for 301 redirects is a strategic approach that balances effort with impact. These products likely generate the most traffic and sales, and ensuring their URLs remain intact will help minimize potential losses during the migration.
In addition to redirecting the top sellers, consider implementing a strategy for user-generated URLs or any frequently shared images. You might also explore alternative solutions like consolidating image storage and Restructuring.cloud/restructuring/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>restructuring your naming conventions to improve efficiency going forward.
Remember to monitor your site’s performance after the migration with tools like Google Search Console to identify any crawl errors or drop in rankings that could indicate issues with your URL structure. Best of luck with your migration, and I’m looking forward to hearing how it goes!