After a migration to Shopify, many products were missing their custom meta titles and meta descriptions. The expectation was that they'd come over automatically. A look at the export file showed: those fields weren't in the old store system's export at all, and they weren't part of the agreed data scope either. We explained this factually and offered to import the data afterwards from a spreadsheet supplied by the client. The lesson: a migration is only as complete as the fields defined upfront and included in the export.
The case
Standard exports from many store systems include product name, price, description and images. SEO fields, custom fields or translations, on the other hand, are often missing or live in a separate area. If you don't check beforehand, you only notice after launch, when different titles suddenly show up in search results.
What should be clear before every migration
- Which fields are in the export? Don't assume. Open the file and check.
- Which fields should come along? Meta titles, meta descriptions, custom fields, translations, image alt texts.
- Where are the missing fields? Sometimes there's a second export, sometimes they have to be extracted separately.
- What's in the offer? The agreed scope should name the fields explicitly.
How we solved it
Instead of arguing about blame, we showed the way forward: the client provides the meta data as a spreadsheet, and we bulk-import it into Shopify. That was quick, because the products were already set up cleanly and could be matched unambiguously.
What to take away
- Check the export before the migration starts. What isn't in the file can't be imported.
- Name SEO fields explicitly in the offer. “Migration” alone doesn't say which fields are included.
- Missing data can be added later. With a clean spreadsheet, a follow-up import is no big project.
- Staying factual saves time. A clear scope and a path to a solution help more than a debate about responsibility.
Planning a migration and want to be sure your SEO data comes along? We check your export before we quote a price.