Working guide

Before changing your catalogue

A release checklist for collection changes, product renames and a new commerce platform.

Capture the starting state

Export known URLs and relevant first-party search data. Add important links from navigation, campaigns and product feeds where available. Keep the export dated; a sitemap alone may miss useful historical URLs.

Map the customer journey

For every moved URL, identify the closest equivalent destination. Keep unchanged URLs unchanged where practical. Do not send all removed products to the homepage; determine whether a real replacement exists.

Verify after release

Check responses, redirects, canonicals, internal links and the product experience. Test a real checkout separately under the store’s approved test process. Search testing does not establish that payments, tax or shipping are correct.

Put it into practice

Use these prompts for your working brief.

  1. Dated URL inventory
  2. Explicit move decisions
  3. Equivalent redirect targets
  4. Catalogue and technical QA
  5. Owner for post-release monitoring

Source and further reading

Check the implementation against the platform’s current guidance.

Start with the question

What needs to work better?

Send your website and the decision you are trying to make. Work, costs and responsibilities are agreed separately.

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