The Great Project Migration: how we transferred 220 user's projects to Serpstat in a week

We were approached by the customer who was no longer satisfied with his rank tracking service of choice. He contemplated moving his 220 projects and the five-person team to another service and exploring his options for a while.

First, he wanted to test things out and asked us to transfer a few projects to see how they would turn out. He expected us to set up the projects and transfer historical data about keyword positions. Not only did we manage to do that, but we also added a few competitor domains on which the customer wanted to collect statistics.

On top of that, the export file contained tags (markers for keyword groups that allow you to organize phrases by meaning and purpose and filter them) and actual links from the search results since we were also able to transfer them.

As a result, the user obtained his entirely set-up projects, with all positions and actual links from search results and an organized data collection process.

After careful consideration and a thorough comparison with other services, the customer made up his mind and chose our Rank Tracker tool. He requested to transfer all projects, with a hard deadline of one week, because his subscription to the competitor service was running out, and he didn't plan to renew it.

Since the customer selected our Enterprise plan and had no time to spare to transfer his projects, we decided to help him, so we took over all the work.

My team and I created a dedicated work chat to resolve any transferring issues quickly.
I got a support manager involved, who helped us export 400+ files, and an account manager who settled with the customer to increase the account's project limit up to 250.

We designated each file for the project's positions in a separate region since the competitor service doesn't have the option to view and export data for several regions at once. We've had it for a long time, and it makes things easier for many customers.

In the meantime, having learned the exported data format, I set the task for the developer to prepare a script for creating documents with data in our database. And I took over the task of creating projects on Serpstat and their further setup.

In the competitor's platform, I encountered the following set of difficulties that slowed down the process:

• The list of projects only displayed a maximum of 100 projects; I had to look for the rest through the search bar.
  
  
• The project name and domain couldn't be copied from the interface.
  
  
• Tracked competitor domains couldn't be copied either (which eventually turned the creation and setup of projects into a living hell).
  
  
• There was no way to access all regions at once.
  

At that point, I had no idea that the list of hardships would triple by the end of this transferring challenge, but more on that later. I warned everyone I was loaded with an important task, and focused on the process all the way through.

The algorithm was quite simple, even though it included plenty of steps:

• Type the domain into the search bar.
  
  
• Copy.
  
  
• Create a project and insert a domain; the project name will automatically match it.

• Plus, I created a separate group for the customer to separate personal and client projects.

When the developer finished the script, we had to figure out how to determine what file belonged to which project and region. Keep in mind that each region could only be exported separately.

We agreed to quickly sketch out a table that clarifies what file is supposed to be transferred to which project and region.

I had to go into each project by hand and google the domain to copy it. Mind you, the domains are far from simple (just look at these names :))

Besides, I needed to make sure there were no spelling mistakes or typos.

The project transferring process itself didn't go without a hitch, either.

Here are the tasks we had to complete:

• Mark out file matching (I took it upon myself)
  
  
• In the export file, there were positions with a + and without it, both meaning a positive dynamic (there were documents in which the position data wasn't in the same format, which made us run the files through the script one by one, to make sure the transferred data was correct, and only then take 10 pieces at a time)
  

Instead, only the data on the end position and its change over the last tracking period was available.

So, we had to calculate the initial position for each keyword ourselves, and even though the script helped us simplify this task to as much as possible, it took a while to write it.

Eventually, we completed the task on time, and the customer confirmed all transferred data to be correct.

When all the work was done, we transferred projects from my account to the customer's and, at his request, turned on an automatic schedule for positions tracking on the 15th day of each month.

To make a transferring process from any other service faster, smoother, and more stable in the future, we have set the following goals and tasks:

We're already at the point where we can promptly transfer all historical data when clients move to the Serpstat platform. While doing so, we deliver upon customers' main expectation: ensure a smooth transition without visible changes for the end client (which is especially relevant for agencies or anyone working in digital marketing).

So there's no need to worry. The reports on positions dynamic will be ready right on time :)
On top of that, we will also select competitors by target keywords and track their positions for you. All of that is included in the basic functionality of any Serpstat plan.