SEO migration services exist because most traffic loss after a relaunch is avoidable. The usual causes are old URLs that return 404, redirect chains, a staging noindex tag that ships to production, rewritten titles, internal links still pointing at old paths, and pages that quietly disappear because nobody knew they brought in traffic. Our job is to find every one of those before launch day and catch anything that slips through in the weeks after. If you searched for web migration services because a new site is on the way, this is the search side of that project: we make sure the rankings and links you already have arrive at the new site intact.
We work with founders, marketing managers and development teams, including agencies building the new site that want a separate SEO owner for the move. You do not need a full-build website migration agency; we plug into whoever is doing the build. Migrations are a focused part of our SEO services and draw heavily on our technical SEO work.
What Our Website Migration Services Cover
- Platform migrations. WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, Wix or Squarespace to Shopify, or any platform to a custom CMS. For store moves our developers can also handle the build through Shopify migration.
- Domain changes and rebrands. Server or CDN redirect rules, the Change of Address tool in Search Console, and updates to the profiles and links you control.
- URL restructures. New folder structures, dates removed from blog URLs or merged categories, all with a one-to-one redirect map.
- Redesigns on the same platform. New templates often change headings, internal links and content without anyone noticing. We review those alongside website redesign projects.
- Mergers and consolidations. Folding several sites or subdomains into one, deciding which content survives and where its authority should go.
- Protocol and hosting moves. HTTP to HTTPS, a new host or CDN, or a move from a subdomain blog into a subfolder. These look small but touch every URL and every canonical tag.
- International changes. Adding languages or country versions, or moving from country domains to folders, which means new hreflang sets and careful redirects per market.
What each item means for you
| Included | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Full URL inventory | No page that brings in traffic, links or sales is forgotten, including ones missing from the sitemap. |
| One-to-one redirect map | A sheet your developers can import directly, with every old URL, its new home and a status code. |
| Staging crawl comparison | Problems are fixed before launch, when they are cheap, instead of after rankings drop. |
| Launch-day checklist | A named owner and sign-off for every launch step, from removing noindex to submitting sitemaps. |
| Post-launch monitoring | Daily checks for the first two weeks, so a broken redirect is caught in hours, not at month end. |
How Our SEO Migration Services Work
- URL inventory (week 1). We combine a full crawl with the Search Console pages report, GA4 landing pages, XML sitemaps, Ahrefs backlink data and, where available, server logs. The result lists every URL with traffic, links or rankings, and it is always longer than the sitemap.
- Redirect map (weeks 1 to 3). Each old URL maps one-to-one to its closest equivalent with a 301 redirect. We avoid mass redirects to the homepage, which Google may treat as soft 404s, and flag pages with no equivalent so you can decide whether to rebuild or retire them.
- Staging review (2 to 3 weeks before launch). We crawl the new site on staging and compare titles, meta descriptions, headings, canonicals, hreflang, structured data, internal links and indexability against the old site. Differences go into a fix list with owners and deadlines.
- Launch day (day 0). We confirm redirects are live, staging noindex and robots blocks are gone, analytics tags fire, and new sitemaps are submitted. For domain moves we file the Change of Address request.
- Post-launch monitoring (weeks 1 to 8 after launch). We check crawl errors, 404s, redirect chains, indexing and rankings daily for the first two weeks, then weekly. Issues are fixed as they appear, not saved for a monthly report.
- Cleanup (weeks 4 to 8 after launch). Internal links are updated to point straight at final URLs, leftover chains are removed, and redirects stay in place for at least a year, in line with Google guidance.
SEO Migration Deliverables and How We Judge a Clean Launch
You receive working files at each stage, and they stay yours after the project ends:
- A URL inventory sheet with traffic, backlinks and a keep, redirect or retire decision for every URL.
- A redirect map in the import format your platform needs (Shopify CSV, Redirection plugin import, Nginx or Apache rules, Cloudflare bulk list).
- A staging fix list with owners, priorities and deadlines, plus a crawl comparison of old and new sites.
- A launch-day checklist signed off step by step.
- Weekly monitoring notes for up to eight weeks, then a closing report.
A clean launch is measurable. We look for every mapped URL returning a single 301 to a 200 page, no redirect chains longer than one hop, no unexpected 404s in Search Console, the new sitemap fully processed, indexed page counts returning to their pre-launch level, and organic clicks to key landing pages recovering as Google recrawls. We report those against your pre-migration benchmark, not against hopes.
Website Migration SEO Checklist for Launch Week
The full process lives in our SEO migration checklist. These are the launch-week checks we never skip:
- Benchmark Search Console clicks, impressions and indexed pages, and save a crawl of the old site.
- Confirm the redirect map covers http, https, www, non-www and trailing slash variants.
- Remove staging noindex tags, password protection and robots.txt disallow rules.
- Check canonical tags point to new URLs, not to staging or old paths.
- Confirm GA4, Google Ads conversion tags and Meta pixel fire on the new templates.
- Submit the new XML sitemap and keep the old one available for a few weeks so Google recrawls old URLs and sees the redirects.
- Spot-test the top 50 landing pages by hand, from the old URL through to the final page.
Common SEO Migration Mistakes That Cost Traffic
- Changing everything at once. A new platform, new URLs, new design and rewritten content in one launch makes any drop hard to diagnose. Where budgets allow, we separate changes.
- Mapping only the sitemap. Sitemaps miss PDFs, old campaign pages, parameter URLs and archived posts that still earn links.
- Redirecting to the homepage. Google tends to treat mass homepage redirects as soft 404s, so the authority of those pages does not pass on.
- Launching on a Friday. Problems found on Saturday wait until Monday. We plan launches early in the week.
- Removing redirects after a few months. Links to old URLs keep arriving for years. Redirects should stay as long as you can keep them.
Case Study: Our Own WordPress to Custom CMS Migration
We are running this process on our own business. 95solutions.com started life on WordPress, and we are moving it to the PHP and SQLite CMS our team wrote for Boiler Decoder, the UK boiler fault-code reference site we built and run.
The challenge
We wanted features that were awkward to maintain as a stack of plugins: JSON-LD schema generated from page data, an llms.txt file, IndexNow pings on publish, drip-feed publishing, cookie-free analytics and Search Console keyword reporting inside the admin. We also wanted a deeper service structure than the old site had, which meant new URLs for much of the content.
What we did
- Listed every URL the WordPress site exposed, including automatic archives, checked them against Search Console, and decided for each whether to keep, redirect or retire it.
- Designed the new architecture as service silos, with parent pages linking down to specific services and across to related ones. It is the structure you are browsing now.
- Rewrote content page by page for the new structure instead of copying old posts across unchanged.
- Launched the core pages first and queued the rest for drip-feed publishing, so new pages go live in steady batches and are submitted through IndexNow as they publish.
Results so far
It is too early to report traffic figures honestly, so we will not guess. We are monitoring indexing, redirects and crawl errors in Search Console on the same schedule we use for client migrations. If you are weighing a similar move, our guide to custom CMS vs WordPress covers the trade-offs.
Platform Details That Catch Teams Out
Most website migration SEO problems hide in platform defaults rather than in the redirect map.
Shopify
Shopify fixes its URL patterns: products under /products/, collections under /collections/, pages under /pages/ and articles under /blogs/ plus a blog handle. Every old URL outside those patterns needs a redirect, and Shopify URL redirects only fire when no live page exists at the old path.
WordPress and WooCommerce
WordPress generates tag, author, date and attachment archives plus feeds that owners forget about, and WooCommerce adds /product/ and /product-category/ bases. Each needs a decision in the map, even if the decision is to let it go.
Domain moves
For domain migration SEO, redirects must cover http, https, www and non-www variants and preserve the path. Keep the old domain registered and its redirects live, or you throw away every link pointing at it.
SEO Migration Tools We Use
| Category | Tools |
|---|---|
| Crawling and comparison | Screaming Frog SEO Spider (including crawl comparison), Sitebulb |
| Search data | Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics 4 |
| Backlinks | Ahrefs, Semrush |
| Redirects | Shopify URL redirects and CSV import, Redirection plugin for WordPress, Nginx and Apache rules, Cloudflare bulk redirects |
| Indexing and monitoring | XML sitemaps, IndexNow, URL Inspection, rank tracking, server logs |
Why Hire an SEO Migration Agency If You Have Developers?
Because developers are measured on launching a working site, and SEO losses do not show up as bugs. A homepage redirect, a dropped canonical or a rewritten title all pass QA. An SEO migration agency asks a different question: does every URL with traffic, links or rankings have a home? We write the SEO migration strategy, give your developers the redirect map and fix lists, and check staging and launch against the old site. Built-in platform tools and plugins help with redirects, but they do not decide which pages matter.
How to choose an SEO migration agency
- Ask to see a sample redirect map and staging fix list. Vague answers about "handling redirects" are a warning sign.
- Check that they use your real data (Search Console, GA4, backlinks, logs), not only a crawl.
- Confirm who monitors after launch, how often, and for how long.
- Make sure they will work with your developers or agency rather than insisting on rebuilding the site themselves.
- Avoid anyone who promises zero ranking movement.
Why Choose 95 Solutions for SEO Migration Services
- We have done it to ourselves. We moved our own site to our own CMS.
- SEO and developers on one team. We build on Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce and custom stacks, so redirect rules and template fixes can be made directly, not passed around as tickets.
- Senior-led. Mustafa, with 11+ years in digital marketing, acts as your SEO website migration consultant, owning the plan and signing off the launch checklist.
- You keep every file. The URL inventory, redirect map and crawl data are handed to you and stay yours.
Who Needs SEO Migration Services
A good fit
- Businesses with meaningful organic traffic planning an SEO site migration for a replatform, redesign or domain change.
- Agencies building a site that want a dedicated SEO owner for the move.
- Companies merging sites after an acquisition or rebrand.
Probably not a fit
- Brand new sites with no traffic yet. You need an SEO-friendly build, not a migration.
- Sites that launched weeks ago without redirects. That is a recovery project, and it starts with an SEO audit.
- Anyone who needs a guarantee of zero movement. Some fluctuation while Google reprocesses a site is normal.
How Long an SEO Migration Takes
For most sites, bring us in 4 to 8 weeks before launch. Large catalogs, several languages or multi-domain mergers need longer. After launch we monitor for 4 to 8 weeks, which is usually how long it takes for Google to recrawl and settle. You can prepare with our SEO migration checklist.
SEO Migration Services Pricing
Our SEO migration services are fixed price, scoped by URL count, complexity and whether we implement or your developers do. Migration Plan covers strategy and the redirect map for your team to build, while Managed Migration and Large Migration include implementation support and monitoring. The biggest cost drivers are the number of indexable URLs, how many URL patterns change, the number of languages or domains involved, whether server logs are available, and how long you want post-launch monitoring to run.
Migration Plan
$950 one-time
One-time
- Sites up to 500 URLs
- Full pre-migration crawl and benchmark
- URL-by-URL 301 redirect map
- Metadata and schema carried over
- Launch-day checklist for your developer
Managed Migration
$2,400 one-time
One-time, 50% upfront
- Sites up to 5,000 URLs
- Everything in Migration Plan
- We test staging and implement redirects
- Search Console and sitemap handover
- 30 days of post-launch monitoring and fixes
Large Migration
From $4,500 project
Milestone billing
- 5,000+ URLs, domain changes or replatforming
- Log file and crawl comparison
- Traffic recovery plan
- 60 days of monitoring
All prices in USD. Need something different? Ask for a custom quote.
For multi-site mergers or unusual stacks, contact us for a custom quote.
Plan Your SEO Site Migration Before the Launch Date Is Fixed
The earlier we see the project, the cheaper the fixes. Request a free audit with your current URL, the new platform and your target launch date. We reply within one business day, hold a short call with you and your developers, and send a written scope with the plan level, timeline and the risks we can already see. Prefer to talk first? Call or WhatsApp us from the contact page.