Why seo migration & replatforming matters right now.
Every replatform, redesign, or domain move is a controlled explosion. Done well, the site emerges faster, cleaner, and better-ranking. Done poorly, six years of SEO equity evaporates in a single Tuesday-morning cutover.
We've run migrations across Shopify → Shopify Plus, WordPress → Webflow, custom → Next.js, sub-domain → sub-directory, and full domain rebrands. The pattern that wins every time is the same: exhaustive pre-audit, complete redirect map, content parity, staged QA, and a 90-day monitoring plan with a rollback trigger.
The migration is the small part. The audit is the big part.
By the time you're cutting over DNS, the SEO work should already be done. The audit — every URL, every ranking, every backlink target, every schema block, every internal link — is where 90% of migration risk lives.
We treat cutover day as an operational checklist, not a strategic exercise. If a decision has to be made on cutover day, we've already failed the audit.
The disciplines that make this work.
Pre-migration audit
Complete inventory of every URL, ranking, backlink target, and revenue-attributed page. Sourced from GSC, Semrush, Ahrefs, GA4, and a full crawl.
- URL inventory (indexed + backlinked)
- Ranking + traffic baseline
- Backlink target map
- Revenue-attributed URL list
Redirect strategy
1-to-1 redirect map for every URL that ranks, receives backlinks, or drives revenue. Chained redirects flattened. Query parameters handled explicitly.
- Full redirect map (CSV + regex)
- Chain flattening script
- Parameter handling rules
- 301 vs 302 decision log
Content & schema parity
Every page's title, H1, on-page content, internal links, and schema preserved or intentionally improved — never accidentally lost.
- Parity diff report
- Schema preservation checklist
- Internal link migration plan
- Hero-page rewrite review
Cutover & monitoring
Staged QA on a real environment, cutover-day operational checklist, and 90 days of daily monitoring with defined rollback triggers.
- Staging QA sign-off
- Cutover checklist
- 90-day monitoring dashboard
- Rollback trigger definition
Our proprietary approach.
Six phases, none skippable: Baseline → Map → Rebuild → Stage → Cutover → Monitor. Every phase has a written sign-off before the next starts. Migrations that skip a phase are the migrations that lose traffic.
- Step 01Baseline
Capture every ranking, backlink target, and revenue-attributed URL before anything changes.
- Step 02Map
Every old URL → new URL, including parameters, categories, and paginated series.
- Step 03Rebuild
Preserve on-page content, schema, and internal links on the new stack.
- Step 04Stage
Full QA on staging with a crawl and a redirect test suite.
- Step 05Cutover
Operational checklist executed in a defined window with real-time monitoring.
- Step 06Monitor
90 days of daily GSC + GA4 review with defined rollback triggers.
Deliverables, by cadence.
- Baseline audit
- Redirect map
- Parity report
- Staging QA sign-off
- Operational checklist
- Real-time monitoring
- War-room support
- Daily monitoring (30 days)
- Weekly review (60 days)
- Recovery playbook if triggered
A staged roadmap.
- Weeks 1–4
Audit & map
- Baseline capture
- URL inventory
- Redirect map v1
- Weeks 5–8
Build & stage
- Content parity checks
- Schema preservation
- Staging QA
- Week 9
Cutover
- War-room support
- Real-time monitoring
- Sign-off on 24-hour metrics
- Weeks 10–20
Monitor
- Daily → weekly monitoring
- Redirect gap fixes
- Ranking recovery playbook
Transparent pricing.
All engagements include a 30-day exit clause. If we're not the right fit, you keep every asset produced.
- Full audit + redirect map
- Parity checks
- Cutover war-room
- 90-day monitoring
- Multi-site consolidation
- International hreflang migration
- Dedicated engineering pair
We turn away work that isn't a fit.
- Sites replatforming (Shopify, WordPress, Webflow, Next.js, custom)
- Full redesigns changing URL structure
- Domain moves, rebrands, or multi-site consolidations
- Teams unwilling to delay launch for staging QA
- Sites without analytics or GSC access for baseline capture
Questions we get on every call.
How much traffic loss is normal after a migration?+
None. Well-executed migrations show zero loss and often a lift within 30–60 days as technical debt is retired. Loss is a symptom of missing redirects, changed content, or lost internal links — all preventable.
Can you migrate an already-launched site that lost traffic?+
Yes — this is the emergency variant. We run the same audit against the new site, identify redirect gaps and content regressions, and ship the fixes. Recovery is possible but takes 60–120 days.
Do we need to freeze the site during migration?+
Content freezes help but aren't mandatory. We can accommodate ongoing publishing with a defined merge protocol.
What's your rollback trigger?+
A defined threshold on organic clicks, impressions, or revenue over a 7-day window. Threshold is set jointly with your team before cutover.
How does this integrate with our dev team?+
We ship the redirect map, parity checklists, and monitoring dashboards. Your dev team owns the deployment. We're in the war room for cutover.
Ready to run seo migration & replatforming as a system?
Book a free strategy call. We'll audit your current footprint and tell you honestly whether we're the right fit.
Book a strategy call →