Moving to a new platform is a chance to fix years of workarounds. It is also the moment many stores lose a large chunk of their search traffic, almost always because of something that could have been planned for. Use this migration SEO checklist before you switch.
1. Benchmark everything
Record your current organic traffic, top landing pages, rankings for important keywords and revenue by channel. Without a “before” picture, you cannot tell whether the migration helped or hurt.
2. Crawl and export every URL
Use a crawler to list every page on the current site: products, categories, content, images and PDFs. Export your sitemap and the most-visited URLs from analytics too. Pages with backlinks or steady traffic are the ones you cannot afford to lose.
3. Build a redirect map
Every old URL that changes needs a permanent (301) redirect to its closest new equivalent, not just to the homepage. Google’s guide to moving a site explains how it handles these redirects.
- Match products to products and categories to categories
- Redirect retired products to the most relevant category
- Avoid redirect chains, where one redirect leads to another
4. Keep what is working
Carry over page titles, meta descriptions, headings and product copy for pages that already rank well. A migration is not the time to rewrite everything at once.
5. Move structured data and tracking
Check that product schema, breadcrumbs, analytics, conversion tracking and ad pixels all work on the new platform before launch, not after. Our technical SEO team can check this for you.
6. Test on a staging site
Run the new store on a staging site that search engines cannot index. Crawl it, test the redirects in bulk and place real test orders.
7. Launch at a quiet time
Avoid peak season and big campaigns. Launch early in the week so your team is around to fix issues.
8. Watch closely for four weeks
After launch:
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console
- Check daily for crawl errors and spikes in 404 pages
- Compare traffic and rankings with your benchmark
- Fix broken redirects as soon as they appear
Some movement in rankings is normal for a few weeks. Large, lasting drops usually point to missing redirects or content.
Planning a move? Our platform migration team handles the redirect mapping, data transfer and testing, so your rankings come with you.
