What Is an SEO Migration, Really?
In SEO terms, a migration is a coordinated change to a website that prompts search engines to re-crawl and re-evaluate its pages. It’s not simply the movement of URLs from one system to another, but a deliberate effort to maintain and enhance the equity those pages have built over time.
Why It Matters
An effective migration safeguards the three pillars of organic performance:
- Rankings and traffic: When page templates, URL structures, or content are changed without appropriate mapping, relevance and authority signals can be disrupted.
- Crawl health: Adjustments to internal linking, performance, or robots rules can influence how efficiently search engines explore and index a site.
- Revenue: Organic search is often a business’s most reliable and highest-intent channel. Protecting that visibility directly supports commercial performance.
Common Migration Scenarios
- Platform switch: Moving from one platform to another, such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify.
- Site redesign: Implementing extensive changes to page layout, codebase, or user experience.
- Rebranding or domain change: Transitioning an entire website to a new domain.
- URL restructuring: Adjusting URL logic or folder structures.
- HTTP to HTTPS: Migrating to a secure protocol, which is now standard practice.
Myth #1: “SEO Migrations Always Tank Your Rankings”
The Truth:
Temporary fluctuations in visibility are normal as search engines re-crawl and re-map your site, but the likelihood of these fluctuations turning into sustained losses is rare. With careful planning, quality assurance, and monitoring, ranking stability is entirely achievable.
Insight:
The foundation of a stable migration lies in content and signal parity—ensuring that titles, headings, metadata, schema, and internal link structures remain consistent between the old and new versions of the site. Redirects act as the connective tissue between the two environments, passing authority via 301 redirects. These should be mapped one-to-one wherever possible and kept free from unnecessary chains.
Equally important is crawl simulation before launch. By testing how bots traverse the new site, teams can identify potential dead ends or disrupted PageRank flow in advance, ensuring continuity once the site is live.
Myth #2: “Redirects Solve Everything”
The Truth:
Redirects are essential, but they’re not a complete solution. They can preserve link equity but can’t compensate for missing content, misaligned canonicals (a URL tag in SEO, which indicates the preferred version of a webpage to search engines), or disrupted internal linking.
Pro-tip:
- Audit and update internal links: Internal links pointing to old URLs force unnecessary hops and dilute equity. Update navigation, footers, breadcrumbs, and in-content links to the final destination.
- Canonical alignment: Post-launch, confirm each new canonical points to the new live URL (not the legacy one) and that redirects & canonicals aren’t in conflict.
- Schema continuity: Keep product, article, and organization schema equivalent or improved to retain rich results.
Myth #3: “You Shouldn’t Expect Any Traffic Drops”
The Truth:
Even a flawlessly executed migration will typically produce short-term fluctuations in traffic and rankings. This is a normal part of the re-crawling and re-indexing process as search engines adapt to the new site environment.
Insight:
A typical recovery follows three clear stages:
- Re-crawl (Days 1–7): Search engines begin to rediscover and index the new URLs, often causing initial volatility.
- Re-evaluate (Weeks 2–4): Signals consolidate and rankings begin to stabilize.
- Stabilize and grow (Weeks 4–12): Performance levels return to baseline and, with continued optimization, can surpass them.
A carefully monitored migration enables teams to identify and resolve issues during these phases. Temporary fluctuations aren’t failures—they’re expected stages in a controlled process.
Myth #4: “SEO Migrations Are Only About URLs”
The Truth:
A migration extends far beyond URL changes. It touches every component that influences search performance and user experience.
Insight:
An effective migration preserves or improves the underlying ecosystem that supports visibility, after migration check:
- Content: Confirm that all essential copy, images, and assets have transferred accurately.
- Page speed: Validate that the new environment performs as efficiently as the old one.
- Mobile experience: Ensure responsiveness and accessibility remain intact.
- Site structure: Maintain logical hierarchy and intuitive navigation for both users and crawlers.
Checklist for a Successful SEO Migration
Understanding the realities of SEO migration is only part of the process. Implementing it effectively is where the real challenge, and opportunity, lies. Because migrations touch so many moving parts, from redirects to content parity and analytics tracking, they’re often more demanding than teams anticipate. We recommend working with a specialist partner to oversee the process, or working with your ecommerce agency to add SEO migration as part of your platform move.
However, to help you understand what a structured process looks like, here’s a checklist to outline the key stages and considerations for a successful SEO migration:
1. Pre-Migration Audit & Benchmark
- Crawl your entire existing site using a tool like Screaming Frog or SEMRush. Export all URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, and H1s.
- Use your analytics to identify your top-performing pages by traffic, conversions, and backlinks. These are your highest-priority assets.
- Benchmark your current keyword rankings, traffic levels, revenue, bounce rate, and page speed.
2. Meticulous Redirect Mapping
- Create a spreadsheet with two columns: "Old URL" and "New URL."
- Map every URL from your crawl export to its new, direct equivalent.
- For pages that are being deleted, redirect them to the most relevant parent category or a suitable alternative page. Avoid redirecting all deleted pages to the homepage.
3. Staging Environment Testing
- This is non-negotiable. Implement all changes on a "staging" (test) server that is not visible to the public or search engines.
- Crawl the staging site.
- Crawl Simulation: Test your redirects. Use a crawling tool to check a list of your old URLs. Do they all 301 redirect to the correct new page? Do any result in 404s (Not Found) or redirect chains?
- Check canonical tags, internal links, and page speed on the new staging site.
4. Post-Launch Monitoring
- Day 1 (Launch Day):
- Implement all 301 redirects.
- Submit your new XML sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Use Google Search Console's "Change of Address" tool if you moved domains.
- Do a live crawl of the new site to check for any immediate errors.
- Week 1:
- Monitor Google Search Console's "Index Coverage" and "Crawl Stats" reports like a hawk. Look for a spike in 404 errors or a drop in crawl activity.
- Monitor your rankings and traffic for your top pages.
- Month 1:
- Keep checking for 404 errors (using Google Search Console or site crawlers) as Google finds deep, old links.
- Compare your traffic and rankings to the benchmarks you took in step 1. You should see stabilization and recovery beginning.
For organizations considering a platform migration or rebrand, early collaboration with experienced specialists makes all the difference. Our SEO team at Domaine partners with businesses to plan, execute, and monitor migrations that balance technical precision with commercial impact.
Connect with our team to discuss your SEO migration or wider platform migration.
