SEO Migration Services: Change Your Website Without Losing Rankings
Our SEO migration services protect your organic traffic when you redesign, move to a new CMS, change domains or restructure URLs. We benchmark what ranks today, map every valuable URL, test the new site before launch and monitor Google afterwards, so a website migration becomes a planned change, not a traffic crash.
Talk to us before launch day. It costs far less than recovery.
What is an SEO migration?
An SEO migration is any website change that can affect how search engines crawl, index or rank your pages, such as a new domain, CMS, URL structure or major redesign. SEO migration services identify the pages and signals that must survive the move, then plan, test and monitor the change so Google can transfer rankings to the new site.
- The safest time to find a missing redirect is on staging, before Google sees it.
- Redirect each old URL to its closest match, never everything to the homepage.
- Change one major thing at a time where you can; combined moves carry combined risk.
Types of Website Migration and Their SEO Risk
Not every migration changes URLs. Google separates site moves with URL changes from infrastructure moves where visible URLs stay the same. Each type needs a different plan.
| Migration type | Main SEO risk | What we protect |
|---|---|---|
| Domain change / rebrand | Signals must transfer to a new domain | Redirects, Change of Address, backlinks |
| CMS replatform | Templates, metadata and rendering change | Content parity, titles, schema, URLs |
| URL restructure | Indexed addresses disappear | One-to-one redirect map |
| Redesign | Content, headings and internal links change | Copy, navigation and link equity |
| Site merge / consolidation | Several pages or domains need one destination | Relevant destinations, no mass homepage redirects |
| HTTP to HTTPS | Every URL changes protocol | Site-wide 301s, canonicals, mixed content |
| Hosting / CDN move | Speed, DNS and server errors | Crawl health and uptime |
| International restructure | Canonicals and hreflang change | Country versions and hreflang |
What’s Included in Our SEO Migration Services?
Website migration services often focus on moving files and data. Ours focus on moving your search visibility, with every step below included.
Benchmark & URL Inventory
Every indexable URL, its traffic, rankings, backlinks and conversions, recorded before anything changes.
URL Mapping & Redirect Plan
Old-to-new mapping with 301 rules your developer can implement directly, including images and PDFs.
Staging Site Audit
Crawl of the new site before launch: indexability, canonicals, metadata, rendering and speed.
Content & Metadata Parity
Checks that ranking content, titles, headings and schema survive the move instead of being cut.
Internal Links & Canonicals
Internal links, canonicals, hreflang and sitemaps updated to point straight at the new URLs.
Analytics & Tracking
GA4, Search Console, tag manager and conversion tracking verified so you can measure the move.
Launch-Day QA
Redirect testing, robots and noindex checks, and status codes on priority URLs as soon as you go live.
Post-Launch Monitoring
Indexing, errors, rankings and traffic compared with the benchmark for weeks after launch.
How We Build an SEO Migration Plan
You need an SEO migration strategy whenever a change can alter how Google crawls, indexes or ranks your important pages. A spreadsheet is not a plan: every task needs an owner, a deadline and a pass-or-fail test.
Benchmark & Inventory
Record rankings, traffic, conversions and every URL from crawls, sitemaps, analytics, logs and Search Console links.
Map & Test on Staging
Map each changing URL, then crawl staging to check redirects, canonicals, content and indexability.
Launch & Validate
Go live, remove staging blocks, test redirects on production and submit new sitemaps and Change of Address.
Monitor & Fix
Compare against the benchmark, fix 404s and gaps quickly and report until traffic settles.
How Redirects Should Work in a Website Migration
Each retired URL should go to its most relevant replacement with a permanent, server-side 301 or 308 redirect, in one hop. Google treats permanent redirects as a strong signal that the new URL is the one to rank.
Avoid: old URL → old category → new category → final page.
Prefer: old URL → final relevant page.
Sending large numbers of unrelated old pages to the homepage is a common shortcut, and Google may treat those redirects as soft 404s, so the old page’s value is lost anyway.
Every redirect is checked for
- Correct status: 301 or 308, not 302
- One hop to the final destination
- Destination returns 200 and is indexable
- Destination canonical points to itself
- Relevance: same topic as the old page
- Priority by traffic, links and conversions
Our Site Migration Checklist: Before, During and After Launch
A website migration SEO checklist is incomplete if it ends when the redirects go live. Ours runs in three stages.
Before launch
- Crawl the old site and record benchmarks
- Map every changing URL
- Crawl staging; compare content and metadata
- Update internal links, canonicals, hreflang
- Prepare new XML sitemap and tracking
- Agree launch-blocking issues and a rollback plan
Launch day
- Remove staging noindex and robots blocks
- Test redirects on priority URLs
- Check for 404 and unexpected 5xx errors
- Validate production canonicals
- Test forms and conversion tracking
- Submit sitemap and Change of Address
After launch
- Monitor indexing in Search Console
- Compare clicks, rankings and conversions
- Re-crawl redirects and fix new 404s
- Watch server errors and speed
- Ask top linking sites to update links
- Keep redirects and the old domain for 1+ years
Domain Migration SEO
A domain move redirects every old URL to its equivalent on the new domain, for example oldsite.com.au/services/roofing/ to newsite.com.au/services/roofing/, not to the new homepage. New pages use their own canonicals, internal links point straight to new URLs, and Change of Address is submitted in Search Console. Keep the old domain registered and its redirects live for at least a year.
CMS Replatforms: WordPress, Shopify and More
Every platform changes URLs in its own way. Shopify forces /products/ and /collections/ paths; WordPress, Wix and Squarespace each handle slugs, categories and redirects differently. We map those rules before migration, rebuild metadata and schema on the new templates and check that content is not hidden behind JavaScript. For the build side, see our SEO website services.
What Causes a Failed Website Migration?
- Valuable pages removed with no replacement
- Redirects to irrelevant pages, or redirect chains
- Staging noindex or robots.txt left live
- Canonicals still pointing to old or staging URLs
- Ranking content shortened for the new design
- Analytics tags lost, so nobody sees the drop
The rule is simple: don’t launch because the homepage looks finished. Launch when the search-critical tests pass.
Already Migrated and Lost Traffic?
Most migration drops are fixable, especially if you act within weeks. Our recovery audit compares your old URL list with the new site, finds missing and broken redirects, blocked or noindexed pages and content that disappeared, then fixes them in order of the traffic each page used to earn. If you no longer have the old URL list, we rebuild it from Search Console, analytics, backlinks and archived copies of the site.
How Long Does an SEO Migration Take?
Planning takes longer than launch. Google then needs time to process the move, and larger sites take longer.
| Stage | Small to medium site | Large site (10,000+ URLs) |
|---|---|---|
| Benchmark, inventory & mapping | 1–2 weeks | 3–6 weeks |
| Staging audit & fixes | 1–2 weeks | 2–6 weeks |
| Launch-day QA | 1 day | 1–3 days |
| Google processing the move | A few weeks | Several months |
| Keep redirects live | At least 1 year | At least 1 year |
Migrating a very large site? Our enterprise SEO services add log file analysis and sprint-based delivery.
How Much Do SEO Migration Services Cost?
Cost depends on the number of URLs, how much changes at once and how involved we are on launch day. The ranges below reflect typical Australian market rates.
Migration Plan & Consulting
SEO website migration consulting for teams whose developer does the build.
- Benchmark & URL inventory
- Redirect map & rules
- Staging audit & launch checklist
Full Migration Management
We manage SEO from planning to 8 weeks after launch.
- Everything in the plan
- Launch-day QA with your developer
- Post-launch monitoring & fixes
Migration Recovery Audit
For sites that already migrated and lost traffic.
- Old vs new URL comparison
- Broken & missing redirects
- Prioritised recovery plan
How to Choose an SEO Migration Company
Many web developers can move a site; fewer can move its search visibility. The right SEO migration company works alongside your developer from the planning stage, not after launch, and can show you the redirect map, test results and monitoring plan in writing.
No honest provider can promise zero ranking movement. Google itself says temporary fluctuations can happen during a correct move. What a good partner can promise is that nothing valuable is left behind, and that problems are caught in days, not months.
Questions to ask
- How do you build the URL inventory?
- Will you audit staging before launch?
- Who is online on launch day?
- How long will you monitor after launch?
- What is the rollback plan if tests fail?
SEO Migration Services: Frequently Asked Questions
Can a website migration hurt SEO?
Should every old URL get a 301 redirect?
How long should migration redirects stay live?
Do I need the Change of Address tool for a domain migration?
How long does Google take to process a site migration?
Does a redesign that keeps the same URLs need SEO migration help?
Can changing web hosts affect SEO?
We already migrated and lost traffic. Can it be fixed?
Planning a Redesign, Replatform or Domain Change?
Talk to us before launch day. We’ll review your current rankings and the new site plan, then show you exactly which pages and signals need protecting.