Redesign or migrate your website without losing your rankings.
A new site, platform or domain is the riskiest day in a website’s SEO life. We map every URL, carry over what ranks, run the launch-day checks and watch the numbers afterwards, so the traffic you’ve built comes with you.
Benchmark your site first
First finding lands in about ten seconds. No email needed to see it.
Nothing is sent anywhere until you say so
- Redesigns, platform moves and domain changes
- Shopify, WordPress and custom sites
SEO experience with brands like
Where do you want to start?
Three ways in, depending on where your migration is.
- 01
We’re planning a migration
Tell us what’s changing and how big the site is. You’ll get a risk rating and a checklist for your migration in about a minute.
Check my migration risk - 02
We launched and traffic dropped
Run a free snapshot of the new site. The first finding shows up in about ten seconds, and we’ll tell you what to fix first.
Run a snapshot - 03
We need the new site built too
We build fast, search-friendly sites on Next.js and React with technical SEO planned in from the first commit.
Custom web development
How risky is your migration?
Pick what’s changing and how big the site is. You’ll see a risk rating, what can break, and the checklist for your migration.
Enough is changing that rankings can slip without a redirect map and launch-day checks.
- New design or templates: Headings, copy and internal links quietly disappear in the new templates.
- URLs or site structure changing: Any old URL without a matching 301 redirect drops out of Google along with its rankings.
Your answers are sent with the request. We’ll set up a call to scope the project, then quote.
What changes in a migration, and what can break
Every website migration is one or more of these. The more of them happen at once, the more the SEO needs planning before the build starts.
- Lower risk
New design or templates
Headings, copy and internal links quietly disappear in the new templates.
- High risk
New platform or CMS
Every URL, title and structured data block is rebuilt, and old URL patterns rarely carry over.
- High risk
URLs or site structure changing
Any old URL without a matching 301 redirect drops out of Google along with its rankings.
- High risk
New domain name
Google has to transfer every ranking signal to a domain it doesn’t know yet.
- Medium risk
Pages removed, merged or rewritten
Pages that were earning traffic get cut or diluted before anyone checks what they ranked for.
- High risk
Merging two or more sites
Overlapping pages compete with each other, and one site’s rankings can vanish into the other.
- Medium risk
Moving to a JavaScript framework
If content only renders in the browser, Google may index empty pages.
- Medium risk
HTTPS, www or subdomain change
Mixed protocols and redirect chains split signals across duplicate versions of each page.
Website migration SEO checklist
The checks that protect rankings through a migration or redesign, in the order we run them. Use it yourself, or have us run it.
Before launch
Most migration losses are decided here, weeks before launch.
- Benchmark rankings, organic traffic and conversions for every page
- Crawl the current site and export every URL
- Flag the pages that earn traffic and conversions, so none are lost
- Build a one-to-one 301 redirect map from every old URL to its new home
- Carry over titles, meta descriptions, headings and structured data
- Update internal links to point straight at the new URLs
- Decide what happens to every removed or merged page
- Check that staging pages render their content for Google
- Keep staging out of Google with noindex or a password
Launch day
A short list, checked in order, the day the new site goes live.
- Remove staging noindex tags and robots.txt blocks
- Switch on redirects and test a sample of old URLs
- Check canonical tags point at the new URLs
- Submit the new XML sitemap in Search Console
- Run Search Console’s Change of Address tool
- Verify the new site in Search Console and analytics
After launch
Watch closely for the first weeks, then compare against the benchmark.
- Check crawl errors and 404s daily for the first two weeks
- Fix missed URLs and redirect chains as they show up
- Track rankings, organic traffic and conversions against the benchmark
- Keep redirects in place for at least a year
What our SEO migration services include
Everything on the checklist, done for you, with the evidence to show nothing was lost.
Pre-migration benchmark
Rankings, traffic and conversions recorded page by page, so every change after launch can be measured.
Full URL inventory
Every URL on the old site from a crawl, Search Console and analytics, with the ones that matter flagged.
301 redirect map
A one-to-one map from every old URL to its new home, tested before and after launch.
On-page carry-over
Titles, descriptions, headings, internal links and structured data moved to the new templates.
Staging audit
A crawl of the new site before launch: rendering, indexability, canonicals, speed and broken links.
Launch-day checks
Noindex and robots blocks lifted, redirects live, sitemaps submitted, Search Console updated.
Post-launch monitoring
Daily crawl-error and 404 checks for the first two weeks, then rankings and traffic against the benchmark.
AI search visibility
The prompts buyers ask AI assistants, tracked before and after, so you can see if citations move.
Free tools for your migration
Running parts of it yourself? These free RedSEO tools cover the most common checks.
Website page counter
Find every page on the old site before you plan redirects.
Open the toolRedirect checker
Confirm old URLs return a single 301 to the right page.
Open the toolSitemap validator
Check the new XML sitemap before you submit it.
Open the toolRobots.txt tester
Make sure launch didn’t ship the staging blocks.
Open the toolSSR checker
See whether a JavaScript site’s content is in the HTML Google gets.
Open the toolGooglebot simulator
View a page the way Google’s crawler sees it.
Open the tool
How migration SEO is priced
A migration is a project, so it’s quoted on its own. We’ll hop on a call to go through the details, and may pull some preliminary data on your site first, but an accurate quote depends on the full scope: how many URLs move and what’s changing. A redesign on the same URLs is a much smaller job than a platform move or a merge of two sites.
Keep growing on a monthly plan
Most sites come out of a migration with new pages to build on. Monthly SEO packages start at $749 a month, month-to-month.
Monthly SEO packagesWebsite migration SEO questions
Will a website redesign hurt my SEO?
It can, but it doesn’t have to. Rankings drop when old URLs aren’t redirected, when content and headings get lost in new templates, or when staging blocks ship to production. A redesign planned with SEO from the start can keep rankings steady and often improves them, because the new site is faster and better structured.
What is an SEO website migration?
An SEO migration is any change big enough to affect how Google finds and ranks your site: a new domain, a new platform or CMS, a new URL structure, merging sites, or a major redesign. Migration SEO is the work that protects rankings through that change: benchmarking, a URL inventory, a redirect map, launch checks and monitoring.
How long does it take traffic to recover after a migration?
With a complete redirect map and a clean launch, many sites see a short dip while Google recrawls, then settle back within weeks. Domain changes and large sites take longer because Google has more to reprocess. Unplanned migrations can take months to recover, which is why the work is front-loaded before launch.
What’s on a website migration SEO checklist?
Before launch: benchmark every page, crawl the old site, build a 301 redirect map, carry over on-page SEO and check staging. On launch day: lift staging blocks, switch on redirects, check canonicals, submit sitemaps and update Search Console. After launch: watch crawl errors daily, fix missed URLs and compare against the benchmark. The full checklist is on this page.
How much do SEO migration services cost?
Migration SEO is quoted per project. We start with a call to go through the details, and may pull some preliminary data on your site beforehand, but an accurate quote depends on understanding the full scope: how many URLs move and what’s changing (design only, platform, domain or a merge). Use the risk checker on this page to send us the basics. For ongoing SEO after launch, see our monthly SEO packages.
Should we change domain and redesign at the same time?
If you can, stagger them. Each change makes it harder to tell what caused a ranking movement, and Google has more to reprocess at once. When both have to happen together, the redirect map and post-launch monitoring matter even more.
We already launched and lost traffic. Can you help?
Yes. Start by comparing old URLs with what they now return: missing redirects, redirect chains, noindex tags left from staging and lost content are the usual causes, and most can be fixed. Run the free snapshot on this page, or send us the details and we’ll set up a call to plan the recovery.
Do you work with Shopify, WordPress and custom sites?
Yes. We handle migrations to and from Shopify, WordPress and custom platforms, including moves to JavaScript frameworks like Next.js, where server-side rendering decides whether Google sees your content. See Shopify SEO services for store migrations.
Can you build the new site as well?
Yes. We build custom sites on Next.js and React with technical SEO planned in from the start. See custom web development.
Planning a redesign or migration? Plan the SEO first.
Check your migration’s risk in about a minute, then send it to us for a quote.