SEO migration services

Redesign your site without losing your rankings.

Most traffic drops after a redesign happen in the migration plan, not in Google. I map every URL that earns traffic, check the launch and fix what breaks, before it costs you leads.

By Adrijana Palatinuš Perić, Senior SEO Manager · Updated

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What you get

What I do

Migration plan

An inventory of every URL with traffic, links or rankings, and where each one goes in the new site.

Redirect mapping

One-to-one 301 redirects, tested before launch, with no chains and no mass redirects to the homepage.

Launch checks

Staging review, then checks on launch day: status codes, canonicals, robots rules, sitemaps and tracking.

Post-launch recovery

Already migrated and lost traffic? I find the lost pages and get them back.

Is this for you

Migrations I cover

Redesign

New design and templates on the same domain, often with new URLs and merged pages.

Replatforming

Moving to a new CMS or e-commerce platform, such as WordPress, Shopify, Magento or a custom build.

Domain change or rebrand

A new domain name, with Google’s Change of Address tool and redirects for every old URL.

URL structure change

New folders, removed dates or a flatter structure, where every changed URL needs a redirect.

Merging sites

Several sites or country versions consolidated into one, keeping the pages that earn traffic.

Recovery after launch

The migration already happened and traffic dropped. I find what was lost and get it back.

Deliverables

Before, during and after launch

Proof

Case study

Client names are withheld under NDA. Each card shows the period, start and end values and where the numbers come from.

Marketplace · AustraliaDec 2023 – Apr 2024

Hospitality events marketplace

+324%app installs from organic search

  • Diagnosed a failed migration that wiped location pages
  • New URL structure by city, offer and weekday
  • Redirects, sitemap cleanup, titles and H1s

How it's measured: app first-opens from organic search (GA4), Dec 2023 – Apr 2024. Clicks and impressions: Search Console, first vs last month.

Top-3 keywords65 → 175
Monthly clicks (GSC)6,610 → 12.3K
Impressions (GSC)515K → 920K
Read the full case study
The challenge
A site rebuild in mid-2023 removed the “specials + location” pages that brought in most organic users. Mass redirects sent that traffic elsewhere, and rankings and app installs fell.
What I found
The drop came from the lost pages, plus filtered URLs where clean ones should be, HTTP pages that never redirected to HTTPS, orphan pages missing from the sitemap and broken 404 and 410 handling.
The plan
Bring the lost landing pages back on clean URLs by city, type of special and weekday. Then fix the technical basics so Google could find those pages and trust them again.
What we shipped
  • 301 redirects to HTTPS
  • A clean sitemap, with orphan pages added
  • UX fixes: a list view and fully clickable cards
  • New titles, meta descriptions and H1s, plus correct 404 and 410 responses
Results
App first-opens from organic search grew 324% in four months. Organic traffic went from about 6.6K to 12K a month and engaged sessions grew 109%. Search clicks rose from 6.61K to 12.3K, impressions from 515K to 920K and average position from 17.6 to 14.9. Top-3 keywords went from 65 to 175.
What it taught me
Most traffic drops after a redesign happen in the migration plan, not in Google. I now map every URL that earns traffic before a launch, so pages are never lost in the first place. It is the cheapest SEO work I do, and I start most site migrations and rebuilds with it.
Data
First-opens and engaged sessions: GA4. Clicks, impressions and position: Search Console. Keywords: Ahrefs. Dec 2023 vs Apr 2024.

Grey bar is the starting point, green is the result. See all seven case studies.

How I work

The process

  1. Intro call

    30 minutes on the migration: what changes, the timeline and who is involved. Free.

  2. URL inventory

    Every URL that earns traffic, links or rankings, from Search Console, analytics and a crawl.

  3. Redirect map & staging review

    A complete map and a check of the new site before it goes live.

  4. Launch & monitoring

    Checks on launch day and weekly monitoring until traffic is stable.

Why a consultant

Senior help without the agency layers

You work with me directly

No account managers or juniors between you and the person doing the work.

Senior from the first call

I have led SEO for brands in the US, UK, EU and Australia, across e-commerce, SaaS, marketplaces and clinics.

Written for your team

Every recommendation is a task your developers or writers can ship, with the reason behind it.

Measured in revenue

I report on organic revenue and leads in GA4, not only on rankings.

FAQ

Site migrations questions

When should SEO get involved in a migration?

As early as possible, ideally while the new site structure is still being planned. Changes are cheap before launch and expensive after it.

Will I lose traffic when I migrate?

Some movement in the first weeks is normal. With a complete redirect map and proper launch checks, rankings usually settle back. Big, lasting drops come from lost pages and broken redirects, and those can be prevented.

Can you fix a migration that already went wrong?

Yes. I compare the old and new URLs, find the pages and rankings that were lost, and rebuild or redirect them. That is exactly what the hospitality marketplace case below was.

Which kinds of migrations do you cover?

Redesigns, CMS and platform changes, domain changes, HTTP to HTTPS, URL structure changes and merging several sites into one.

How long does an SEO migration take?

The SEO work runs alongside the build: a few weeks of planning and redirect mapping before launch, then one to three months of monitoring after it. Sites with tens of thousands of URLs take longer.

Can my developers or a plugin handle the redirects?

They can and should implement them. What they usually don't have is the list of which URLs matter and exactly where each one should go. That map, and testing that it works, is the SEO part.

How should I prepare for a website migration?

Bring SEO in before the new URL structure is final, keep the old site live and crawlable until launch, export at least 12 months of Search Console and analytics data, and agree who signs off the redirect map.

Should we launch everything at once or in stages?

It depends on the site. Changing domain, platform and URLs in one go makes problems harder to trace. Where the schedule allows, I recommend splitting the riskiest changes, and I'll tell you on the first call if that applies to you.

Further reading

Guides and official documentation

My guides

Official documentation

Let's talk

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