Migrations
SEO migration and replatforming
A migration is the fastest way to lose rankings you spent years building. It is also entirely survivable, provided the planning happens before launch rather than after the traffic drops.
Every migration carries risk: new platform, new design, new URL structure, or a domain change. The damage is rarely caused by the change itself. It is caused by nobody mapping what existed to what will exist.
The pattern is always the same. The site launches, traffic falls forty per cent over a fortnight, and somebody starts investigating in the third week. By then Google has recrawled thousands of URLs and found nothing where it expected content.
Handled properly, a migration is a controlled event with a short, shallow dip and full recovery. Handled badly, it is a year of rebuilding. The difference is almost entirely work done before launch.
Who this suits
A good fit
- You are redesigning, replatforming or changing domain
- The current site has rankings worth protecting
- You are still in planning, or at least pre-launch
- Somebody can implement redirects properly
Probably not a fit
- You launched last month and traffic has already gone, which is recovery work instead
- The current site has no rankings to protect
- URL structure is already fixed and cannot change
What the work involves
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Pre-launch crawl and inventory
A complete record of what exists and what it currently earns. Without this baseline you cannot tell afterwards what you lost, or prove what you did not.
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Redirect mapping
Old URL to new URL, one hop, no chains, every page that matters. This is the single highest-risk deliverable in a migration.
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URL structure planning
If the structure is changing, getting it right now. Changing it twice costs far more than getting it right once.
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Staging verification
Checking the new site before launch, including that staging is not itself indexable. An indexed staging site is a genuinely common and avoidable disaster.
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Launch-day checks
Robots rules, canonicals, sitemaps and redirects verified live within hours rather than days.
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Post-launch monitoring
Daily index and ranking monitoring through the recovery window, so problems are caught while they are still cheap.
How it runs
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Baseline
Crawl, rankings and traffic recorded before anything changes.
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Plan
URL map and redirect map agreed while changes are still cheap.
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Verify on staging
Everything checked before launch, because after launch it is triage.
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Launch and watch
Close monitoring through the dip and recovery.
Common questions
Will I lose rankings when I migrate?
Expect a short dip even on a good migration, since Google has to recrawl and reassess. A well-planned migration recovers within weeks. A poorly planned one may not fully recover at all.
Can you help after we have already launched?
Yes, and it is more expensive and less certain than being involved beforehand. The first thing we do is work out what used to exist, which is harder once it is gone.
Do I need to keep my old URLs?
Not necessarily, but every old URL needs a single redirect to the closest equivalent. Redirecting everything to the homepage is the most common mistake and is treated as a soft 404.
What clients say
SeoServicePerth.com was a pleasure to work with. They delivered a professional, high-quality SEO service for my medical business. They were responsive, knowledgeable, and willing to cooperate. I highly recommend their services.
Dawn HintonFounder, Revitalized HealthIt was a pleasure working with the team. They were efficient, professional, and communicated clearly throughout the entire project. Their attention to detail and quick turnaround made the project a complete success. I would gladly work with them again.
Kudzaishe ChitonBuyisa SolutionTalented, detail-oriented, and easy to work with. They quickly understood my project requirements and delivered high-quality results that exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend their services.
Akin OyebodeSenior IT Coordinator
Want to know what is holding your site back?
Thirty minutes with your site on screen, and a written list of what we would fix first. If search is not the right investment for your business, we will tell you that instead.