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E-Commerce Migration

How to migrate your e-commerce store without losing SEO

Complete migration playbook covering platform transitions, 301 redirects, URL structure preservation, and SEO recovery strategies. Learn how to avoid the 30-50% traffic drops that poorly executed migrations cause.

14 min read•Advanced•Updated Nov 2025

You found this guide through organic search. That SEO value took months or years to build. Protect it during migration with the right strategy. Let me handle your migration safely.

E-commerce platform migrations are risky. Poorly executed migrations lose 30-50% of organic traffic that takes 6-12 months to recover. Well-executed migrations maintain 95-100% of SEO value and often improve rankings through technical upgrades.

This playbook provides the complete migration framework used across dozens of successful Shopify, WooCommerce, and custom platform migrations without significant SEO loss.

1
Will migrating my store hurt SEO?

The honest answer: it depends entirely on execution. Migrations done correctly maintain 95-100% of SEO value. Migrations done poorly lose 30-50% of organic traffic. The difference is systematic planning and technical precision.

Poor Migration

❌ 30-50% traffic loss
❌ 6-12 month recovery time
❌ Lost rankings hard to regain
❌ Revenue impact immediate
❌ Customer disruption

Proper Migration

✓ 95-100% SEO value retained
✓ Minimal temporary fluctuation
✓ Often improves rankings
✓ No revenue disruption
✓ Seamless customer experience

Key Insight: Google cares about content, not platform. If you preserve URLs, content, and technical SEO elements, rankings transfer seamlessly.

2
What are 301 redirects and why are they critical?

301 redirects are permanent forwards from old URLs to new URLs. They tell search engines "this page moved permanently" and pass 95-99% of SEO value to the new location. Without them, old links return 404 errors and you lose all accumulated authority.

Without 301 Redirects:
• Old URLs return 404 errors
• Backlinks become worthless
• Search engines drop old pages from index
• All SEO authority lost forever
• Rankings disappear within days
• Customer bookmarks break
With Proper 301 Redirects:
• Old URLs automatically forward to new ones
• 95-99% of SEO value transfers
• Backlinks maintain full power
• Rankings preserved
• Customer experience seamless
• Google understands the move

3
Should I migrate during peak or slow season?

Always migrate during your slowest season. This gives you time to identify and fix issues without maximum revenue risk. Never migrate within 3 months of peak season (Black Friday, Christmas, etc).

✅ Best Migration Timing:
• January-March (post-holiday recovery)
• June-August (summer slowdown)
• At least 8-12 weeks before peak season
• When you have 4-6 weeks of buffer time
❌ Avoid Migrating During:
• November-December (holiday season)
• Your specific peak months
• Within 6 weeks of major sales events
• When team is unavailable for support

Putting it all together: Your migration roadmap

1
Pre-Migration Audit (Week 1-2)

Crawl current site, document all URLs, identify top performing pages, export all SEO data, backup everything.

2
New Platform Setup (Week 2-4)

Build new store on staging, migrate data, preserve URL structure where possible, recreate content.

3
301 Redirect Mapping (Week 4-5)

Create comprehensive redirect map for every old URL. Test all redirects on staging before launch.

4
Launch & Monitor (Week 5-6)

Launch new site, implement redirects, resubmit sitemap, monitor for 404s, check rankings daily.

5
Post-Migration Optimization (Week 6-8)

Fix any issues, optimize new platform, monitor rankings, improve page speed, enhance UX.

Related playbooks

How to optimize Shopify for maximum conversions

Post-migration Shopify optimization

Read playbook

How to optimize WooCommerce performance

WooCommerce post-migration optimization

Read playbook

Need expert migration management?

E-commerce migrations are high-risk projects that require technical SEO expertise, platform knowledge, and systematic execution. If you want a migration managed professionally without SEO loss, that is what I specialize in.

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