A new website is exciting, and it is also the single most common reason we see small businesses lose search traffic. The new site looks better, but pages have new addresses with no redirects, content that used to rank has been cut, staging settings blocking Google have gone live, or the navigation no longer links to important pages. None of this is visible from the homepage, so it often goes unnoticed for weeks.
Migration SEO is the planning and checking that makes sure everything Google valued about the old site carries over to the new one.
Who it is for
- Businesses redesigning with an agency or freelancer, who want an independent SEO check.
- Shops changing platform, for example WooCommerce to Shopify, or Magento to anything else.
- Rebrands and domain changes, including merging two sites into one.
- Start-ups moving from a no-code builder to a custom build as they grow.
- Brighton web design studios who want an SEO partner on launches for their clients.
- Anyone who already launched and saw traffic fall.
Types of migration
| Type | Main risk |
|---|---|
| Redesign, same platform and URLs | Content and internal links removed, headings and titles changed |
| Redesign with new URLs | Missing or wrong redirects |
| Platform change | URL patterns forced by the new platform, lost structured data, speed changes |
| Domain change or rebrand | Loss of authority if redirects or Search Console steps are missed |
| HTTP to HTTPS, or www changes | Mixed signals if not every version redirects consistently |
| Site merger | Overlapping pages competing, and choosing which version survives |
What is included, step by step
- Benchmark. Full crawl of the current site, plus Search Console and analytics data showing which pages bring traffic, links and conversions.
- Plan review. We review the new sitemap, structure and content plan and flag pages or content that shouldn't be dropped.
- Redirect map. Every old URL mapped to its best new equivalent, one to one where possible, with no chains.
- Staging checks. We crawl the staging site for titles, headings, canonical tags, structured data, internal links, speed and anything missing compared with the old site.
- Launch checklist. Removing staging blocks such as noindex tags and password protection, uploading redirects, submitting sitemaps, and Search Console steps.
- Launch day. Testing redirects in bulk, checking robots.txt, checking key pages render and are indexable.
- Monitoring. Daily checks in the first week, then weekly for at least six to eight weeks, comparing traffic and rankings with the benchmark and fixing problems as they appear.
The most common launch mistake we see: the "discourage search engines" setting or a site-wide noindex tag left switched on from staging. It takes seconds to fix and can take weeks to recover from if nobody notices.
Working with your web designer or developer
We work alongside whoever is building your new site, whether that is an in-house developer, a Brighton web design studio or a freelancer. Our role is to protect what already works in search, not to redesign the site. In practice that means sharing a redirect map in a format the developer can upload, giving clear notes on titles, headings and content that must survive, and checking the staging site before launch rather than after.
Good designers welcome this, because a launch that loses traffic reflects badly on everyone. We keep comments specific and practical, and we flag only what affects search, not matters of taste.
Choosing the launch date
Avoid launching just before your busiest season. For hospitality businesses in Brighton, that means not launching in late spring or early summer; for shops, not in November. Launch early in the week, with the developer and SEO support available for the following days.
Keep the old site's data
Before launch, we save a full crawl of the old site, an export of top pages from Search Console and analytics, and a list of linked-to URLs. If anything goes wrong later, that record is what lets us put it right.
After the first eight weeks
Once traffic has settled, the new site is a good base for growth. We usually finish a migration project with a short list of opportunities the new structure makes possible, such as pages that can now be expanded, internal links that can be strengthened and content that was planned but not launched. That turns a protective project into the start of the next stage of SEO.
How long it takes
For a small business site, planning takes one to three weeks, depending on how many pages there are and how much is changing. Larger shops can take longer. Post-launch monitoring runs for at least six to eight weeks. Google usually processes redirects within a few weeks for well-crawled sites, though full settling can take a few months on larger sites.
What it costs, and what drives the cost
- Number of URLs: mapping redirects for 50 pages is very different from 10,000 products.
- How much is changing: a reskin is simpler than a new platform, new domain and new structure at once.
- Timing: involvement from the start is more efficient than last-minute checks.
- Recovery work: fixing a migration after launch involves more detective work.
We quote a fixed price for planning, launch support and monitoring.
Common migration mistakes
- Redirecting every old page to the homepage.
- Cutting long pages to make the design look cleaner, removing the content that ranked.
- Launching on a Friday afternoon with nobody watching.
- Letting the old domain expire after a rebrand.
- Forgetting images, PDFs and blog posts in the redirect map.
- Changing everything at once, so it is hard to tell what caused a drop.
How we measure it
Success is the new site matching or beating the old one. We compare organic clicks, impressions, rankings for key pages and conversions against the pre-launch benchmark, track 404 errors and redirect hits, and check that the number of indexed pages lines up with the new site.
Related services and reading
Migrations rely on technical SEO and are a good moment to revisit keyword research and structure. Shops should also see ecommerce SEO. Many of the firms we help are around Hove and central Brighton. If your new site is a JavaScript build, read our start-up SEO guide.