What We Do: Website Migration Without Losing Rank

A website migration moves your site off the platform it’s on and onto one that fits the business now, without losing the addresses Google already knows. My co-founder, Fredy, runs it with Kevin, our frontend developer.

Most sites we move are on WordPress, WooCommerce, Wix, or Squarespace. They move to Webflow, Shopify, or Astro, whichever fits the job requirements best.

A Webflow site can also move to Astro when it’s outgrown what a visual editor can do. The usual reason is a booking system or CRM that needs a deeper connection than a plugin or built-in integration offers.

A migration can happen as part of a brand-new website, or as the first step before a monthly SEO plan. If you’d like to keep your current design and only change platforms, it can be quoted on its own.

Each phase below has its own heading in the table of contents. If you’re still deciding whether to leave WordPress, read our post on when to move beyond WordPress first.

What’s included

Before the rebuild

Audit and benchmark

Our team crawls your current site and records what’s there and what each page earns today. Those numbers become the benchmark every later report is measured against.

• Every address — every page, post, product, and file with its own URL.
• What each one earns — visits, rankings, and links from other sites.
• What the site runs on — templates, plugins, and apps, sorted into keep, replace, or drop.
• What won’t export — anything the old platform locks in, flagged early before the work begins.

URL and redirect map

A redirect map lists every old address next to its new one. A redirect sends visitors and Google from the old address to the new page, and it tells Google the page moved on purpose instead of disappearing. The full planning checklist is in our post on planning your migration.

• One row per page — like /product-category/valves/ moving to /products/valves.
• Merged pages — two old pages that become one both point to the same new page.
• Retired pages — pages you’re dropping point to the closest page that still exists.
• Your sign-off — you read the map and approve it, because you know which pages your customers actually use.

The move

Rebuild on the new platform

We rebuild your site on the new platform, page by page, using the same menu and page layout it has now. If you’re keeping your design, it’ll look the same when it’s done.

• A private preview link — the new site at an address only you can see, ready to click through on your phone.
• Your live site untouched — nothing changes on the current site until launch day.
• Yours to run — logins created in your name, and an editor you can use yourself.

If you’d like a new design too, we design and build a new site, and the move happens as part of that project. What a new site includes, and how its three packages compare, is covered in our post on web design built to win customers.

Content and data transfer

Pages, posts, images, and products move across, and so do customers and order history on a store. Anything the old platform won’t export cleanly gets flagged while there’s still time to decide what to do with it.

• Moved, not retyped — everything the old platform can export.
• A flagged list — each item the export can’t reach, with keep, replace, or drop for you to choose.
• Store records — products, customers, and order history, with the hardest part covered in our post on the order history problem in every WooCommerce to Shopify migration.

Launch

QA and pre-launch testing

The preview site gets tested the way visitors and search engines will use it, and you get the test report before anything goes live.

• Every redirect — each row in the map opened and confirmed.
• Every form — test submissions sent and checked in the right inbox.
• Phones and speed — layouts checked on phones, with load times next to the old site’s.
• Search setup — structured data, sitemap, and analytics tracking confirmed.

Cutover

Cutover is the moment the new site replaces the old one. It’s scheduled for your quietest traffic window, on a plan you’ve agreed to in advance.

• The timing — the window with the least traffic, like a weekend morning or after hours.
• The order — domain pointed at the new site, redirects switched on, sitemap sent to Google.
• Who to call — a named person on our team if anything looks off.

After launch

Post-launch monitoring

For 30 days after launch, our team checks Google’s search reports, your analytics, and the server logs against the benchmark from the audit. If you’re on a monthly SEO plan, the monitoring keeps going from there.

• Missed redirects — old addresses still getting visits without landing, fixed as they show up.
• Crawl errors — pages Google can’t reach, caught and fixed.
• Before and after — each benchmark page’s traffic and rankings, then and now.
• A closing report — what the move changed, in numbers.

How a migration runs

Without a redesign, the whole move fits in two to four weeks. Adding a new design puts it on the same schedule as building a new site, four to eight weeks, and the audit sets a firm date either way. Your part comes down to four decisions.

1. Approve the map — you know which pages bring in customers, and a crawl doesn’t.
2. Decide the flagged items — each one’s your call, made early instead of on launch day.
3. Review the preview — click through the new site on your own phone before anyone else sees it.
4. Agree on the window — you pick when the switch happens, so it never lands in the middle of a busy day.

The Detail Exchange case study shows an emergency move off a WordPress site after a security breach, finished in a week and a half.

If a plugin warning or a platform renewal is sitting on your desk, talk to us before you pay it. The website migration service page lists every phase in one place.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my Google rankings if I move my website?

Not if every old address is redirected to its new one. Google ties your rankings to your page addresses, which is why the redirect map is written and approved before anything’s rebuilt.

Expect some movement in the first few weeks while Google re-reads the site. That’s why the first 30 days after launch are checked against your starting numbers, and any missed address gets fixed as soon as it shows up.

How long does a website migration take?

Moving your site with its current design usually takes two to four weeks. With a new design, it takes as long as building a new site, usually four to eight weeks.

An urgent move can go faster. In an emergency, a site can be moved in about a week and a half.

Which platforms do you move websites to?

Webflow for service and content sites, Shopify for stores, and Astro for sites that need custom features. The old site can be on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or a WooCommerce store, and sometimes on Webflow or Shopify when it’s outgrown its platform.

Do I need to move my site before starting SEO?

If it’s on WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace, yes. Our monthly SEO plans run on Webflow, Shopify, or Astro, so the move comes first. If your site’s already on one of those, the plan can start right away.