How to Migrate to Shopify Without Losing SEO

Why migrations lose traffic

Search engines have indexed hundreds or thousands of your URLs, each carrying some ranking value. Change the platform and the URL structure changes — becomes . If the old URL now 404s, that page's rankings and any backlinks pointing to it are wasted.

The pre-migration checklist

1. Crawl the current site (Screaming Frog or Sitebulb). Export every indexable URL, its title, meta description, H1, and status code.
2. Pull your top pages from Google Analytics and Search Console — the URLs that actually get traffic and rank. These are the priority.
3. Export your backlink profile (Ahrefs, or Search Console's Links report). Note which URLs have links pointing at them — those redirects are non-negotiable.
4. Record your structured data — product schema, breadcrumbs, review markup.
5. Note tracking — GA4, Meta pixel, conversion tags, so nothing is lost at cutover.

Build the redirect map

• Map every old URL to its closest new URL: product → product, category → collection, blog post → blog post.
• Where there's no direct equivalent, redirect to the most relevant page (parent category, not the homepage).
• 301 (permanent), not 302.
• On Shopify: use the URL Redirects tool, or a bulk-redirect app for large maps; on WooCommerce, a redirects plugin or server rules.
• Never redirect everything to the homepage — search engines treat that as a soft 404 and drop the pages.

Carry over on-page SEO

• Titles and meta descriptions transferred (improve them, don't lose them).
• H1s and heading structure preserved.
• Image alt text kept.
• Product and article schema re-implemented.
• Internal links updated to the new URLs (don't leave chains of redirects).
• Canonical tags correct on the new URLs.

Launch day

1. Publish the new site with all redirects live before pointing DNS.
2. Point DNS / switch the domain.
3. Submit the new XML sitemap in Search Console; remove the old one.
4. Use "Change of address" in Search Console only if the domain itself changes.
5. Crawl the live site immediately — check for 404s, redirect chains, missing titles.
6. Spot-check your top 20 pages by hand.

The two weeks after

• Watch Search Console Coverage and Performance daily. A brief dip is normal; a sustained drop means a redirect or indexing problem.
• Fix any 404s that appear in Coverage with a redirect.
• Re-request indexing for your most important pages.
• Keep the old redirects forever — removing them later re-breaks the links.

Key takeaways

• Traffic loss = broken old URLs. A complete 301 redirect map prevents it.
• Prioritise redirects for pages with traffic, rankings, or backlinks.
• Carry over titles, meta, headings, alt text and schema — don't rebuild blind.
• Launch redirects before DNS, submit the new sitemap, crawl the same day.
• Keep the redirects permanently.

FAQ