An SEO migration agency that draws the move before it happens
Your developers move the visible site. Nobody on a build team owns the invisible one: the URLs Google has learned to trust, the rankings attached to them and the links pointing at them. That only moves if someone maps it, address by address, tests it and checks it arrived.
Updated
- A ranking page mapped one to one
- Permanent server-side redirect (301 or 308)
- A page deleted with no redirect
- Many old pages dumped on the homepage
What a migration actually moves, and why it needs a plan of its own
A migration moves the trust Google has attached to your addresses, and that trust doesn't follow the content on its own. Change an address without a permanent redirect and it stays behind, pointing at a page that no longer exists. It only follows a redirect map built from a complete inventory, tested before launch and watched afterwards.
Every URL, its rankings, traffic and links, recorded before anything is built.
Each old address given a new one, redirected and tested on staging.
Watched after launch until the move has clearly settled, item by item.
How long moves take to settle, from Google and from one real dataset
"Keep the redirects for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year."
Google Search Central, "Site moves with URL changes", last updated 20 August 2026
Google also says rankings can fluctuate during a move, and that a small to medium-sized site can take a few weeks for most pages to move, with larger sites taking longer.
Paraphrased from the same documentationStudy: Dan Taylor, "How Long Should An SEO Migration Take?", Search Engine Journal, 8 January 2025. Responses were collected from SEO professionals and traffic was measured with third-party tools, so read it as indicative. Domain changes are the hardest kind of move; smaller moves usually settle faster. Read 5 October 2026.
Some moves in that study recovered in under five weeks and some never did, so the outcome depends on how the move is done. That's why we won't quote you a loss percentage for your migration in a sales call. What we can show you is the work behind the quick recoveries: every URL counted, a one-to-one map, testing before launch and a watch after.
Five phases, each with a gate before the next one opens
Each phase has to pass before the next one opens. Use this list yourself if your move is simple, or hand it to us if it isn't. Our migration checklist article goes into each step in more detail.
- Phase 1
Inventory
before anything is built- Crawl every URL, plus analytics and Search Console exports
- Record rankings, traffic and backlinks per URL
- Mark each page keep, merge or retire, with what it earns
- Catalogue local signals, profiles and structured data
- Phase 2
Mapping
while the new site is designed- Give every old URL a new home, one to one where possible
- Write permanent server-side redirects (301 or 308), never temporary
- Map retired pages to their closest real equivalent, not the homepage
- Challenge URL changes nothing forces
- Phase 3
Staging tests
before launch is booked- Test the redirect map against the crawl, every line
- Check titles, metadata, structured data and canonicals on the new build
- Point internal links at final URLs, not redirected ones
- Confirm the staging noindex will come off at go-live
- Phase 4
Launch day
the move itself- Redirects live and spot-checked within the hour
- Old and new sitemaps submitted; Search Console updated
- Change of Address tool used where the domain changes
- Robots and noindex checked again in production
- Phase 5
The settling watch
weeks, not days- Crawl errors, indexing and rankings monitored against the phase 1 inventory
- Redirects held for at least a year, ideally for good
- Anything that didn't arrive traced through the inventory and fixed while the trail is fresh
Planning a move, or already losing traffic from one
Plenty of people asking for migration help have already moved and watched the numbers fall. Recovery is different work from planning ahead, so each gets its own lane.
Insurance, bought before launch
This costs least when we're involved before the new URL structure is locked, because problems get designed out instead of redirected around.
Triage, in order of damage
We crawl the old URL set, find where the equity leaked, rebuild the map and resubmit.
The faults that show up in a crawl after a bad move
- Missing redirects, because nobody owned them, so they were never written.
- Everything sent to the homepage. Google's site-move guide says not to redirect many old URLs to one irrelevant destination such as the home page; it can be treated as a soft 404.
- Temporary redirects used where permanent ones were needed.
- Whole sections culled in the redesign without checking what they earned.
- A staging noindex carried into production, quietly telling Google to drop the site.
The longer old URLs return errors, the more Google drops them, so in this lane speed matters.
Three hold-ups we see before and after a move, and how to clear each
The old Search Console property belongs to someone else
Google's Change of Address tool only works if you're an owner of both the old and the new property, managed from the same Google account. If a previous agency verified the old domain under its own login, ask it to add you as an owner, or verify the domain yourself with a DNS record at your registrar. Sort this out weeks ahead.
The old site sits on the hosting of the agency you're leaving
A redirect map needs the old URL list, and once the hosting is switched off that list is gone. Before access ends, crawl every URL, export the Pages report from Search Console over the longest date range it offers, and save copies of the pages that earn clicks. Keep the old domain renewed too: Google's site-move guide recommends paying for it for at least a year after the move so nobody else can pick it up.
Search Console says Google chose a different canonical
"Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user" on your new URLs means Google thinks another address is the better version. After a move that's often because the site still points at the old one: internal links running through redirects, old URLs left in the sitemap, or canonical tags copied across unchanged. Fix each of those, then check the Google-selected canonical in URL Inspection.
Seven migrations, each with its own way of going wrong
The inventory comes first whatever the move. What changes is where the risk sits.
Domain change
The hardest kind, per the study above. Change of Address, full mapping and honest patience.
Replatform
WordPress, WooCommerce or a custom build swapped under a trading site, with the URL changes the platform forces mapped in advance.
Shopify migration
Fixed /products/, /collections/ and /blogs/ paths mean most URLs change. Shopify SEO migration work plans every redirect in Shopify's own tool.
Redesign and URL restructure
Same platform, new structure, and often a batch of changed URLs nobody wrote redirects for.
HTTP to HTTPS
Simple in principle, and still a move: every variant redirected, every variant verified in Search Console.
Site merge
An acquisition or consolidation: two sites' equity folded into one without the surviving pages competing with each other.
International restructure
Hreflang and country targeting changed, where a wrong annotation can send a whole market to the wrong pages. See our international SEO page.
The paperwork of a careful move
Every phase produces a document you keep, so whoever builds or hosts the site now or later can see the equity was counted, moved and checked.
- The inventory workbookEvery URL with its rankings, traffic, links and verdict.
- The redirect mapOld to new, in a format your developers can implement and your next agency can audit.
- Staging test resultsWhat was checked before launch and what it found.
- The launch-day runbookWho does what, in what order, including the noindex check.
- Settling reportsIndexing, errors and rankings against the inventory until the move has landed.
- Technical fixes on the wayIssues the crawl turns up, fixed by our technical SEO team as part of the move.
Where this service ends and others begin
Deciding whether to migrate at all is a judgement call, and our SEO consulting covers it. Commissioning a new site designed for search from the wireframe up is our web design and SEO work. This page is the move itself, for a site built by anyone: you, us or a third party.
Migration work on our three monthly plans
Migration work runs on our three monthly plans, from $500 to $1,500, with no setup fee and no lock-in. Most migrations run for a few months around the launch window, then you can stop or carry on.
Small sites with a simple move: inventory, mapping, launch support and a settling watch.
Replatforms and typical business sites: the full five phases with your developers, or recovery triage if you've already moved.
Large catalogues, merges and international moves, done section by section alongside your build team.
Full detail is on the pricing page. If your move is simple enough for a good developer with the checklist above, we'll say so.
Questions before a site move
What does an SEO migration agency actually do?
It moves the search value of your site: the URLs Google trusts, their rankings and the links pointing at them. When a site changes domain, platform or structure, developers rebuild the design and content. The agency lists every URL before the move, maps each one to its new home with permanent redirects, tests the mapping before launch, and checks after launch that everything arrived.
How much traffic do sites lose in a migration?
Nobody can tell you in advance, and the round percentages quoted around the web rarely come with a source. A Search Engine Journal study of 892 domain migrations (January 2025) found an average of 523 days for a new domain to match its old traffic, the fastest within 19 to 33 days, and 17% not back after 1,000 days, using third-party estimates. Execution is the part you control.
What does an SEO migration include?
Five phases: an inventory of every URL, a one-to-one redirect map with permanent server-side redirects, staging tests, launch-day checks (including Google's Change of Address tool for domain moves) and monitoring until the move settles, with redirects kept for at least a year.
We already migrated and lost our traffic. Can it be recovered?
Often, and sooner is better. Losses usually trace to findable causes such as missing or misdirected redirects, culled pages or a noindex left on from staging. We crawl the old URL set, find the leaks, rebuild the map, restore what was wrongly removed and resubmit, then tell you plainly what is and isn't recoverable.
How long should redirects stay in place?
Google's site-move documentation says to keep redirects for as long as possible, generally at least one year, so it can transfer signals to the new URLs. For people with old bookmarks and links, keeping them indefinitely is better. Use permanent server-side redirects, a 301 or 308.
Do you handle Shopify SEO migrations?
Yes. Shopify uses fixed paths for products, collections and blog posts, so moving to it changes most URLs, and redirects are set in Shopify's own URL redirect tool rather than server configuration. Our Shopify SEO service covers the platform beyond the move.
Which types of migration do you cover?
Domain changes, replatforms to or from Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce and custom builds, redesigns on the same platform, URL restructures, HTTP to HTTPS moves, site merges and international restructures.
How much does an SEO migration cost?
It runs on our published plans: $500 a month for a small site with a simple move, $900 a month for a typical replatform or recovery, and $1,500 a month for large catalogues, merges and international moves. No setup fee, no lock-in. Detail is on the pricing page.
Do you offer SEO migration services in Melbourne and Sydney?
Yes. We're based in Melbourne and work with teams anywhere in Australia, Sydney included. The work happens on your site and data, over calls and shared documents with your developers, so the city makes no difference.
When should we involve you in a planned migration?
Before the new URL structure is locked. That's when you can keep URLs the same where nothing forces a change, design new paths so redirects map one to one, and stop anyone deleting pages that quietly earn rankings. If the build is already underway, involve us now rather than at launch.
How do we get started?
Tell us which lane you're in. For a planned move we scope the work against your build timeline and send a costed plan. If you've already moved, we run the diagnosis first and tell you what's recoverable before you commit to anything.
Planning a move, or recovering from one
Tell us which, and we'll send the plan or the diagnosis in writing.