The biggest worry we hear before a migration is simple: will we lose our Google rankings? It is a fair question. Moving platform changes URLs, templates and site structure all at once. Done carelessly, that can undo years of search work. Done properly, most stores keep their traffic, and many improve on it.
Here is the process we follow, and the checks you should expect from whoever runs your migration.
1. Inventory every URL before you build anything
Crawl your current site and export every URL that matters: products, categories, blog posts, landing pages and anything with backlinks. Add the URLs that receive organic traffic from Google Search Console, because crawlers miss pages that are no longer linked internally.
This list becomes the backbone of the project. If a URL is not on it, it will not get a redirect.
2. Map every old URL to its new home
Shopify uses fixed URL patterns, such as /products/ for products and /collections/ for categories. Your old URLs will almost certainly change. Each one needs a permanent (301) redirect to the most relevant new page.
- Products map to the same product on Shopify.
- Categories map to the matching collection.
- Discontinued products map to the closest collection, not the homepage.
- Blog posts keep their content and map one to one.
Redirecting everything to the homepage is the most common shortcut, and the most damaging. Google treats it much like a missing page.
3. Keep the content that ranks
Pages rank because of what is on them. Carry across product descriptions, category copy, page titles and meta descriptions. If you plan to rewrite content, do it after launch once rankings have settled, so you can tell what caused any change.
Check structured data too. Product schema with price, availability and reviews helps your listings stand out in search, and it should be at least as complete on Shopify as it was before.
4. Test on a staging store, more than once
Run the data migration several times on a test store before launch. Check product data, variants, images, customer records and order history. Then test every redirect in your map, not a sample. A spreadsheet of old URLs, new URLs and status codes makes this quick to verify.
5. Launch carefully
- Choose a quiet time for the switch, usually early in the week and outside your peak season.
- Make the redirects live at the same moment the new store goes live.
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console straight away.
- Keep the old domain and any old subdomains pointing to the new store.
6. Watch closely for the first month
Some movement in rankings during the first few weeks is normal while Google recrawls the site. What matters is spotting real problems early. Check daily for crawl errors and pages returning "not found", indexing changes in Search Console and organic revenue against the same period before launch.
Most lasting traffic losses after a migration come from missed redirects. Find them in week one and the damage is usually temporary.