SEO Migration Specialists
SEO migrations without losing the rankings you earned.
40+ migrations shipped. Magento, Shopify, WordPress, Next.js, Webflow. URL mapping, redirect QA, live cutover monitoring.
- Full URL crawl baseline before launch
- 1:1 URL mapping including images and PDFs
- Real-time cutover monitoring, not next-week
Trusted by ambitious brands worldwide
SEMrush agency
Rated #1 SEO agency in The Netherlands by SEMrush
100% Dedicated to SEO
SEO is all we do, and we're good at it
Most agencies treat migrations as a redirect file.We treat them as a forensic engineering project.The difference shows in the traffic graph.
Most agencies treat migrations as a redirect file. We treat them as a forensic engineering project. The difference shows in the traffic graph.
An SEO migration is the single highest-risk technical event you will run on your site this year. One bad redirect ruleset, one missing canonical, one staging environment still indexed, and you wipe out years of compounded authority overnight. We have done this 40+ times across Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify Plus, WordPress, Webflow, Next.js, Sitecore and custom stacks. The methodology below is what we run on every one.
See migration outcomesHow a migration engagement runs
A five-phase SEO migration, before and after the DNS switch
Twelve to sixteen weeks end to end for a serious migration. Most of the work happens before launch: by the time DNS flips, the risk has already been engineered out.
- 01
Full URL crawl + baseline (weeks 1-2)
Screaming Frog crawl of the current site at 1-2 URLs per second. Pull GSC URL export covering the last 16 months for every URL with at least one impression. Pull GA4 landing page export for the same period. Combine into a single master URL list. Capture baseline metrics: organic sessions, impressions, top landing pages, top queries. Wayback Machine snapshots of the top 200 pages for forensic reference.
- 02
URL mapping spreadsheet (weeks 2-4)
Every URL gets a destination. Three statuses only: 1:1 same intent moved to new path, 1:many consolidated into a parent category, or 410 Gone for pages deliberately killed. No catch-all 301 to the homepage. We sign off the mapping with your CMO and head of product before any redirect rule is written. Redirect rules implemented in Cloudflare Workers or platform-native rules, with maximum one hop allowed.
- 03
Pre-launch staging audit (weeks 4-8)
Crawl the staging build. Check: robots.txt (often left as 'Disallow: /' from dev), X-Robots-Tag headers, meta robots tags, canonical tags pointing to the right domain, hreflang annotations if multi-locale, schema markup parity with old site, internal link structure, breadcrumbs, sitemap.xml, redirect rules covering 100% of mapped URLs. Most-missed item: staging environment still serving noindex headers after going live.
- 04
Cutover monitoring (launch day)
Shared call during DNS switch. Sentry or Datadog dashboard for 5xx error rates. GA4 real-time view of traffic per channel. Custom redirect-checker script hammering 200 sample URLs every 30 seconds for the first 4 hours. Submit new sitemap.xml to GSC. Run GSC Change of Address tool if changing domain. WhatsApp channel open with your engineering lead. Anything breaks, we catch it in minutes.
- 05
30-day post-launch monitoring
Daily GSC coverage report review. Weekly Sistrix Visibility Index check. GA4 landing page comparison vs baseline. Broken link sweeps. Index coverage anomalies investigated within 24 hours. Weekly stand-up with your team. End of month: written post-mortem with what worked, what surprised us, what to fix structurally.
Think of us asthe safety net under your replatform.
Your developers ship the new platform. Your designers ship the new look. We sit between them and Google, making sure the migration that lands in production keeps every ranking, every backlink and every indexed asset you have earned. We run the URL crawl, build the mapping, audit the staging, monitor the cutover and watch the 30-day decay window.
What an SEO migration actually involves
SEO migration, explained without the buzzwords
A website migration is anything that changes the URL of a page that Google has indexed: a replatform, a domain change, a restructure, an HTTPS upgrade, a consolidation of subdomains, an internationalisation rollout. Each is a migration. Each carries the same core risk: Google has to re-crawl, re-evaluate and re-credit your URLs. Done well it is invisible. Done badly it costs a year of growth.
1:1 vs 1:many vs 410 Gone
1:1 means the page moved and the content is essentially the same. 1:many means several old pages consolidated into one new parent. 410 Gone means you killed the page on purpose and you want Google to drop it from the index. Using 301 for everything, including pages you wanted dead, is a slow ranking-dilution trap.
Why catch-all 301 to homepage is malpractice
Mapping every unmapped URL to the homepage tells Google that all your specific pages are equivalent to your homepage, which collapses topical authority. Google treats catch-all 301s as soft 404s within weeks. You lose the link equity from every backlink that pointed to a deep page. Use 410 Gone or a relevant category instead.
Redirect chains and the one-hop rule
If old URL A redirects to URL B which redirects to URL C, you have a chain. Google follows chains but each hop dilutes signals. Chains compound across migrations: a site that has migrated twice often has four-hop chains. Rule: every redirect resolves in maximum one hop to its final destination.
The staging noindex problem
Almost every replatform involves a staging environment with 'noindex' set globally so Google does not crawl it. The single most common migration disaster: nobody removes the noindex when staging is promoted to production. Site goes live and Google sees noindex on every page. Always validate response headers after cutover.
Image and PDF URLs
Old image URLs and PDF URLs have backlinks too. /wp-content/uploads/2019/products/red-shoe.jpg may have 40 backlinks earning ranking signals. Most migrations only redirect HTML URLs and silently kill all image and document equity. The mapping spreadsheet includes every asset type.
GSC Change of Address vs sitemap submission
If you change domain, use the GSC Change of Address tool the day of cutover. If you change only URL structure on the same domain, you do not need it but you must submit the new sitemap.xml the same day. Old sitemap stays available until Google has crawled the new one twice (typically two weeks).
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Why LASEO vs alternatives
SEO migration approaches compared honestly
Dev-only migrations, DIY URL mapping in Excel and catch-all 301 'fixes' all exist for a reason: they are cheap. They are also the three most common ways a migration loses traffic. Here is where LASEO fits.
Redirect file as an afterthought
- Dev team writes redirect rules from the new sitemap, missing any URL not in the new structure. Image URLs, PDFs and orphaned blog posts get killed silently.
- Catch-all 301 to homepage for anything not explicitly mapped. Soft-404s appear within weeks. Topical authority collapses.
- Dev tests that the site loads. SEO team gets two days to scan before go-live.
- Marketing 'checks the site' the next morning. Issues discovered at impression-loss scale 48-72 hours later.
- New rules layered on top of old ones from previous migrations. Chains of 3-4 hops common. Slow page-load and signal dilution.
- Staging often left noindex when promoted to production. Or left publicly indexed during build, creating duplicate content problems.
Engineered forensic methodology
- Full crawl plus GSC URL export plus GA4 landing pages combined. Every URL with historical traffic, impressions or backlinks gets a destination or a deliberate 410.
- Explicit 410 Gone for deliberately killed pages. Mapped to nearest relevant parent category if equity should be preserved. Never a blanket homepage redirect.
- Two-week pre-launch staging audit using a 42-item checklist. Run twice: at T-14 days and T-48 hours. Sign-off required before DNS switch is authorised.
- Live shared call during DNS switch. Sentry or Datadog watching errors, GA4 real-time watching traffic, redirect-checker script every 30 seconds. Issues caught in minutes.
- Audit of existing redirect chains, flatten everything to one hop. Maximum one redirect between any old URL and its final destination.
- Staging is password-protected and noindex during build, then explicitly validated for index-eligibility before production promotion. Response headers checked post-cutover.
Topical cluster
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Migrations shipped at scale
Replatforms and migrations without the traffic dip
What our migration clients say
Migration outcomes in their own words
We replatformed from Magento 2 to Shopify Plus with 80,000 SKUs. Organic sessions held within 3% of baseline through cutover, recovered fully by week five. The previous agency had budgeted for a 30% dip.
LASEO caught a staging noindex header 90 minutes after cutover. If they had not been on the call we would have lost a fortnight of indexation. The URL mapping spreadsheet alone was worth the engagement.
Most migration consultants send a redirect file and disappear. LASEO sat in our standup for four weeks, monitored real-time traffic during cutover, and wrote the post-mortem. Our visibility index recovered in 28 days.
We replatformed from Magento 2 to Shopify Plus with 80,000 SKUs. Organic sessions held within 3% of baseline through cutover, recovered fully by week five. The previous agency had budgeted for a 30% dip.
LASEO caught a staging noindex header 90 minutes after cutover. If they had not been on the call we would have lost a fortnight of indexation. The URL mapping spreadsheet alone was worth the engagement.
Most migration consultants send a redirect file and disappear. LASEO sat in our standup for four weeks, monitored real-time traffic during cutover, and wrote the post-mortem. Our visibility index recovered in 28 days.
Honest answers about SEO migration 
What buyers ask before signing a migration project. Specific traffic-loss figures, timelines and trade-offs.
On a well-executed migration with full URL mapping, redirect-chain audit, staging validation and real-time cutover monitoring, traffic loss in the first 30 days typically stays between 0 and 15 percent and recovers fully within 6 to 10 weeks. On a poorly executed migration (catch-all 301 to homepage, missing image URLs, staging noindex left active) the loss runs 30 to 60 percent and recovery takes 6 to 12 months, sometimes never. The single biggest variable is whether every old URL with backlinks or historical clicks has a deliberate destination.
Migration scoping call
Planning a replatform?Talk to a senior consultant.
30 minutes with a LASEO senior consultant. Tell us the old platform, the new platform, the rough URL count and the target launch date. We will tell you the realistic risk profile and whether we are the right partner for the migration.
