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SEO migration services are the search work attached to a site move: mapping ranking URLs to new destinations, testing redirects before launch and monitoring recovery for 90 days. Google's site-move documentation expects ranking fluctuations, and medium-sized sites can need “a few weeks or more” for new URLs to replace old ones, so honest providers sell controls, not zero loss.
TL;DR
An SEO migration is the search layer inside a site move, delivered in three phases: pre-launch, launch and 90 days of monitoring.
Google says redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant destination, such as the home page, might be treated as a soft 404 error.
Mettevo scopes the work for small sites, mid-market and and for enterprise.
What is an SEO migration, and what should it include?
An SEO migration is the set of search controls that keeps a site's rankings, backlinks and crawl access intact while its platform, domain, protocol or URLs change. A provider inventories ranking URLs, maps each to a destination, tests the result on a private staging copy, supervises launch and tracks recovery against a baseline.
Inventory with clicks and links per URL, second-reviewed map, crawl report.
Launch
Redirect test, removal of test blocks, sitemap submission, go or no-go.
Signed checklist, redirect test log with status and hop count.
Post-launch
Indexing, crawl and traffic checks by URL group, fixes.
Dated reports at days 1, 7, 14, 28, 56 and 90, with a fix list.
What is the difference between a site migration and an SEO migration?
A site migration is the engineering project that moves a site to a new platform, host, domain or design, and site migration services deliver it. An SEO migration is the search layer inside that project: the inventory, redirect map, indexing controls and monitoring that let Google follow the move. You can buy it alone or inside a rebuild quote.
Which migration type are you running, and what breaks by default?
Google documents moves that change URLs separately from moves that do not, such as a hosting change. The table covers six types.
Type
What changes
What breaks by default
Platform swap
Content management system or store platform.
Shopify redirects only from broken URLs and refuses sources starting with /shop, the base many WooCommerce stores use (Shopify redirect help, our WordPress to Shopify guide). A WordPress site with “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” ticked outputs a noindex,nofollow tag (WordPress Reading settings).
Domain change
Host name, so every URL.
Redirects stop at the home page. Google asks for a Change of Address in Search Console, with both properties owned.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)
Protocol.
Mixed content, canonicals still on http and expired or mismatched certificates
URL restructure
Paths and slugs.
Pattern rules that over-match, redirects stacked on older redirects, and internal links still pointing at old URLs, which Google says to replace (site-move guide).
Site consolidation
Several sites or sections become one.
Many old URLs sent to one unrelated page, which might be treated as a soft 404. A consolidated page on the same topic is a valid target (site-move guide).
Headless rebuild
Rendering and delivery, for example a WordPress back end with a Next.js front end.
Google discovers links only in anchor elements with an href attribute (JavaScript SEO basics). A noindex tag in the initial source may make Google skip rendering, so a script that removes it may never run. A temporary redirect status where a permanent one was meant does not signal the new URL as canonical (redirects guide).
How do you avoid losing SEO during a site migration?
You avoid avoidable loss by controlling what Google can see: which URLs exist, where old ones point, what crawlers may index and what the new pages say. This 15-point website migration SEO checklist covers all four.
416 URLs; 2 collisions: /niches/ui-ux-design with /web-design/ui-ux-design, and /niches/web-development with /web-development; 10 archive URLs with no Shopify equivalent.
Click concentration
Search Console Performance report, seven days to September 28, 2026 (our redesign SEO guide).
247 pages with impressions; 11 with clicks; 4 pages took 87% of clicks.
Four of 247 pages, 1.6%, carried 87% of the clicks. A failed redirect on those four URLs would put 87% of that week's clicks at risk, against 13% for all other pages combined. So we hand-map the top slice, cover the long tail with pattern rules and sort the map by clicks, not by folder.
The collisions show why a mapping test belongs before design approval: each pair of pages wanted the same Shopify handle, and a person must decide which keeps it.
Both come from one agency site, not a store, so the /shop collision that hits WooCommerce stores did not apply. One week of clicks is a small sample, and neither measurement shows traffic before and after a migration.
How long does an SEO migration take?
An SEO migration runs from the first inventory to day 90 after launch. Mettevo's web development page lists builds at 4 to 8 weeks for a corporate website and 6 to 12 for an ecommerce store, and the SEO work overlaps them. Add 13 weeks of monitoring and an ecommerce project spans roughly 19 to 25 weeks.
What should you ask an SEO migration provider before signing?
Google's guide to hiring an SEO suggests asking about expected results, how success is measured and whether the provider shares every change. These seven questions adapt that list.
Who reviews the redirect map, and can I see a redacted one? Good answer: a named second reviewer and a real map with clicks per URL.
What do you crawl on staging, and what fails the launch? Good answer: raw and rendered crawls, with written pass criteria.
How do you rank URLs for hand review? Good answer: by clicks and backlinks, not by folder.
Who can ship a redirect fix on day two? Good answer: a named engineer with server access and a same-day target.
What will you report, and against which baseline? Good answer: dated reports per URL group, against baseline and last year.
What do you promise? Good answer: deliverables and dates. Bad answer: a traffic number.
What is out of scope, and who owns it? Good answer: named owners for content changes, hosting and analytics.
Which red flags should end the conversation?
A zero-traffic-loss guarantee. Google expects ranking fluctuations and says, “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” I treat one as a reason to walk away.
No redirect map review. Unchecked pattern rules from one person decide where your ranking URLs land.
No staging crawl. You meet the new site's errors in production, with Google watching.
No post-launch monitoring plan. If reporting stops at launch, nobody owns days 2 to 90.
What does the 90-day post-migration recovery plan look like?
Google says medium-sized sites can need “a few weeks or more” before new URLs replace old ones in results. We judge recovery per URL group against the pre-launch baseline, with a tolerance agreed before launch, and compare with the same dates last year because seasonality is a listed cause of traffic drops.
Window
Cadence
What to check
Day 0 to 1
Hourly, then end of day.
Old-URL sample returns one permanent hop to a 200 page; robots.txt and noindex clear; sitemap submitted; Crawl Stats host status clean.
Days 2 to 14
Daily.
Page indexing report: Not found (404), Soft 404, Page with redirect and URL marked ‘noindex’; 404s on URLs that had clicks.
Days 15 to 56
Weekly.
Clicks by URL group (product pages, blog posts) against baseline; sitemap submitted versus indexed; Core Web Vitals report once its 28-day window reflects the new site, around day 35.
Day 57 onward
Monthly, with the day 90 report.
28-day windows against baseline and last year; leftover 404s and chains. The Change of Address tool acts for 180 days, but Google advises keeping redirects generally at least a year. Retire one only when server logs show no meaningful requests.
FAQ
Can any provider guarantee zero traffic loss in a migration?
No. Google expects ranking fluctuations while it recrawls and reindexes a moved site, and says, “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” A provider can guarantee process instead: a second-reviewed redirect map, a staging crawl, a launch checklist and dated reports for 90 days.
Should you change domain, platform and URLs at the same time?
Avoid it. Google advises planning changes “one after the other, not everything at the same time.” Combined launches make it hard to tell which change caused a drop. Small and medium sites should move all URLs at once, and large sites can move one section at a time.
Do you need the Change of Address tool for an HTTPS or www move?
No. The tool for a move to HTTPS is not needed, because Google will figure out the changes. Handle www and non-www moves with canonical tags or redirects instead. Use the tool for a move between domains or subdomains, once you own both properties and the 301 redirects are live.
