Service 04 · Service
Website migration SEO: keep what you already earned.
Migrations are one of the most expensive avoidable mistakes in organic search. The work that protects you happens before launch: knowing which URLs carry value, where each one goes, and what has to be true on day one.
- Timeline
- Start 4–8 weeks before launch; monitoring runs 30 days after
- Starting from
- From $7,500
- Shape
- Pre-migration project + launch QA + 30-day monitoring
- Deliverables
- 10 items
The problem
A migration is being planned around design and deadlines, not around what earns money.
The redirect map gets written late, by whoever has time, from a sitemap rather than from traffic and revenue data. Metadata, canonicals, internal links and analytics get treated as details. Then a large share of organic traffic disappears on launch week, and the recovery costs more than the migration.
You probably recognise some of these
- A launch date exists but no URL inventory does.
- The redirect map is a spreadsheet built from the CMS export.
- Nobody has scored which URLs are worth protecting.
- Analytics and conversion tracking are “on the list” for after launch.
- The staging site is either blocked from you or indexable by Google.
Who needs this
Is this for you?
- Companies replatforming CMS or ecommerce systems
- Redesigns that change URL structure, templates or navigation
- Rebrands and domain changes
- Site consolidations and market or subdomain merges
- Anyone who lost traffic in a previous migration and does not want to repeat it
Why it happens
What usually causes it
- Redirect maps built from URL lists instead of value data.
- Redirect chains, loops and 302s used where 301s belong.
- Metadata, canonicals and structured data not carried across.
- Internal links pointing at old URLs after launch.
- Staging environments indexed, or production environments blocked.
- Analytics and conversion tracking rebuilt from scratch and never validated.
- No monitoring in the first 72 hours, when the problems are cheapest to fix.
Scope, in detail
What exactly we check
Not a category list — the actual checks. If something is not on here and you need it, say so and we will tell you whether it fits the scope.
Pre-migration
- Crawl the old site completely
- Export indexed URLs and Search Console pages
- Export GA4 landing pages and conversions
- Identify backlinked URLs
- Identify revenue and conversion pages
- Score every URL by traffic, revenue, links and query value
- Map old → new for every scored URL
- Define redirect rules, not just a URL list
- Metadata, canonical and structured-data preservation plan
- Internal link and navigation mapping
- Sitemap and robots plan for both environments
- Analytics and tag migration requirements
Launch day
- Status codes across the scored URL set
- Redirect behaviour — single hop, correct target, correct code
- Canonicals on the new templates
- robots.txt on production, and staging closed
- Sitemap submitted and accurate
- Analytics firing and conversions recording
- Indexability of critical pages
- Server response times under real traffic
Post-launch
- Day 1 — critical QA on the scored URL set
- Day 3 — indexing and error monitoring
- Day 7 — traffic and ranking comparison
- Day 14 — page-level comparison against baseline
- Day 30 — full migration report with retained-versus-lost analysis
Deliverables
What you actually receive
Every important issue arrives in the same format: problem, evidence, why it matters, root cause, solution, exact actions, owner, priority and measurement.
- Pre-migration audit and risk register
- Complete URL inventory with a value score per URL
- Old → new mapping for every URL that matters, with the rule that generates it
- Redirect specification your developers can implement and test
- Content and metadata mapping
- Technical requirements document for the new build
- Analytics and tracking migration requirements
- Launch-day checklist with owners and pass/fail criteria
- Launch QA execution and issue triage
- 30-day monitoring with day 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 reports
Process
How the work runs
Each step has an exit condition. We do not move on because time passed.
Baseline and inventory
Crawl the old site, pull Search Console and GA4, and build one list of every URL with what it is worth — traffic, conversions, revenue, backlinks and query value.
- Full crawl
- GSC + GA4 export
- Backlink export
- Value scoring
Map and specify
Write the old → new mapping as rules wherever possible and as explicit pairs where it must be. Then specify metadata, canonicals, internal links, sitemaps and robots for the new build.
- Redirect rules
- Metadata plan
- Sitemap + robots plan
Validate on staging
Crawl staging, test the redirect rules against the real URL set, check rendering and markup, and verify analytics fires correctly before anyone touches production.
- Staging crawl
- Redirect tests
- Tag validation
Launch QA
Work the launch checklist in real time: status codes, redirects, canonicals, robots, sitemap, analytics, conversions and critical page indexability.
- Live checklist
- Issue triage
- Rollback triggers
Monitor for 30 days
Day 1 critical QA, day 3 indexing and errors, day 7 traffic comparison, day 14 page-level comparison, day 30 full report on what was retained and what was not.
- Day 1/3/7/14/30
- Retained vs lost
- Fix backlog
What we need from you
Access and data
We ask for read access only, and only for what the question needs.
- Old site — full crawl access
- Google Search Console for the old property (and the new one at launch)
- GA4 landing page and conversion history
- Backlink data, where available
- Staging site access and the planned launch date
- New CMS or platform details and a developer contact
- Revenue or conversion value by page, where available
Measurement
What results can be measured
Agreed before the work starts, so nobody argues about the definition afterwards.
- Percentage of scored URL value retained at day 30
- Redirect coverage of the scored URL set
- Redirect chain and error rate on launch day
- Indexation of critical pages within 7 and 30 days
- Organic clicks, conversions and revenue against the pre-migration baseline
- Analytics continuity — no gaps, no duplicate conversions
Afterwards
What happens when the project ends
You get the day-30 report showing what was retained and what still needs work, plus the URL inventory and redirect rules as living documentation for the next change. A light monitoring retainer through the first quarter is optional; that is when late problems tend to surface.
Why trust us
How we keep ourselves honest
- We work from value data, not URL lists — the redirect map protects the pages that earn.
- Launch decisions get human review. We do not let an automated mapping tool decide what happens to your revenue pages.
- We define rollback triggers before launch, so “should we roll back?” is answered with criteria instead of panic.
Honest limitations
What this service will not do
Stated up front, because finding out later is worse for both of us.
We need to be involved before launch. Called in after a migration has gone wrong, this becomes SEO Recovery — usually slower and more expensive than protection would have been.
We cannot protect what the platform will not allow. If the new system cannot serve a required redirect or canonical, we will tell you before you commit to it.
Some ranking loss after a large structural change is normal. We aim to retain value, not to guarantee zero movement.
Quick answers
Website Migration Protection in nine questions
The same facts, stated plainly. Useful if you are skimming, and useful to any system trying to understand what we actually offer.
- What is this service?
- Move CMS, domain, design or URL structure without losing the organic traffic and revenue you already have.
- Who is it for?
- Companies replatforming CMS or ecommerce systems; Redesigns that change URL structure, templates or navigation; Rebrands and domain changes; Site consolidations and market or subdomain merges; Anyone who lost traffic in a previous migration and does not want to repeat it.
- What problem does it solve?
- A migration is being planned around design and deadlines, not around what earns money.
- What do you check?
- 3 areas covering pre-migration, launch day, post-launch.
- What do you deliver?
- Pre-migration audit and risk register; Complete URL inventory with a value score per URL; Old → new mapping for every URL that matters, with the rule that generates it; Redirect specification your developers can implement and test; Content and metadata mapping; Technical requirements document for the new build; Analytics and tracking migration requirements; Launch-day checklist with owners and pass/fail criteria; Launch QA execution and issue triage; 30-day monitoring with day 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 reports.
- How long does it take?
- Start 4–8 weeks before launch; monitoring runs 30 days after
- How much does it cost?
- From $7,500. Pre-migration project + launch QA + 30-day monitoring.
- What access is needed?
- Old site, staging, GSC, GA4, launch date, developer contact
- What happens after?
- You get the day-30 report showing what was retained and what still needs work, plus the URL inventory and redirect rules as living documentation for the next change. A light monitoring retainer through the first quarter is optional; that is when late problems tend to surface.
Questions
Questions about migration protection
We start four to eight weeks before launch. Every old URL is scored by traffic, conversions and links, the redirect map is built from that score and tested on staging, launch day runs on written pass/fail criteria with rollback triggers, and the result is monitored for 30 days.
That is the point of the service. The protection comes from the pre-launch work: a value-scored URL inventory, a redirect specification tested on staging, and a launch checklist with pass/fail criteria. Involve us four to eight weeks before launch and the risk drops sharply.
Not too late to help, but the scope changes. In two weeks we prioritise the highest-value URLs, get the redirect rules right for those, validate analytics, and prepare launch-day QA. Full content and metadata mapping may not fit.
Yes — that is SEO Recovery. We isolate what broke, quantify what was lost, and recover what can be recovered. Redirects, canonicals and rendering problems are usually the fastest wins.
We write the specification and the rules, and we test them. Whether we implement them depends on your platform and access. Either way, we validate the live behaviour against the scored URL list — a specification nobody tested is not protection.
Something else? hello@verqen.com
Evidence and further reading
Worked investigations and working notes on this subject.
- Worked example
A migration redirect map that covered 96% of URLs and 41% of the revenue
The redirect map was built from a CMS export, so it covered almost every URL by count. Scored by traffic, conversions and backlinks, it missed most of what the old site actually earned.
- Insight · Migrations
Value-score your URLs before a migration, not after
Redirect coverage counted by URL is the default metric and it cannot detect the failure that actually costs you traffic. Coverage weighted by value can, and it takes about three days to make possible.
Related services, problems and industries
The problems this service usually solves, and where we see them most often.
- ServiceTechnical SEO & Search GrowthMake sure search systems can crawl, render, index and understand the pages that carry your revenue.
- ServiceSEO RecoveryFind out exactly when and why organic performance dropped — then recover what can be recovered.
- ServiceAnalytics & Revenue MeasurementMake the numbers trustworthy enough to make business decisions with — GA4, GTM, ads, consent and CRM.
- ProblemA website migration is comingMigration losses are avoidable, but only with work that happens before launch — not after.
- ProblemOrganic traffic droppedSomething changed. There is always a date, and the date narrows the cause.
- ProblemAnalytics cannot be trustedWhen the numbers are wrong, every decision made on them is a guess with a chart attached.
- IndustryEcommerceCatalogue-driven sites where architecture, faceted navigation and revenue tracking decide whether search works.
- IndustryEcommerce & Product PlatformsEcommerce businesses and product platforms with large catalogues, changing inventory, complex product architecture and measurable organic growth goals.
- IndustrySaaSProduct-led and sales-led SaaS, where the gap between signups and qualified pipeline is usually the real problem.
- IndustryMarketplaces & directoriesTwo-sided platforms and listing sites where supply changes daily and page quality has to be enforced by rules.