SEO MIGRATION SERVICES
SEO Migration Services That Protect Rankings Through Domain, Platform and Redesign Moves
My SEO migration services protect the rankings, traffic and leads you've earned when you change domain, platform, design or URL structure. I'm Ajay Padhy, a former Head of SEO. For BFSI and real estate clients, my migrations retained 70%+ of traffic after complete domain and brand migrations, and delivered 40%+ improvement in rankings and traffic after UI/UX and platform migrations — where the strategy was implemented exactly as instructed.
At a glance
- For: businesses planning a domain change, rebrand, platform or CMS move, redesign, HTTPS or URL restructure, or a merger of several sites.
- Covers: benchmarking, full URL inventory, 1:1 redirect mapping, content parity, staging QA, tracking continuity, launch-day checks and post-launch monitoring.
- How it runs: I work alongside your developer or build agency and sign off the migration before launch. Nothing goes live on assumptions.
- Past results: 70%+ of traffic retained after complete domain and brand migrations; 40%+ improvement in rankings and traffic after UI/UX and platform migrations (BFSI and real estate clients), when the strategy was implemented exactly as instructed.
- Background: leading a large international operation; before that, international campaigns for North America, the UK and Australia/New Zealand, where execution quality rose from ~70% to 98% under the QA system I ran.
OUTCOMES
What this engagement is measured on
Every client's goals are different, and most are a mix. In the first weeks we agree which of these matter to you, record a baseline, and report against it every month. Targets are set after the audit, never promised up front.
Traffic and engagement
Protect organic traffic through the move and recover quickly after launch.
- What we measure
- Non-branded organic clicks, organic sessions and users, engaged sessions and click-through rate.
- What usually moves first
- Impressions, rankings and click-through rate on pages that are fixed or rewritten.
- What follows
- Sustained growth in organic clicks and engaged sessions.
Visibility, AI search and brand reach
Keep rankings and indexed pages stable across old and new URLs.
- What we measure
- Keywords in the top positions, presence in Google AI Overviews, how often AI assistants mention and cite you, and branded search demand.
- What usually moves first
- Answer-ready pages appearing in AI Overviews and AI citations; more keywords entering the top 10.
- What follows
- More branded searches and more recommendations by AI assistants.
CLIENT RESULTS
Results from similar engagements
Anonymised client work I led, delivered with my team at the time. Client names are withheld; the numbers are real.
80%
Of monthly organic traffic retained in the first month after the domain change.
Keeping 80% of Traffic Through a Rebrand and Domain Change
93%
Of organic traffic recovered within two weeks of the migration.
Core Web Vitals score
Recovering 93% of Traffic Two Weeks After a Redesign
+112%
Traffic in the second month after the move.
Traffic growth after the move
Moving a Blog to a Knowledge Centre and Growing Traffic 112%
+15%
Increase in organic traffic on the migrated website.
Growing Traffic 15% and Leads 6% After a Website Migration
Who this is for
A migration is a big job, not just a change of technology or domain. Search engines have spent years learning what each of your URLs means, which pages deserve to rank and which signals point at them. A website migration resets a lot of that at once, and done badly the damage isn't a dip for a few weeks — it can cap rankings, leads and brand searches for a long time.
That is what SEO migration services are for: someone who owns the search side of the move from the first planning meeting to the last monitoring report. I've led migrations for BFSI and real estate clients that retained 70%+ of traffic after a complete domain and brand migration, and that delivered 40%+ improvement in rankings and traffic after UI/UX and platform migrations. Those are past results, not promises. They came from following a proven structure, and from the strategy being implemented exactly as instructed.
The structure itself is public: my SEO site migration checklist lists every step, owner and timing. What I add as an SEO migration consultant is the judgement on your specific site, the hands-on QA, and the authority to say "not ready" before launch rather than "what happened?" after it. If a move has already gone wrong, start with the website migration traffic recovery plan.
- Brands going through a rebrand or domain change with a fixed launch date
- Companies replatforming — for example WordPress to Next.js, or a custom build to Shopify
- Marketing teams whose build agency or developer handles design and code but not SEO
- Businesses consolidating country sites, subdomains or merged brands into one domain
- Sites that lost traffic after a previous migration and can't afford to repeat it
DIAGNOSIS
Problems I solve
Common constraints teams face before we begin working together.
"Our developers say SEO will be fine"
"We lost traffic the last time we migrated"
"The rebrand launch date is fixed"
"We can't afford to lose leads during the move"
Types of website migration: risks and what I control
Every migration type breaks SEO in its own way. This is how I look at the main ones before a project starts.
| Migration type | Main SEO risks | What I control |
|---|---|---|
| Domain change / rebrand | Loss of link equity and brand recognition; slow re-indexing on the new domain | 1:1 redirects, Change of Address in Search Console, a prioritised list of key backlinks to update, brand search monitoring |
| Platform / CMS change (e.g. WordPress to Next.js, or to Shopify) | New URL patterns, content rendered only in the browser, missing metadata and schema | URL mapping to the new platform's structure, rendering checks, template-level SEO specification |
| Redesign / UX change | Content cut for design, internal links lost from menus, slower pages | Content parity rules, navigation and internal link review, Core Web Vitals checks on staging |
| URL structure change | Redirect chains, orphaned pages, broken internal links | Redirect map without chains, internal links updated to final URLs, refreshed XML sitemaps |
| HTTPS migration / subdomain to subfolder | Mixed content, duplicate versions, split signals between hosts | Canonical and redirect rules for every host variant, mixed content checks, Search Console property setup |
| International / ccTLD consolidation | Wrong country versions ranking, broken hreflang, lost local relevance | Market-by-market mapping, hreflang with return links and x-default, local content preserved |
| Site merges | Overlapping pages competing, thin pages carried over, lost authority from the retired site | Keep / merge / retire decisions per page, consolidated content, redirects from the retired domain |
Two things cut across every type: tracking continuity (GA4, conversions and call tracking must work from the first minute) and redirects kept for the long term — Google's site move guidance recommends keeping them for at least a year, and I recommend keeping them as long as old URLs still earn links.
Website redesign SEO: when nothing moves but everything changes
A redesign often keeps the same domain and platform, so nobody calls it a migration. But new templates, navigation, page copy and URL tweaks change the signals rankings rest on, all in one release. I run a redesign with the same benchmark, parity checks, redirect mapping for anything that moves and staging QA as any other migration — the scope is smaller, not the discipline.
For multi-market moves, the international side is covered in depth on my international and enterprise SEO page.
The SEO migration process: before, during and after launch
Most of the work happens before launch. If the plan is right and implemented exactly as instructed, launch day should be uneventful.
Pre-migration
- Benchmark rankings, landing pages, conversions, backlinks and Core Web Vitals, so there is a clear before-and-after. If the current site has unresolved issues, a quick pass through the SEO audit checklist stops them being carried over.
- Crawl and inventory every indexable URL on the old site, plus URLs from Search Console, analytics and backlink data that a crawl alone misses.
- Map URLs 1:1. Each old URL redirects (301) to its closest new equivalent. No blanket redirects to the homepage, no chains.
- Check content parity. Pages that earn traffic or links keep their substance, headings and internal links — design changes shouldn't quietly delete them.
- QA the staging site with a full crawl: titles, canonicals, noindex, robots rules, rendering, broken links and redirect behaviour.
- Protect tracking. GA4, Tag Manager, conversion events, call tracking and CRM forms tested on staging, with annotations ready for launch day. If you run paid campaigns, they can keep running up to the migration date; on the new site, restart them or update their landing pages only after those pages and the tracking have been validated and work as expected. The campaigns themselves stay with whoever manages your ads.
- Carry over structured data, internal links and hreflang (where relevant), updated to final URLs. My free hreflang checker confirms return links on each version after launch.
- Keep AI search in the plan. Robots.txt rules for AI crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot carry over, along with llms.txt and ai.txt (I add both by default; there's no proof yet that they help, and they do no harm). Key content stays server-rendered on the new templates, so crawlers that don't run JavaScript still see it.
- Back up and agree the rollback. Every migration starts with a full backup of the current site and an agreed launch plan: who does what, in what order, and the specific trigger that means we roll back.
Launch day
Redirects tested live on a sample of high-value URLs, noindex and robots checked, XML sitemaps submitted, Change of Address filed for domain moves, analytics confirmed recording, and forms tested end to end.
Post-launch monitoring
- Week 2: crawl errors, redirect hits, indexing of key pages, 404s from old links, conversion tracking.
- Week 4: rankings and traffic for priority pages against the benchmark; internal links and sitemaps cleaned up; AI answers about your brand re-checked to confirm assistants describe the new site and URLs correctly.
- Week 12: a full comparison report, remaining fixes, and the next opportunities the new site makes possible.
The step-by-step version with owners and timings is in the SEO migration checklist.
What clients worry about before a migration
"Can you guarantee we won't lose traffic?"
No one honestly can, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Search engines need time to process a move, and some fluctuation is normal. What I can show you is past results — 70%+ of traffic retained after complete domain and brand migrations, and 40%+ improvement after UI/UX and platform migrations — and the structure that produced them, when it was implemented exactly as instructed.
"Our build agency doesn't do SEO. Will this cause friction?"
It shouldn't. I give your developers a clear written specification, answer their questions directly and review their work on staging. Most build teams welcome someone owning the redirect map and SEO checks, because it removes a risk from their side too.
"Our launch date can't move."
Then the SEO work starts as early as possible and runs in parallel with design and build. If a critical issue can't be fixed in time, I'll tell you plainly what launching anyway risks, and what the smallest safe fallback is.
"We rebranded and kept two sites live."
A rebrand can lose traffic even when the technical work is right, because people still searching the old name don't know the new one yet. That's why I track branded and non-branded queries separately: a brand-awareness gap shouldn't be mistaken for an SEO failure, and the fix for each is different. Running the old-brand and new-brand sites side by side splits relevance between them, so neither ranks as well as one would. Plan one destination and redirect the other into it, page by page.
"Who actually does the work?"
I lead every migration personally — the strategy, the risk calls and the final sign-off. Specialists from my team handle crawling, mapping and QA at volume. That QA discipline goes back to my years leading international teams, where I helped lift execution quality from about 70% to 98%.
SEO migration engagement options, support and pricing
| Option | What's included | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-migration strategy & sign-off | Benchmark, inventory, redirect map, specification, staging QA and go / no-go | Teams with a capable developer or build agency who need SEO ownership |
| Full migration management with my team | Everything above, plus hands-on implementation support, launch-day runbook and 2/4/12-week monitoring | Rebrands, domain changes and complex replatforms with a lot at stake |
| Post-migration recovery | Diagnosis of what broke, fix priorities and recovery monitoring | Sites that already lost traffic after a move |
| Pre-launch review only | Review of the redirect map, staging crawl and launch checklist, with a prioritised fix list | In-house builds close to launch that want a second pair of eyes |
If traffic has already dropped, the traffic recovery guide and how to diagnose a traffic drop show how I separate migration damage from algorithm or AI-search effects.
Support after launch
Where my team carries out the migration, 30 days of post-launch support is included by default. After that, ongoing maintenance runs on an AMC (annual maintenance contract) plan if you need it, because the project scope is delivering the migration. Where ongoing support is committed in the initial contract, it's delivered as per the agreed scope.
How pricing works
Each migration is priced as a fixed scope, based on what drives effort: number of URLs and templates, migration type, number of markets and languages, how much of the implementation my team handles, and how tight the timeline is. Where it suits the project, we can add a performance-linked structure — the deliverables fee stays fixed, and a performance bonus sits on top, paid only when the targets I commit to are achieved. Contract terms are customised to the requirement; there's no fixed lock-in.
If the migration is part of a wider rebuild, my website development and redesign service covers the build itself; for ongoing search work after the move, see SEO consulting. The quickest way to scope your migration is to book an intro call and share your launch date.
DELIVERABLES
What you get
Tangible assets, strategic roadmaps and documentation provided during the engagement.
Benchmark & risk assessment
URL inventory & 1:1 redirect map
Content & technical parity plan
Staging QA & pre-launch sign-off
Launch plan & rollback
Post-launch monitoring
WORKFLOW
How an engagement works
A clear, four-phase delivery model ensuring accountability from kickoff to ongoing impact.
- 01Phase 1
Benchmark & inventory
Capture current performance, crawl the old site, export backlinks and Search Console data, and agree what the migration must protect. - 02Phase 2
Map & specify
Build the 1:1 redirect map, content parity rules, tracking plan, structured data, AI crawler access and internal linking specification for your developers, plus a full backup and an agreed rollback trigger. - 03Phase 3
Staging QA & sign-off
Crawl staging against the specification, work with your build team through the fixes, and sign off only when it's implemented as instructed. - 04Phase 4
Launch & monitor
Run launch-day checks, submit sitemaps and change of address where relevant, then monitor at 2, 4 and 12 weeks and fix what surfaces.
Ways to work together
Every engagement is led by me personally. For execution, I work with a small team of specialists — technical SEO, content, development and automation — so you get senior thinking without agency layers, account managers or hand-offs.
Audit & roadmap
A fixed-scope diagnosis with a prioritised roadmap your team can act on. Typically 2–4 weeks.
Advisory retainer
Ongoing senior guidance: monthly strategy, reviews of your team's work, and a direct line to me when decisions come up.
Strategy + execution
I own the strategy and stay your single point of contact; my specialist team handles implementation — technical fixes, content, builds and reporting.
Proof from past work
~70% → 98%
Quality improvement
Built quality frameworks and delivery processes that improved execution across international campaigns.
International operations
~60% → 90%
Client retention
Restructured team operations, accountability and delivery processes to significantly improve client retention.
Operations leadership role
~70% → 98%
Execution quality across international campaigns.
Scaling SEO Operations Across International Markets
~60% → 90%
Client retention after restructuring operations, accountability and delivery.
Transforming a Growing SEO Organisation
TOOLING
Tools I use
Industry-standard platforms and custom automation stacks used to audit, track, and execute.
FAQ
SEO migration services: questions clients ask
Straight answers to what people usually want to know before a first call.
Yes. Website redesign SEO is one of the most underestimated risks because nothing looks like a migration: the domain stays, but URLs, templates, navigation, internal links and on-page content usually change. Those are the signals rankings depend on. I treat a redesign like any other migration — benchmark, URL and content parity checks, redirect mapping for anything that moves, and staging QA before launch.
There's no fixed timeline, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. Some fluctuation in the first weeks is normal while search engines recrawl and process redirects. Smaller, well-executed moves often settle sooner; domain changes and large replatforms take longer. That's why I monitor at 2, 4 and 12 weeks against a benchmark, so real problems are separated from normal movement.
Planning and audit typically take two to six weeks before launch, depending on the size of the site and how many templates, markets and URLs are involved. Then come the launch-day checks, followed by monitoring at 2, 4 and 12 weeks after launch. So the SEO side of a migration usually runs for a few months in total. What I won't give you is a promised recovery date, because how quickly rankings settle depends on search engines, not on the plan.
That's what the backup and rollback plan are for. Before every launch, a full backup of the current site is taken and we agree the specific trigger for rolling back, such as redirects failing at scale, the new site blocked from crawling, or forms and tracking not recording. If a trigger is hit and can't be fixed quickly, we restore the old site and relaunch once the issue is resolved, rather than leaving a broken site live.
Some short-term movement is common, but significant long-term loss is usually caused by preventable mistakes: missing redirects, cut content, blocked crawling or broken tracking. In past migrations for BFSI and real estate clients, my approach retained 70%+ of traffic after complete domain and brand migrations, and delivered 40%+ improvement after UI/UX and platform migrations — when implemented exactly as instructed. Those are past results, not a guarantee.
Yes, and that's the most common setup. I provide the SEO specification, redirect map and QA, and work directly with your developers through staging and launch. They build; I make sure what they build keeps your search visibility, and I sign off before it goes live. If you don't have a build team, specialists from my team can handle implementation.
Access to Google Search Console, GA4 and any backlink or rank-tracking data you have; the old site and the staging site; the new URL structure and templates; the launch timeline; and a named contact on the development side. Early access matters most — the sooner I see the plan, the more risk can be removed before launch.
If you can keep the domain, keep it — it removes the largest single risk in a migration. Change it when the business genuinely needs to: a rebrand, a legal or trademark issue, or consolidating markets. If the decision is made, a domain migration is manageable with 1:1 redirects, Change of Address in Search Console, key backlinks updated and long-term redirects.
Mostly, if every old URL 301-redirects to its closest new equivalent and those redirects stay in place. On top of that, ask the sites behind your most valuable backlinks to point at the new URLs, and update the profiles you control. Where links were built by a previous vendor or agency, you'll usually need to contact them, because they may have the relationships or access. Otherwise my team focuses on earning new links once the old URLs are redirected correctly. New links can't make up for a broken redirect map, so that comes first.
Often, yes, especially if it's caught early. I start by comparing pre- and post-launch data to find what broke — redirects, removed content, indexing, rendering or tracking — then fix in order of revenue impact. Recovery depends on how much time has passed and what was lost, so I'll give you an honest assessment before committing to a plan.
It means the migration specification is built as written: every redirect in the map, the agreed content and templates, tracking, canonicals, structured data and launch steps. My past results depended on that. If your team needs to change something, we agree the alternative in writing before launch, so nothing is quietly skipped under deadline pressure.
Each migration is quoted as a fixed scope, after I understand the site size, migration type, markets and how much implementation my team handles. Where it fits, a performance bonus can sit on top of the fixed fee, paid only when the targets I commit to are met. Contract terms are customised; longer engagements get better pricing than one-time projects.
Yes. International moves — consolidating ccTLDs, moving country subdomains to subfolders, or launching new language versions — need market-by-market URL mapping and hreflang with correct return links and x-default. I've run international SEO for North America, the UK and Australia/New Zealand and led a large international operation as Head of SEO.
Guides worth reading first
Free tools to check your site
Related services
Have a growth problem worth solving?
Tell me where you're stuck. On a 30-minute intro call I'll tell you where I think the constraint is and what I'd look at first — whether or not we end up working together.