eCommerce Migration Guide – Best Practices for Moving Your Online Store

Moving an online store to a new platform is a high-stakes move. Get it wrong, and you could lose years of SEO work, traffic, and revenue overnight. But get it right, and your store will be faster, more scalable, and more profitable.

I’ve been a Shopify developer for over a decade, built 3 Shopify apps, and migrated 100+ stores. I’ve seen everything—from businesses losing 60% of their organic traffic due to bad redirects, to companies doubling their revenue after a seamless Shopify migration.

This guide will take you through every step of the process, ensuring you don’t lose rankings, customers, or sales.

Let’s get started.

1. Why Businesses Migrate Their Online Stores

Switching platforms is a big decision. I always tell clients, “Don’t migrate just because you’re bored of your current platform.” It should be driven by clear, measurable reasons that improve your business.

The Most Common Reasons for eCommerce Migrations

1. Performance Issues – If your store is slow, you’re losing money. Google’s studies show that if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, 53% of mobile users bounce. If your platform can’t deliver blazing-fast speeds, it’s time to move.
2. Scalability – Some platforms struggle when you hit a few thousand products or high-traffic spikes. If your store crashes on Black Friday, you’re losing tens of thousands in revenue.
3. Better Features & Integrations – Newer platforms offer better marketing automation, built-in SEO tools, and AI-driven personalization. If your current platform limits growth, a migration can unlock higher conversion rates.
4. Lower Maintenance Costs – Platforms like Magento and WooCommerce can be expensive to maintain due to developer costs, security updates, and hosting fees. Moving to Shopify or BigCommerce eliminates those headaches.

That being said, migration isn’t a magic bullet. If your store has poor product images, bad UX, or unoptimized listings, switching platforms won’t fix those issues. The key is to migrate strategically with a focus on SEO, performance, and user experience.

2. Pre-Migration Planning (The Foundation of a Smooth Move)

90% of migration problems happen before the actual move. If you plan it right, the transition will be smooth—if not, you’re setting yourself up for a disaster.

Set Clear Migration Goals

Before touching a single line of code, ask yourself:

• What do I want to improve? (Speed, SEO, UX, automation, etc.)
• How will this move impact my customers? (Checkout process, accounts, order history)
• What are my non-negotiables? (Must-have features, integrations, mobile experience)

Choosing the Right eCommerce Platform

Each platform has strengths and weaknesses. Here’s how they stack up:

• Shopify – Best for ease of use, speed, and built-in SEO
• Magento – Powerful but requires heavy developer support
• WooCommerce – Flexible but plugin-heavy & prone to security risks
• BigCommerce – Good for enterprise-level scalability

Why I Recommend Shopify:

• 99.98% uptime (no crashes during high-traffic events)
• Lightning-fast checkout (reduces cart abandonment)
• Built-in SEO tools that boost rankings without needing tons of plugins

SEO Audit: Identify What’s Worth Keeping

Before migrating, document everything:

• Your highest-traffic pages (use Google Analytics)
• Backlink-heavy pages (use Ahrefs to find your most valuable URLs)
• Keyword rankings (track before & after migration)

If you don’t map out your existing SEO before moving, you risk losing years of search engine authority.

Backup Everything

This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many businesses forget this. Make sure you have:

• A full backup of all website files (products, customers, orders, etc.)
• A database export for order history
• Screenshots of key settings (so you can replicate them on the new platform)

If something goes wrong, having a clean backup means you can restore everything in minutes.

3. Technical SEO Before Migration

Here’s where most migrations fail. If you don’t set up SEO properly before switching, you’ll watch your rankings tank overnight.

Map Your URL Structure

Changing URLs is one of the biggest SEO risks during migration. If Google can’t find your old URLs, you lose rankings.

How to prevent this:

• List all existing URLs (use Screaming Frog or a similar tool)
• Create a spreadsheet of old vs. new URLs
• Plan 301 redirects to ensure every page has a proper redirect

Example Redirect Plan:

Never use 302 redirects! They don’t pass SEO value and will cause rankings to drop.

Preserve SEO Elements

• Keep title tags & meta descriptions identical
• Retain product schema markup (structured data)
• Ensure all internal links point to the correct URLs

Even small SEO mistakes can cost thousands in lost traffic, so double-check every detail.

4. Migrating Product & Customer Data

Once the technical side is ready, you need to migrate products, customer accounts, and order history without breaking anything.

Product Listings

• Ensure every product URL remains the same (or set up redirects)
• Keep image URLs identical (changing them can break rankings)
• Validate that inventory, variants, and descriptions transfer correctly

Customer Accounts & Order History

Most platforms can’t migrate passwords due to encryption laws. That means customers will have to reset their passwords after migration.

To reduce friction:

• Send an email explaining the transition
• Offer a discount code for customers who reset their password
• Enable guest checkout so they don’t need to log in right away

5. SEO Best Practices During Migration

Now that the store is migrated, it’s time to make sure Google doesn’t penalize you.

Test Redirects Before Going Live

• Run a full site crawl to check for broken links
• Use Google Search Console to see if any pages return 404 errors

Minimize Downtime

• Migrate during low-traffic hours
• Use a staging site to test everything before switching

Monitor Traffic for the First 90 Days

Expect small fluctuations after migration, but if traffic drops more than 20%, something is wrong.

6. Post-Migration SEO Checklist (Ensuring SEO & Traffic Stay Intact)

The biggest mistake businesses make after migration? They assume everything is fine and move on.

SEO rankings don’t just stay intact after switching platforms. You need to actively monitor and fix issues in the first 30-90 days post-migration.

Here’s exactly what I do after every migration:

Crawl the New Site & Fix Errors

After the migration goes live, the first thing I do is run a full crawl using Screaming Frog. This checks for:

• Broken links (404 errors)
• Redirect chains (multiple redirects that slow down page speed)
• Missing metadata (title tags, descriptions, structured data)
• Duplicate content issues

Why does this matter?

If Google crawls your new site and finds broken links, missing pages, or bad redirects, your rankings can tank overnight.

Fix this by:

• Updating internal links to match the new URL structure
• Ensuring all old URLs have proper 301 redirects
• Fixing broken images and missing product descriptions

Resubmit XML Sitemaps & Update Google Search Console

Now that the new site is live, you need to tell Google where to find everything.

• Submit the new XML sitemap in Google Search Console
• Request reindexing for key pages (especially product and category pages)
• Use Google’s URL Inspection Tool to check if important pages are being indexed

Pro Tip: Keep the old sitemap active for at least 30 days, so Google can process redirects properly.

Check Rankings & Traffic for 90 Days

Your rankings will fluctuate after migration, and that’s normal. But if you see a sudden drop of 20-50%, something is wrong.

How to track this:

• Google Search Console – Monitor indexed pages & ranking changes
• Google Analytics – Compare traffic before vs. after migration
• Ahrefs / SEMrush – Check for lost backlinks or keyword drops

If rankings drop sharply:

• Recheck redirects (make sure key pages still exist)
• Check for missing metadata
• See if page speed has slowed down (Google penalizes slow sites)

By actively monitoring for errors, you can catch problems early before they permanently damage SEO.

7. Common eCommerce Migration Mistakes to Avoid

I’ve done 100+ migrations, and I can tell you—the biggest disasters always happen for the same reasons.

Here are the most common mistakes that wreck SEO and kill sales during migration:

Mistake #1: Not Backing Up Before Migration

This should be obvious, but I’ve seen so many stores lose everything because they didn’t back up their site.

Before migrating, make sure you have:

• A full database export (products, orders, customers, blog content)
• Screenshots of store settings (payment gateways, tax rules, discounts)
• A backup of custom code & integrations

Why? If something goes wrong, you can restore the old store instantly instead of spending weeks fixing issues manually.

Mistake #2: Failing to Set Up 301 Redirects Correctly

This is the #1 reason businesses lose traffic after a migration.

If Google tries to access an old URL and gets a 404 error, you lose all ranking power for that page.

How to do it right:

• Set up one-to-one 301 redirects for all old URLs
• Avoid redirect loops (redirecting a URL to another URL that redirects back)
• Use Redirect Checker to test your redirects before launching

Example:

• Bad: /old-product-page → /new-category → /new-product-page
• Good: /old-product-page → /new-product-page

Every broken redirect is lost money—so triple-check them before launching.

Mistake #3: Ignoring Page Speed Optimization

After migration, your site might be slower—without you realizing it.

Why?

• New platforms handle images and scripts differently
• Some old plugins and custom scripts slow down loading speeds
• If your server response time is slow, Google downgrades your rankings

Fix this by:
✅ Using Google PageSpeed Insights to test speed before & after migration
✅ Compressing images with TinyPNG or Shopify’s built-in tools
✅ Removing unused scripts and tracking codes

💡 A 1-second delay in load time drops conversions by 7%—so speed matters.

Mistake #4: Forgetting to Update Internal Links

One of the easiest SEO mistakes to miss is broken internal links.

If your store had internal links pointing to old URLs, those links are now dead.

How to fix this:

• Run a crawl of the new site (Screaming Frog or Ahrefs)
• Fix all internal links that point to deleted or redirected pages
• Ensure breadcrumbs and navigation menus are updated

Broken internal links = wasted SEO power. Fix them ASAP.

8. Case Study: How a Shopify Migration Increased Sales by 40%

Let me show you exactly how a well-executed migration boosted sales and traffic.

One of my clients, a fashion eCommerce brand, was using Magento. Their store was slow, buggy, and expensive to maintain. They wanted something faster and easier to manage, so we migrated them to Shopify Plus.

What We Did:

• Mapped every URL and set up flawless 301 redirects
• Optimized product pages for faster loading speeds
• Rebuilt their collections structure for better UX

The Results (3 Months After Migration):

• 40% increase in sales
• 22% more organic traffic
• Higher conversion rates (due to a faster checkout)

Lesson? A well-planned migration doesn’t just protect SEO—it can actually increase sales and traffic when done right.

9. Final Thoughts – Make Your Migration a Win

An eCommerce migration doesn’t have to be a nightmare—if you plan it properly.

Your Migration Checklist:

• Backup everything before moving
• Plan redirects carefully to prevent traffic loss
• Check SEO rankings for 3 months post-migration
• Optimize for speed and mobile experience

The right migration can help your store grow faster than ever. But do it wrong, and you’ll be fighting to recover lost traffic for months.

Want to ensure a seamless migration? Let’s talk.