Keeping SEO intact through an Apache to Nginx migration
A server migration is an SEO migration. Redirects, robots.txt and the XML sitemap all depend on server rules that do not carry over from Apache to Nginx. Here is what I checked and fixed.
Nothing changed on the site. Everything changed for Google.
A server move leaves content and design untouched. But the rules that tell search engines how to crawl a site often live in Apache’s configuration, and Nginx does not read .htaccess.
What is at risk
Under Apache, redirects and rewrite rules often sit in .htaccess. Nginx ignores that file, so after a switch those rules simply stop working. The same goes for anything that depends on rewrites, such as the endpoints that serve robots.txt and the XML sitemap. Visitors notice nothing; search engines notice everything.
What I did
- Supported the move of the WordPress environment from Apache to Nginx.
- Checked how redirects behaved on the new server and worked through a failing Rank Math CSV import of the redirect set.
- Fixed the problems around
robots.txt. - Checked and restored the XML sitemap.
- Checked the WordPress environment after the switch.
This is the same platform as the programmatic SEO case: the migration had to happen without breaking the structure built there.
Checked again a year later
In November 2026 the platform runs on Nginx 1.25. robots.txt, the sitemap index with its six sub-sitemaps and the self-referencing canonicals on the role pages all respond correctly.
The lesson
Hosting and server changes are usually planned by developers with uptime in mind, not indexation. A pre-migration crawl, a redirect inventory and a post-migration check take a few hours and prevent months of lost traffic. That checklist is now part of every SEO migration I support.
Before and after
What this means for you
If you are changing hosts, servers or CMS, involve SEO before the switch, not after the traffic drop. The technical signals search engines rely on rarely survive a migration untouched.
Planning a migration or a replatform?
I run the pre-migration crawl, build the redirect map and check everything after go-live, so the move is invisible to Google and to your revenue.
Developer-ready deliverables.
NL, BE, DE and UK markets.