SEO migrations that do not lose traffic.
Replatforming, domain changes, URL restructures, hreflang re-organisation. The technical SEO work most teams discover the hard way, after the traffic drop. I plan and execute migrations before the cliff, so the new site goes live without losing what the old one earned.
target after launch
before go-live
no orphan redirects
account layer.
Four moving parts most agencies underestimate.
SEO migration is one of the few jobs where doing nothing is usually better than doing it carelessly. These are the four parts that need real attention.
Every old URL mapped to its closest new equivalent. Not just the top 100 by traffic. Long-tail pages carry significant link equity in aggregate. Missing them is where traffic loss compounds.
Old to new in a single hop, no chains, no loops. Every redirect verified server-side. Crawled post-launch to catch the inevitable typos before Google does.
International sites lose locale targeting if hreflang is not re-set on day one. Common cause of post-migration drops in DE or BE markets. I rebuild it before launch, not after.
For the first six weeks, daily monitoring of crawl status, indexation, and ranking deltas per category. Early signals get acted on while Google is still re-crawling, not three months later.
Three phases, with the planning before the build.
Most migration projects fail because the planning starts after development. The order needs to flip.
Full URL inventory of the old site, traffic and link equity per URL, mapping to new structure, redirect spreadsheet, hreflang plan, schema transition plan. This phase is 60% of the work and starts weeks before launch.
Redirects deployed and tested. New site crawled the moment it is live. Schema validated, hreflang verified, sitemaps submitted to GSC. Available in real-time for the launch window to catch issues fast.
Daily crawl + indexation check. Per-category ranking comparison. Drops investigated and fixed within 48 hours. Weekly status report. Six weeks is when Google has fully re-indexed and the new baseline is clear.
The work most teams discover too late.
SEO migration is high stakes and rarely repeated. A botched one costs months of recovery. Done right, the new site launches with the SEO equity intact and the freedom to grow on its new foundation. The discipline below is the difference.
Most of the work happens before launch day. Surprises after launch are the cost of skipping that.
Shopify to WooCommerce, custom to headless, subdomain to ccTLD. The migration pattern changes per stack.
Multi-locale sites add complexity. Hreflang and locale targeting are top-of-mind, not afterthoughts.
No conflict of interest with your dev team or platform vendor. I represent the SEO outcome.
Planning a replatform, domain change or URL restructure?
Book a free 30-minute consultation. Share what you are migrating and when, and I will sketch the risks and the planning timeline. Even if we do not end up working together, you leave with something actionable.
Migration scope review before we talk.
Concrete vervolgstappen om te behouden.