CMS Migration SEO: Switch Platforms Without Losing Rankings

URL patterns by platform

This table is why a "simple" platform switch changes most URLs. Check what your old and new platforms force before you plan the map.

Example: moving a WordPress store with /shop/blue-tent/ to Shopify gives /products/blue-tent. Every product URL changes, so every product needs a redirect.

SEO fields that do not move by themselves

Platform importers move text and images. They often lose the SEO layer. Before you switch, crawl the old site and export these for every page with clicks:

1. SEO title (it may reset to the page name)
2. Meta description
3. H1 and heading structure (themes restyle headings)
4. Image alt text (often dropped when images are re-uploaded)
5. Canonical tags you set by hand
6. Structured data (product, review, FAQ, local business)
7. Noindex settings on thin pages, tags and archives
8. Redirects that live on the old platform: export them, they vanish when you leave

Then compare the same crawl on the new site before launch.

Where to put redirects on the new platform

One Shopify detail trips many teams: a Shopify redirect only fires when nothing exists at the old path. If you recreate a page at the old address, the redirect is ignored.

Flatten the old platform's redirects

Your old site may already redirect URLs from an earlier move. If you copy those rules as they are, you create chains: very old URL > old URL > new URL. Point every old source straight at its final new URL. Our redirect mapping template flags chains for you.

Platform-specific traps

• Shopify collections: product URLs inside collections (/collections/tents/products/blue-tent) canonicalize to /products/blue-tent. Link to the canonical URL in menus.
• Blog tags and categories: a new platform may create tag pages that did not exist before. Decide whether they should be indexed.
• Pagination and filters: new filter URLs can create thousands of near-duplicate pages. Check them in the first crawl.
• Variants: if the old site gave each variant its own URL and the new one does not, redirect variant URLs to the main product.
• Images: image URLs change too. Image search traffic needs redirects or will restart.

After launch

For the first four weeks, compare clicks by page with your baseline every week, and check Search Console > Indexing > Pages for new 404s. Google says it can take a few weeks for most pages of a small or medium site to move, and that visibility may fluctuate in the meantime (Google Search Central, updated August 2026). Then work through the checklist for your new platform: WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace or Webflow.