Most of the worry about moving platform is about search. The risk is real, but it is manageable if you plan for it from the start.
Why rankings can drop
Search engines know your pages by their addresses. If an address changes and nothing points the old one to the new one, the page is treated as gone and its value is lost.
Before you start
Record your current addresses
Make a full list of your pages, and note which bring in visitors and links. These are the ones to protect first.
Save a copy of your reports
Keep your search and sales figures from before the move, so you can compare them with what follows.
During the move
Map every old address to a new one
Each old address gets a permanent redirect to its new home. Set these up one by one, rather than relying on automatic rules alone.
Carry over titles and descriptions
Keep the same titles, descriptions and headings where they work well, and improve them only once the move has settled.
After you launch
Check the redirects, then watch your search reports for several weeks. A small dip is common, and it should recover if the groundwork was sound.
We check redirects with a crawl of the old addresses, and watch Google Search Console for errors and changes in clicks. We also compare GA4 traffic and orders with the weeks before the move.
