Website migration SEO services: Moved without
losing what it earns.
A site that already has traffic is not a blank page. Moving it is its own job, and most of it happens before anything goes live.
Audit·Redirects·Content·Launch
The job
Most people looking for website migration SEO services have the same worry, and it is the right one. Sites that lose rankings in a move lose them on the same day, for the same reason: the old addresses stopped working and nothing told Google where they went. It is not subtle and it is not bad luck, it is a list nobody made.
So the list gets made first. Every page on the old site, every address it is reachable at, and where each one lands afterwards. Then the content moves, then it launches, then the whole map is checked against the live site rather than assumed.
Website migration services: what's included: The whole list, nothing extra.
Every one of these is in the price. If a job needs something that is not here, it is in the written scope before you say yes, not on the invoice after.
The old site, listed
Every page, every address, and what each one is for. A website migration starts here, crawled rather than remembered, because the pages nobody mentions are the ones that get dropped.
A redirect map, before launch
Every old URL mapped to a new one, written down and reviewed while there is still time to argue with it. Pages with nowhere to go get a decision, not a 404.
Content moved, not retyped
Words, images, documents and their formatting, migrated with the structure intact. Anything that cannot survive the move is flagged before it is lost rather than found missing after.
What search already knows
Titles, descriptions, headings and structured data carried over deliberately, so the pages that rank arrive looking like themselves.
Launch, watched
DNS, certificates and the redirect map going live in an order that does not leave a gap in the middle of the migration.
Checked after, not assumed
The map run against the live site, Search Console watched for what it starts reporting, and the errors fixed while they are still small.
Sitemap and page structure
What pages exist, how they relate, and what each one is for. This is where SEO is won or lost, before a line of code.
Design, if there is none
I will design it: a site that looks considered and does the job. If the brand underneath it needs doing too, that is its own piece of work and it has its own page.
Build
From your design or mine, on a platform that suits the team who will keep it running rather than the one I enjoy most.
Real content in
Your words and pictures loaded and laid out, not lorem ipsum with a note to fill it later. If an existing site is being replaced, moving it across is its own job: see website migration.
Accessibility and performance
Keyboard, focus order, contrast and labels checked, not assumed. Core Web Vitals measured on real pages, then fixed.
Launch and handover
A checklist worked through line by line, then documentation and a walkthrough with whoever picks it up.
Sounds like you if
“We have been quoted before and never seen what we were paying for.”
One page
A single scrolling page, £600. A launch, a test, or a business that needs to exist online by Friday.
Five pages
Home, about, services, one more, contact, £1,200. The standard small business site.
On WordPress
The same five pages on WordPress, £1,600. More to build, and more you can change yourself afterwards.
A shop
An online shop starts at £2,000: five content pages, up to twenty-five products, payments, shipping, tax and the policies.
Changes afterwards
£75 an hour, billed after they are done, or a monthly plan if there are enough of them to be worth fixing the price.
What is never extra
The sitemap, the redirects, the accessibility pass and the handover. They are part of the build, not a line added at the end.
Hosting and the certificate
A WordPress site on a managed host on my account, with the security certificate kept renewed, for £50 a month. The domain stays registered in your name.
Updated every month
WordPress, the theme and the plugins brought up to date, then the pages that matter checked by hand.
A backup every day
A fresh backup every day, and another before any update runs, so any change can be undone.
Changes when you need them
A reply within twelve working hours saying what it needs and how long it will take, before any of it is started. £75 an hour, or on a plan.
The note on the 1st
What was updated, what was changed and how many hours were used, next to the invoice.
Leaving, and what you take
A month's notice after the first three months, then a full backup and help moving it, free. The domain is already yours.
Sounds like you if
“The last person built it and then we never heard from them again.”
How a website migration runs: From hello to handover.
Step 1
12 hours max
I reply
Working hours, unless I am on holiday and have said so.
Step 2
Day 0
Scope call
30 minutes. What is migrating, what is on it, and what it is currently earning.
Step 3
+2 days
Written scope
What migrates, in what order, what it costs, when it lands.
Step 4
Before launch
The map, agreed
Every old address and its destination, in a document you can read and disagree with.
Step 5
After launch
Checked, then checked again
The map run against the live site, and Search Console watched rather than hoped at.
This is for you
Website migration SEO: is it for you?: A website migration is for you
if any of these sound familiar.
- The site already earns its traffic
- You are changing platform, or changing agency
- The addresses are changing
- A quote never mentioned redirects
It is not, if
- The site is new and has nothing to lose yet
- You want the content rewritten too
- It is a server move, same addresses
Not sure which side you are on? Say so on the call. If I am not the right person, you get the name of someone who is.
What a website migration costs
Every price on the page,
before you call.
You should not have to sit through a call to find out whether you can afford me.
Reading on a website migration
Guides, if you would rather read first.
Website migration questions: Questions I get every time.
The honest answers. If yours is not here, it is the first thing we cover.
Ask me yours01 Do you migrate ecommerce platforms?
Yes, and it is the one to be most careful with. Products, variants, customers and orders all have to land intact, and the old product URLs matter more than the pages do because they are what people have linked to and what search has indexed. The order history is the part people forget to ask about until afterwards.
02 Can you move my site without losing SEO?
That is the job. Every address on the old site is listed, mapped to its new one, and tested before the switch rather than after. Where a page has no equivalent it is decided deliberately rather than left to a 404. Rankings usually wobble for a few weeks after any move; what stops them dropping is the map.
03 What do website migration SEO services actually cover?
Moving a site that already exists onto a new platform, a new build or a new address, without losing what it has earned in search. Every old URL mapped to a new one before launch, the content moved across with its formatting and media, and the map checked against the live site afterwards rather than assumed.
04 Will we lose our rankings?
A move done properly usually shows a dip for a few weeks and then recovers. A move done without a redirect map often does not recover, because the pages that ranked are simply gone. The map is the difference, and it is the part that gets skipped.
05 What happens to pages we are getting rid of?
Each one gets a decision rather than a 404: redirected to the nearest real thing where there is one, or allowed to go properly where there is not. Redirecting everything to the home page is worse than letting a page die, and search engines treat it that way.
06 How long does a migration take?
The moving is quick. The listing, the mapping and the checking are what take the time, and they scale with how many pages there are rather than how big the site feels. You get a real date in the written scope, not a range.
07 Can you move it without changing how it looks?
Yes, and that is often the sensible order: move it first, prove nothing broke, then change it. The migration of a WordPress website onto new hosting is the usual version of this. Changing the platform and the design in one go means that when something drops you cannot tell which one did it.
08 How is it priced?
As a fixed price where the job can be pinned down, which a migration usually can once the pages are counted, or by the day at £400 where it cannot. The written scope and the price arrive within 2 working days of the call.
09 How do we pay?
One of two ways, and the written scope says which. A build is a deposit, paid by card when you agree the scope, which starts the work, then the balance when it is finished, or monthly by Direct Debit where the price allows. Other work is paid as each stage is accepted. No VAT is charged.
10 What do you need from us?
Access to the current site and wherever its domain is managed, and somebody who can answer what a handful of odd old pages were for. That is usually the whole list.
11 What happens after it is live?
The map gets checked against the live site and Search Console is watched for a few weeks. After that it is yours to run, or care starts at £300 a month.
Usually goes with: Website migration
and website redesign.
Website migration SEO services and the move itself are the same job done by one person, or they are two people blaming each other. The checking afterwards is search work rather than build work, and whoever wrote the redirect map is the one who can read what Search Console says about it.
See website redesignOr one of the other three
Moving a site that
already earns its keep?
Tell me what the migration involves and what the old site is currently ranking for. Thirty minutes, no pitch, and you leave knowing what the move actually risks.
- Within 12 hoursA reply
- Within 2 working daysA written scope and a price
- OrThe name of someone who fits better