MigrationHow do you migrate a store without losing rankings?
01URL inventory
We consolidate all existing URLs from sitemap, Search Console, analytics, server logs and our own crawl - including pages that only have external links.
021:1 mapping
Every old URL gets a matching target. No blanket redirect to the homepage, no redirect chains.
03301 instead of 302
Permanent moves are signalled with a 301. A 302 keeps the old URL in the index and delays the transfer of signals.
04Dry run before go-live
The full redirect list is checked against staging: target status, target content and loading behaviour, automated and repeatable.
05Launch monitoring
After go-live we watch indexing reports, crawl stats and server logs and fix any emerging 404s immediately. That makes it visible early which URLs hold their rankings and where we need to step in.
06Adjust based on data
After the first full re-crawl we compare impressions and positions per URL cluster and prioritise where demand and gap are largest.
FAQFrequently asked questions about Shopify SEO
What is ecommerce SEO?
Ecommerce SEO is the optimisation of an online store for organic search. It covers three areas: technical accessibility so search engines can crawl and index every relevant page, content coverage of actual search demand at category and product level, and internal linking that channels relevance towards revenue pages.
What is a 301 redirect and when do you need one?
A 301 redirect tells browsers and search engines that a URL has moved permanently. You need one for every replatform, every change to your URL structure and every merged category. Without it, users and crawlers hit a 404 and the signals the old address had collected are lost.
Will you lose rankings when moving to Shopify?
Not necessarily. Ranking losses almost always come from missing or wrong redirects, changed page content and newly introduced indexing errors - not from the platform itself. With complete URL mapping, clean 301 redirects and monitoring right after launch, the risk can be reduced considerably.
How long until SEO work shows results?
It depends on what you change. Technical fixes such as canonicals or redirects take effect as soon as Google has re-crawled the affected pages. New content and architecture changes take much longer, because Google has to evaluate and classify those pages repeatedly. Plan in months, not weeks.
Is Shopify's automatic sitemap enough?
For small stores, usually yes. The generated sitemap.xml lists products, collections, pages and blog posts. It becomes a problem when pages are noindexed, redirected or should not be indexed at all: sitemap and page signals then contradict each other and troubleshooting gets significantly harder.
How do you measure whether SEO works?
Through Google Search Console, not through ranking tools alone. What matters are impressions, clicks and average position per URL cluster, plus the indexing reports. Search Console keeps 16 months of history, so you can compare the periods before and after a relaunch directly.
Does every category need its own copy?
Only if that copy answers a question users actually have at this point. Short guidance on selection criteria, variants or fit works well next to the products. Long, interchangeable blocks of text below the product grid rarely help and make the mobile experience noticeably worse.
How visible is your store, really?
We review your Search Console data, your indexing and your URL structure and tell you which issue to fix first.
