Move an online shop without losing rankings

The short answer.

Make a list of every address on your current shop, decide where each one will live on the new shop, and set up a permanent redirect from old to new. Keep the words on your important pages, test everything before you switch, and watch Search Console closely afterwards.

Do that and you've dealt with most of the risk. Expect a wobble, as Google says that visibility can fluctuate during a move, and that a medium-sized site can take a few weeks or more to settle. A wobble is normal, but a cliff edge usually means something's been missed.

Why shops lose rankings when they move.

Google has spent years learning that a particular address is a good answer to a particular search. If that address stops working, Google has to work out where the page went, and often it can't. The same applies to anyone who's linked to you, and to customers with bookmarks.

These are the usual culprits. None of them is complicated, but they're all easy to miss when everyone's busy with the new design.

Old addresses have nowhere to go, because no redirects were set up.
Everything redirects to the home page, which doesn't help a customer looking for one product.
Temporary redirects were used where permanent ones were needed.
Good product and category text was thrown away in favour of a cleaner design.
The test site was left open to Google, or the live site was left blocked after launch.
Nobody looked at Search Console afterwards, so problems went unnoticed for months.

Before you move: make your map.

This is the one job you can't skip. Your redirect map is a simple spreadsheet with two columns: the old address and the new address. It's dull work, and it's the most valuable document in the whole project.

Don't rely only on your sitemap, as it often misses things. Combine it with your Search Console pages report, your analytics, and a crawl of the live site. Include old products you've stopped selling, because they may still have links or searches.

Note which pages bring in the most visits and orders. These get checked by hand.
Map each old page to the closest match, such as one product to the same product and one category to the same category.
Decide what to do with products you no longer sell. The nearest similar product or category is usually best.
Fold duplicate pages into one, rather than carrying the mess across.
Take a copy of your current titles, descriptions and rankings, so you've got something to compare with.

While you build: keep what's working.

A new shop is a good chance to improve things, but it's a risky moment to rewrite everything at once. If a page ranks well, then Google likes something about it. Keep its words, its headings and its subject, and improve it after the move has settled, so that you can tell what caused what.

Keep your important titles and descriptions unless they're bad. Carry across your structured data, such as product and review information, and your image descriptions. Try not to make the shop slower than it was. Meanwhile, keep the test site out of search results, ideally behind a password.

On the day: switch, then test straight away.

Pick a quiet time, not the week before Christmas. If your shop has a busy season, move well ahead of it, so any wobble is over before it matters. Then work through this list as soon as you've switched over.

Check that a sample of old addresses each go directly to the right new page, with a permanent 301 redirect.
Check that the shop isn't blocked from search engines. This is the classic launch-day mistake.
Place real test orders, including with a discount code, and refund them.
Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
Check that analytics and any advertising tracking are still counting orders.
Update your Google Business Profile and any other links you control, if addresses have changed.

Afterwards: watch it for months, not days.

Look at Search Console's page reports every few days for the first couple of weeks. Addresses you missed will show up as "not found", and you can add a redirect for each one. It's nearly impossible to catch every address in advance, so plan to fix a few.

Compare your rankings and orders against your earlier figures, allowing for the time of year. Keep the redirects in place. Google suggests keeping them for as long as possible, generally for at least a year, and there's little reason to remove them. Update your own internal links so they point straight at the new pages, too.

A note on redirects.

A redirect tells browsers and search engines that a page has moved. A permanent one, known as a 301, says it's gone for good. Google says that 301 redirects don't cause a loss of PageRank, so you can use them without worrying that you're paying a tax.

Send each old address directly to its final destination. Google advises avoiding long chains of redirects, and old shops that have already moved once often have them. Check that your new platform lets you set up the redirects you need before you commit to it, and find out how many it allows.

Where With Gumption comes in.

Moving shops is one of the things we do most carefully, because it's where years of work can be lost in an afternoon. We usually move people from a general shop that's stopped fitting onto one built around how they sell, and we bring their customers, orders and Google positions with them.

If you're thinking about moving, tell us what you're on now and what's going wrong. We'll tell you honestly if it's worth the move, or if your shop just needs a good sort out.

Questions people ask.

Will changing my ecommerce platform affect my SEO?

It can, for better or worse. Changing platform almost always changes your addresses, and that's the main risk. Handled properly, with redirects and the same useful content, you should settle back in within a few weeks or so. A faster, clearer shop can even do better in the long run. Handled badly, the damage can take months to recover from.

How long does it take for rankings to recover after moving?

There's no fixed time. Google says that a medium-sized site can take a few weeks or more, and that larger sites take longer. If you're still well down after a couple of months, something has probably been missed, so check for lost pages, redirect problems or important content that didn't make the move.

How long should I keep my redirects?

As long as possible. Google suggests at least a year, and there's rarely a good reason to remove them after that, since people may have old links and bookmarks. They don't take much looking after. If you're moving hosts as well as platforms, make sure the redirects move with you.

Should I redirect every old page or only the important ones?

Every page that's had any visitors or links, as far as you reasonably can. The important ones get checked by hand, and the rest can often be handled by a pattern, if the addresses follow a rule. Don't send everything to the home page. It's unhelpful for customers, and search engines may treat it as if the page has simply gone.

Is it a good idea to redesign and move at the same time?

It's often the only sensible way to do it, as a new platform usually means a new design. Just be cautious about rewriting your best-performing words at the same moment. If traffic dips, you want to know why. Keep the content that's working, then make improvements in stages once things have settled down.

How to move an online shop without losing your Google rankings.