Ecommerce SEO migration checklist: replatform without losing rankings

What to take away

A migration holds its rankings when the URL inventory, redirect map and metadata are signed off before the new store goes live.
Every retired URL needs a 301 to its closest live equivalent, never to a 404 or the homepage.
Keeping the .co.uk address preserves inbound links that a new domain would have to earn again.
Consent, analytics and any data transfer need a UK GDPR review before launch, not after.
Watch crawl errors, indexed pages and organic revenue daily for the first fortnight.

Build the URL inventory first

You cannot map redirects for pages you have not listed. Export every indexable URL from the current store, then add the ones only search engines see: XML sitemaps, internal link exports and server logs. Record traffic, revenue and backlinks for each.

URL inventory sources

Export every indexable URL
Add XML sitemap URLs
Add internal link exports
Add server log URLs
Record traffic, revenue, backlinks
Assign owner and date per row

A spreadsheet with three columns, old URL, new URL and status, becomes the single source of truth. Give every row an owner and a date. Anything left blank blocks launch.

Decide the redirect type by URL pattern

Most stores repeat a handful of URL patterns, so map by pattern first and patch the exceptions by hand.

Redirect type by URL pattern

Old URL type

Product, still stocked: Same product
Product, discontinued: Closest category
Category, same hierarchy: Equivalent category
Category merged elsewhere: Surviving category
Filtered or paginated: Parent category
Campaign landing page: New campaign page

New destination

Product, still stocked: 301
Product, discontinued: 301
Category, same hierarchy: 301
Category merged elsewhere: 301
Filtered or paginated: 301 or 410
Campaign landing page: 301

Redirect

Product, still stocked
Product, discontinued
Category, same hierarchy
Category merged elsewhere
Filtered or paginated
Campaign landing page

Paginated and faceted URLs rarely need one-to-one redirects. Send them to the parent category and let the new store's crawl rules handle the rest.

Watch trailing slashes, letter case and query strings. A redirect that lands on a 200 page with the wrong canonical still wastes the equity you moved.

Protect the .co.uk domain and its link equity

Keep the existing .co.uk domain where the business still trades under the same name. Aged domains carry link equity, brand searches and email trust that a new address starts without.

Keep or move the .co.uk domain

Does the business still trade under the same name?

Yes

keep the existing .co.uk domain

redirect at host level and keep old domain registered for years

If you must move, redirect at host level and keep the old domain registered for years rather than months.

Platform choice shapes the redirect plan. A side-by-side look at Shopify versus WooCommerce SEO sets out the crawl and template differences that decide how many URLs change.

UK or EU hosting keeps latency low for British shoppers and keeps data processing closer to home, which simplifies the transfer questions later.

Check consent, analytics and data transfers

Every analytics tag, consent banner and CRM integration needs testing on the new store before launch day. Under the UK GDPR, personal data must be processed lawfully and transfers outside the UK need a lawful mechanism, as set out in the retained UK GDPR regulation.

Consent mode settings often reset during a replatform, which quietly strips conversion data from reports. Agree the measurement plan with whoever owns data protection.

Export your analytics history before the old store is switched off, or you lose the baseline you need to prove recovery.

Checkout pages carry their own duties. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 require clear pre-contract information and cancellation rights, and template changes can drop them.

Run the migration in a fixed order

Freeze the URL inventory a week before launch, and stop publishing pages that will not exist on the new store.
Crawl the staging site and compare its titles, canonicals and internal links against the live store.
Load the redirect map into the new platform and test a sample of 50 rows by hand.
Check robots.txt, noindex tags and XML sitemaps on staging so nothing leaks into the index early.
Launch, then resubmit sitemaps and request indexing for the highest-revenue pages.
Watch Search Console coverage, server logs and organic revenue daily for two weeks.

Pre-launch and post-launch checks

Benchmark performance against ONS retail industry data, which publishes retail sales figures including the online share, so you can separate migration damage from a quiet trading week.

Redirect mapping is only half the work. The new structures still need to rank, so give category page optimisation a pass before launch rather than after.

Common questions

How long does it take for rankings to recover after a migration?

Recovery usually takes weeks rather than days when 301s are clean. Pages left on 404s or thin templates take longer.

Should I move from .co.uk to .com?

Only for a commercial reason such as international expansion. A like-for-like replatform on the same .co.uk keeps the most equity.

What is the most common redirect mistake?

Bulk redirects to the homepage. Search engines treat them as soft 404s, so map each old URL to its nearest live equivalent.

Do I need to tell Google about the migration?

Only when the domain changes. Use the Change of Address tool in Search Console and keep both properties verified for six months.