SEO MIGRATION SPECIALISTS

SEO migration services that protect traffic, rankings and revenue

A poorly managed website migration can undo years of organic growth. URL changes, redirects, templates, platform moves and indexation issues all create risk if SEO is brought in too late. We manage migrations as commercial risk programmes, protecting high-value pages, backlinks and organic visibility before, during and after launch.

Why Migrations Fail

Most migrations lose organic performance because:

  • Key pages are dropped or incorrectly redirected
  • Ranking signals are stripped by new templates
  • Backlink equity fractures across domains
  • Crawl paths change and search engines can’t follow
  • International signals (hreflang) break
  • CMS limitations reduce SEO capability

We prevent these issues with pre-migration audits, controlled rollout strategies and real-time governance so you don’t bleed visibility at go-live.

What we do

Honcho's Migration Framework

01Pre Migration Benchmarking

Baseline commercial metrics, traffic, rankings, revenue driving pages and indexation health.

02Risk & Opportunity Mapping

Identify templates, categories and markets at risk and define how to protect or improve them.

03URL and Redirect Control

Every high value URL mapped to a destination with strict redirect governance to preserve equity.

04Technical and Indexation Governance

Robots, canonicals, sitemaps and crawl behaviour audited and controlled before launch.

05Template and IA SEO Input

Design and navigation reviewed with SEO front of mind so nothing is stripped away in development.

06Go Live and Performance Monitoring

Design and navigation reviewed with SEO front of mind so nothing is stripped away in development.

"Our day-to-day team at Skinstation genuinely enjoys working with Honchō and values the collaborative approach throughout our partnership.

Their dedication and support, particularly during our website migration, makes a complex process feel well managed and considered. We appreciate the close working relationship and the care taken to ensure a smooth transition and successful delivery of work.“"

Jackie Tuzee Chief Marketing Officer , SkinStation
Our approach

Migration Support Built for Complexity

We handle migrations where the stakes are high, whether that means major ecommerce replatforms, international site consolidation or recovering from a failed launch. Our approach is designed to protect visibility, reduce risk and give brands a stronger technical foundation for growth.

  • Shopify, Magento and custom ecommerce migrations
  • Enterprise CMS and third-party platform changes
  • Domain consolidation and international rollouts
  • Structural changes to brand, taxonomy and URLs
Our approach

What Makes Honchō Different

SEO migrations are not just technical moves. They are commercial risk events that can affect rankings, traffic, leads and revenue if they are not managed properly. That is why we treat migrations as strategic business projects, not just implementation tasks.

That means SEO working closely with product and engineering, full migration oversight from day one and post-launch measurement frameworks that connect visibility back to revenue. The goal is not just a cleaner launch, but stronger business outcomes after it.

SEO Website Migration Case Studies

  • Sephora  

    Sephora

    SEO

    Merger and new site launch for international beauty brand Sephora

    VIEW CASE STUDY
  • Skin Station  

    Skin Station

    SEO & Content

    SEO first Shopify migration for beauty brand Skinstation

    VIEW CASE STUDY
UK Search Awards 2025 Winner
UK Content Awards 2025 Winner
Google Partner Premier 2025
Winner UK Digital PR Awards 2024

Migrating your website? Don't risk your rankings.

Tell us about your migration timeline and current traffic. We'll assess the risks, build a watertight SEO migration plan and make sure your organic performance comes through intact.

No obligationResponse within 24 hours17+ years experience

Get in touch

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FAQs

FAQs About Our Migration Services

Can't find what you're looking for? Get in touch and we'll answer any questions you have.

What is an SEO migration?

An SEO migration is the process of protecting and improving organic performance when a website changes platform, domain, structure, design or URL format. This includes replatforming to Shopify, CMS migrations, domain changes, international consolidation and large-scale URL restructures.

What’s the biggest risk during a migration?

The biggest risk is losing high-value URLs, category equity or backlink authority due to poor mapping, broken redirects or SEO-unfriendly template changes. These issues can silently erode revenue post-launch if not controlled.

Will I lose rankings during a website migration?

Short-term volatility is normal, but significant ranking and traffic loss is not inevitable. With proper SEO planning, URL mapping, redirect governance and technical controls, rankings can be protected and often improve post-migration.

When should SEO be involved in a website migration?

SEO should be involved before design and development start. Most migration failures happen because SEO is added too late, after templates, navigation and CMS limitations are already locked in.

How long does it take to recover SEO after a migration?

With an SEO-led migration, stabilisation typically happens within weeks rather than months. The exact recovery window depends on site size, complexity, crawl behaviour and how much structural change is introduced.

Can you recover performance after a failed migration?

Yes. We regularly support recovery projects following failed migrations. This includes diagnosing indexation loss, redirect failures, template regressions and authority dilution, then stabilising performance before rebuilding growth.

Award Winning SEO, Paid Search & Digital PR Agency for Beauty Brands

  • 17+ years delivering measurable search growth
  • Trusted by 100+ household brands
  • Multi-award winners at UK & European Search Awards
  • Google Premier Partner

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