# SEO migrations

> A change of domain, CMS or URL structure without losing the traffic you spent years earning.

URL: https://nachomascort.com/en/services/seo-migrations/ · Language: English

I teach the migrations class in the BigSEO Academy SEO Master and the Asdrubal SEO Technical SEO Master. At Softonic, a site with millions of visits a day, we moved the languages from subdomains to the main domain and then to their own ccTLDs linked with hreflang. With the next core update, the main domain went past the traffic it had before.

## Who it's for

- You are going to change domain, CMS or URL structure.
- You are going to merge several sites into one, or split languages or countries.
- Your site has thousands of URLs and a lot of organic traffic at stake.
- You already migrated, lost traffic and it is not coming back.

It's not for you if:

- Your site has few pages and little traffic. A good checklist may be enough.
- The migration goes live tomorrow and there is no room to change anything.

## A migration is won before it launches

Almost every drop after a migration could have been seen coming: URLs that brought traffic and have no destination, new templates with less content, internal links that disappear or a new site Google cannot see because everything depends on JavaScript. That is why half the work is in the inventory and in reviewing the new site before it goes out.

And not every migration is technical. A migration also decides which content you take with you: if you move weak content, like unreviewed translations, to the main domain, you can lower the quality of the whole site at the next core update. A good migration asks which content is worth taking along.

## What I look at

- **URLs with traffic or links and no destination**: I cross analytics, Search Console, external links and logs so that no URL that contributes is left without a redirect.
- **Redirects to the homepage or in chains**: Mass redirects to the homepage and chains of hops are among the most common causes of drops that do not recover.
- **Poorer new templates**: If the new site has less text, fewer internal links or less structured data than the old one, the design has already lost traffic before launch.
- **JavaScript on the new site**: I check in staging what Google sees rendered: content, links and metadata.
- **What still points to the old site**: Canonicals, hreflang, sitemaps and internal links that keep pointing to old URLs after launch.
- **Which content is worth taking**: Not everything that exists helps: carrying weak content over to the new site can lower the quality of the whole site.

## Redirects get monitored after launch too

On a large project, the task log showed that in ten months we had done fourteen tasks on redirects, many on logic more than ten years old, with the same checks repeated again and again. So we automated it:

- A sample of URLs that covers every redirect rule
- A daily check of source and destination
- An alert as soon as a redirect stops meeting its rule

I set up the same in every migration: the work on redirects does not end on launch day, and a change from another team can break them months later.

## How we work

1. **Call and access**: What changes, why and when. You give me access to Search Console, analytics, logs and the test environment of the new site.
2. **Inventory and baseline**: Every URL that brings traffic or links or is indexed, plus the starting traffic and rankings by page type.
3. **Redirect map**: Each old URL with its destination, one by one, and a decision for those with no equivalent.
4. **Staging review**: I review the new site: indexability, canonicals, hreflang, internal linking, structured data and what Google sees if everything depends on JavaScript.
5. **Supported launch**: I check redirects, robots.txt, sitemaps and Search Console as soon as it goes live, and we fix anything that fails right away.
6. **Monitoring**: Indexing, rankings and traffic by page type, with alerts to catch any broken redirect in time.

## What you get

- **URL inventory**: Every URL that brings traffic or links today or is indexed, pulled from crawling, Search Console, analytics and logs.
- **Redirect map**: Each old URL with its new destination, one to one and without chains. Those with no equivalent are decided case by case.
- **Staging review**: Before launch I review the new site: indexability, canonicals, hreflang, internal linking, structured data and performance.
- **Supported launch**: On the day of the change I check redirects, robots.txt and sitemaps, and that Google starts crawling the new site.
- **Post-launch monitoring**: I watch indexing, rankings and traffic by page type over the following weeks and fix whatever drifts.

## Results

- [Softonic: from 0 to 20 million sessions a month in two years](https://nachomascort.com/en/case-studies/softonic-0-to-20-million/): Two language migrations in a portfolio with over 1 billion users a year. After the second, to ccTLDs with hreflang, the main domain and each language went past their previous traffic.

## Formats and pricing

- **Full migration**: From the inventory to the post-launch monitoring: the recommended format if the migration is not designed yet.
- **Migration review**: I review the plan and the redirect map you already have before launch, or diagnose a migration that has already gone live and lost traffic.

Fixed price based on the number of URLs, the templates that change and the format. I send you the proposal in writing after the first call.

I work with at most 4 consulting clients at a time, so I can give each one the time they need.

## Worth reading first

- [Case study: Softonic, from 0 to 20 million sessions a month](https://nachomascort.com/en/case-studies/softonic-0-to-20-million/): The two language migrations and the core update in between
- [Google Quality: what it is, how it measures it and how long a site takes to recover](https://nachomascort.com/en/blog/google-quality-core-updates/): Why the content you migrate counts toward the site's score

## FAQ

### When should I bring you in?

As early as possible, ideally when the migration is decided and before the new site is designed. Many problems (URLs that disappear, templates without content, JavaScript Google cannot see) are cheap to avoid in design and expensive to fix after launch.

### Is it normal to lose traffic after a migration?

There are usually a few weeks of movement while Google crawls and reprocesses the new URLs. What is not normal is a drop that does not recover, and it almost always comes from badly built redirects, content that gets lost or pages that stop being linked.

### What types of migration do you handle?

Changes of domain, CMS or platform, URL structure, HTTP to HTTPS, merging several sites into one or the reverse, and changes to the international structure (subdomains, subdirectories or ccTLDs).

### Who implements the redirects?

Your development team or your vendor. I give them the map, check that it is implemented correctly before and after launch, and answer their questions.

### How much does it cost?

It depends on the number of URLs, how many templates change and whether the migration is only technical or also involves content. I send you a fixed proposal after the first call.

## Contact

- Book a 30-minute call: https://cal.com/nacho-mascort/30min?overlayCalendar=true
- Email: hola@nachomascort.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nachomascort