How to Migrate Your Website to Shopify Without Losing SEO

Switching your website to Shopify can unlock amazing benefits —
✅ Better store management
✅ Seamless checkout experience
✅ Powerful integrations

…but if you migrate incorrectly, you can lose your hard-earned SEO rankings.
Don't worry — in this blog, I'll show you exactly how to migrate your website to Shopify without losing SEO — step-by-step.

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🚀 Why SEO Matters During Migration

• 70% of users click one of the top 5 Google results.

• Migration mistakes can lead to traffic drops, broken pages, and loss of revenue.

• Smart migration = keeping your rankings, customers, and trust intact.

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🛠️ Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating Your Website to Shopify Without Losing SEO

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1. Audit Your Existing Website

Before touching anything, analyze your current site:

• List all URLs (use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or even a simple sitemap export).

• Identify your top-performing pages (pages with the most backlinks, traffic, conversions).

📌 Pro Tip:
Focus extra attention on preserving your highest-performing pages.

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2. Backup Everything

Make a full backup of:

• Site content (blogs, products, images)

• SEO data (meta titles, meta descriptions, alt texts)

• Redirect maps

Even if your host doesn't provide it, manually export all critical files.

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3. Choose the Right Shopify Plan

Pick a Shopify plan that fits your needs:

• Basic Shopify — for startups

• Shopify — for growing businesses

• Advanced Shopify — for scaling businesses

📌 If you’re migrating a large store, consider Shopify Plus.

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4. Prepare Your Shopify Store

• Choose a fast, SEO-optimized Shopify theme (like Dawn or Turbo).

• Install essential SEO apps (like Smart SEO or Plug In SEO).

• Set up your store structure: collections, product pages, blogs.

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5. Set Up 301 Redirects

This is the MOST important part.
If you don't redirect old URLs, visitors will hit "404 Not Found" errors and Google will de-rank your site.

📌 Steps:

• Create a redirect map (old URL → new Shopify URL).

• Add 301 redirects inside Shopify:
  Admin → Online Store → Navigation → URL Redirects

Example:
oldsite.com/product-123 → yourshopifystore.com/products/product-123

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6. Match SEO Elements

Transfer and match your:

• Meta titles

• Meta descriptions

• Alt tags for images

• H1, H2 headings

Shopify allows you to manually edit SEO fields on each product, collection, and page.

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7. Create a New Sitemap and Submit It

After your new Shopify store goes live:

• Generate a new sitemap.xml (Shopify creates it automatically at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml).

• Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.

This helps Google discover your new pages faster.

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8. Monitor Traffic and Errors

After migration:

• Check Google Search Console daily for any crawl errors or broken links.

• Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to monitor rankings.

• Track traffic patterns (expect a slight dip initially — normal for migrations).

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9. Maintain Blogging and Content Marketing

Don’t stop content updates!
Fresh, relevant content tells Google your site is active and trustworthy.

📌 Tip:
Republish your best blog posts from your old site to Shopify (with the same URLs if possible).

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🧠 Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Forgetting to set 301 redirects.

• Changing URL structures drastically.

• Ignoring image SEO.

• Not setting up Google Analytics and Search Console immediately after launch.

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🎯 Final Thoughts

Migrating your website to Shopify can feel overwhelming — but if done right, you won't lose your SEO power.
Follow the steps carefully, focus on redirects, and preserve your content structure.

And if you want a stress-free, professional migration?
Let the experts at RootSyntax handle it for you.

Book a free migration consultation now!
🚀 Contact Us