A safe Shopify migration has four phases: audit and export, build on a staging store, map 301 redirects and test, then cut over with a rollback plan.
The single most important step is the redirect map. Almost every migration horror story is really a story about old URLs returning 404 and rankings disappearing.
Before you start
- Decide scope. Are you rebuilding the design too, or replicating what you have? Doing both at once is usually more efficient than sequentially, but be deliberate.
- Record current performance. Traffic, conversion rate, top landing pages, top keywords. Without a baseline you cannot tell whether the migration helped or hurt.
- Export your indexed URLs. Pull every URL Google has indexed. This becomes your redirect map.
- List integrations. Payments, shipping, ERP, 3PL, email, reviews, analytics. Each needs a plan.
- Pick a low-traffic window for cutover. Not during a sale, not on a Friday evening.
What to export
- Products — titles, descriptions, images, SKUs, variants, options, inventory, pricing, and any custom fields.
- Customers — records, addresses, tags, and marketing consent status. Consent matters legally; do not guess it.
- Orders — historical orders so support, returns and lifetime-value reporting keep working.
- Content — blog posts, category copy, landing pages, images.
- Reviews — often forgotten, and often the most valuable conversion asset you own. Check your review app can import.
Then reconcile. Count products, variants and customers on both sides and match them. Do not assume the import worked because it finished without an error.
The redirect map (do not skip this)
For every old URL, decide its new address:
- Product pages to the matching product.
- Category pages to the matching collection.
- Blog posts to the same post.
- Removed pages to the closest relevant page, not blindly to the homepage.
Load these as 301 redirects in Shopify before you switch the domain. Also carry over meta titles, descriptions, heading structure, image alt text and structured data. Rankings follow content and links, and 301s are how you tell Google the content moved.
Testing before cutover
- Place real test orders for every payment method, including a refund and a partial refund.
- Test shipping rates for domestic and international addresses, and any free-shipping threshold.
- Check taxes for each market you sell in.
- Verify emails — order confirmation, shipping, refund, abandoned cart.
- Test on real devices — iOS Safari and Android Chrome, not just a desktop browser.
- Spot-check redirects from your exported URL list.
- Confirm analytics — GA4 and any ad pixels firing on the new store.
Cutover day
- Freeze changes on the old store so nothing is lost in the gap.
- Do a final delta import of orders and customers created since the main import.
- Point the domain to Shopify and confirm SSL is active.
- Spot-check the top 20 URLs for correct redirects.
- Place one live order end to end.
- Keep the old store accessible but unindexed for a short period as a fallback.
After launch
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console and request indexing on key pages.
- Watch crawl errors daily for two weeks and fix every 404 that appears.
- Compare against your baseline — traffic and conversion, not just rankings.
- Expect a small dip in the first weeks while Google recrawls. It should recover; if it does not, the redirects are usually the reason.
- Tell your customers. A short email about the new store reduces support confusion and gives you a launch moment.
If you would rather not run this yourself, this is exactly what our migration service does — with the rollback plan written before we start.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose my Google rankings when migrating to Shopify?
Not if redirects are handled properly. Map every indexed URL to its new address with a 301 redirect before cutover and carry over your metadata. Expect a small temporary dip while Google recrawls.
How long does a Shopify migration take?
Small catalogues typically two to three weeks. Large catalogues, complex variants or heavy integrations usually four to eight weeks including testing.
Can I migrate my order history to Shopify?
Yes. Historical orders can be imported so customer support, returns and lifetime-value reporting continue to work after the move.
Will my store be down during migration?
It should not be. The new store is built and tested privately while the old one keeps selling. Cutover is a single domain switch with a rollback plan ready.
Can I keep my product reviews?
Usually yes, if your review platform supports import or you can export them in a standard format. Plan this early — reviews are one of your most valuable conversion assets.
Should I redesign at the same time as migrating?
Often yes. You are rebuilding the storefront anyway, so redesigning during the migration is usually cheaper than doing two separate projects.