SEO Tips for a Successful Shopify Migration

Migrating to Shopify can be one of the best moves you make for your online shop — faster pages, easier management, and a platform built for growth. But if the SEO side is handled in a slapdash way, it can also be a quick route to lost rankings, broken links, and a dip in sales right when you’re trying to build momentum.

At Glaze Digital, we’ve helped businesses move over with a proper plan that protects visibility and sets the new store up to perform. Below are the practical SEO tips that make the difference between a migration that “just happens” and one that actually moves the needle.

Start with a proper SEO baseline

Before anyone touches your new theme, get clear on what’s currently driving organic revenue and where your traffic comes from. A clean baseline gives you something to measure against after launch, and it tells you which pages must be protected at all costs.

Focus on:

• Your top organic landing pages (products, collections, blogs, guides).

• Pages with the most backlinks (these carry authority you don’t want to waste).

• Your best-performing category structures and navigation routes.

Build a one-to-one redirect map (and test it)

Redirects are the single biggest lever for protecting rankings during a platform move. If URLs change – and they usually will – every valuable old URL should point directly to the most relevant new URL using a 301 redirect.

Key rules:

• Map every important URL, not just the homepage and a few collections.

• Avoid redirect chains (old URL → temporary page → new URL); keep it one hop.

• Test redirects on staging and again after launch to confirm they resolve properly.

Done well, redirects help retain link equity and give Google a clear signal that pages have moved permanently.

Keep site structure logical (collections matter)

A migration is a golden chance to tidy up messy navigation – but be careful about changing everything at once. Shopify stores often win in SEO when collections and product grouping are clear, consistent, and built around how people actually browse.

A practical approach:

• Keep high-performing category themes (don’t delete what already works).

• Use collections strategically for “shop by” intent, not just internal convenience.

• Ensure your internal linking supports your top collections (menus, breadcrumbs, featured blocks).

If you’re rebuilding navigation, do it with SEO and customer journeys in mind, not just aesthetics.

Get metadata and on-page basics right

During migrations, titles and meta descriptions can get overwritten, duplicated, or simply forgotten. Shopify makes it straightforward to manage these, but you still need a plan so you’re not launching a store where half the pages have the same template title.

Don’t overlook:

• Unique page titles for products, collections, and key landing pages.

• Proper H1 usage (one clear H1 per template, aligned to the page topic).

• Image alt text that describes the product naturally (and helps accessibility too).

If your old platform had strong metadata, export it and reuse what’s still relevant rather than starting from scratch.

Make Shopify content richer than before

One common migration mistake is moving content “as-is”, even when it’s thin, outdated, or written for a different platform’s layout. Shopify stores perform better when key pages give search engines (and customers) enough context to understand what you sell and why it matters.

Ways to strengthen content during migration:

• Add FAQs to collection and product pages where it genuinely helps shoppers.

• Include delivery, returns, and key buying info on-page (not hidden away).

• Expand collection descriptions so they’re useful, not waffle.

This also supports how modern AI-driven discovery tools interpret your site structure and information.

Use structured data and clean page hierarchy

Clear headings, structured sections, and consistent templates help both users and machines understand your site. Where possible, implement structured data (like Product, Review, FAQ) so key details are explicit rather than implied.

Practical wins here include:

• Product pages that clearly show price, availability, variants, and reviews.

• FAQ blocks marked up properly (not just styled text).

• Pages laid out with a clean H1 → H2 → H3 hierarchy.

Even small improvements to structure can pay off when search engines re-crawl the new site after launch.

Protect performance: speed and mobile experience

Shopify can be seriously fast – but only if the theme, apps, and assets are under control. Page speed and mobile usability affect crawl efficiency and user signals, which matter when Google is re-evaluating your site post-migration.

Keep it tight by:

• Being ruthless with apps (every extra script is a trade-off).

• Compressing images and ensuring they’re sized correctly for the theme.

• Testing key templates on mobile before launch (product page, collection page, cart).

Run a post-launch SEO check (don’t “set and forget”)

The migration isn’t finished when the new store goes live — that’s when the SEO monitoring should kick in properly. Expect a bit of turbulence as Google reindexes, but major drops usually point to fixable issues like broken redirects, missing pages, or accidental noindex tags.

Post-launch priorities:

• Crawl the site to identify 404s, redirect errors, and orphan pages.
• Validate that your most valuable pages are indexable and accessible.
• Resubmit your XML sitemap in Google Search Console so Google is prompted to crawl the new URL structure quickly and efficiently.
• Keep an eye on ranking and traffic trends for your top landing pages.

Protect your SEO foundations

A successful Shopify migration isn’t just about moving products and customers across – it’s about protecting the SEO foundations you’ve already built and using the move to come out stronger. With the right redirect plan, clean structure, solid on-page basics, and a careful post-launch check, you can migrate without handing your competitors a free pass in the search results.

If you’re planning a move (or you’re mid-migration and feeling the pressure), get in touch – we’d be happy to talk you through what a good migration looks like. 

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