Platform migrations that protect revenue
Organic search drives millions in annual revenue. The platform is outdated, the team wants to migrate to modern technology. Done right, this isn't just about preserving revenue. It's an opportunity to grow it. I've led migrations for publicly-traded retailers and global brands, including the Chemist Warehouse replatform that grew organic revenue 38% in the year after launch.
The problem you're facing
You're planning to:
- Migrate to a new platform (Shopify Plus, Adobe Commerce, custom build)
- Redesign with significant URL changes
- Consolidate multiple sites or markets
- Move to headless architecture
And you're worried about:
- Losing rankings for high-value keywords
- Traffic drops that impact revenue
- Technical issues that slip through
- Stakeholder panic if things go wrong
- Whether your team has done this before at scale
One mistake can cost millions. Get it right and you can actually improve performance through the transition.
What this is
End-to-end technical SEO guidance for enterprise platform migrations where organic search drives significant revenue.
This covers everything from pre-migration planning and URL mapping through to post-launch monitoring and recovery. The goal is to preserve organic revenue through the transition, and where possible, improve it.
Who needs this:
- Enterprise sites planning platform migrations
- Organisations where organic search is a significant revenue channel
- Sites with 50K+ URLs and complex tech stacks
- Brands that can't afford to get this wrong
What's included
Pre-migration
- Technical architecture review and risk assessment
- URL mapping strategy (even for hundreds of thousands of URLs)
- Redirect planning and validation
- Staging environment technical review
- Stakeholder alignment and migration planning
- Documentation of current performance baseline
Migration and launch
- Technical review of new platform/architecture
- Crawl analysis and indexing validation
- Redirect implementation validation
- Performance and Core Web Vitals optimisation
- Real-time monitoring during launch
- Immediate issue resolution
Post-launch
- Close monitoring through the first 30 days
- Traffic and ranking analysis
- Index coverage monitoring
- Issue triage and resolution
- Weekly stakeholder reporting
- 90-day performance analysis
Typical scope
Scope depends on:
- Site size and complexity (50K vs 500K URLs)
- Timeline and urgency
- Tech stack complexity (headless, multi-market, custom)
- Level of internal team support
Typical project:
Typically spans 4-5 months covering pre-migration planning, launch support, and 90-day post-migration monitoring
Payment terms:
Structured around migration milestones: planning, launch, and post-launch phases
The outcome
You'll get:
- A migration that preserves your organic revenue
- Documentation of the entire process
- Your team trained on post-migration monitoring
- Confidence that technical SEO is handled correctly
- Peace of mind during a high-stakes project
Real results:
- I led the SEO for Chemist Warehouse's 18-month replatform. Organic revenue grew 38% in the year after launch.
Who this is for
This is built for teams planning a platform migration in the next six to twelve months, where organic search is a revenue channel you cannot afford to lose. It suits complex sites, 50,000 URLs and up, multiple markets, custom stacks, with a development team ready to implement recommendations.
It is not the right fit for small sites where migration risk is low, simple CMS changes that leave URL structure alone, or projects with no development team to do the work. I advise on migrations; I do not run the entire project end to end.
Common questions
Can you guarantee no traffic loss?
No one can guarantee that, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What I can offer: I've done this before at enterprise scale, I know the risks, and I know how to mitigate them. The Chemist Warehouse replatform grew organic revenue 38% in the year after launch.
Do you work with our dev team or replace them?
I work with your team, not around them. I provide the technical SEO expertise and strategy, your team or agency implements, and I review the work directly with the developers.
How much involvement do you need from us?
Moderate. You'll need: stakeholder time for planning, dev time for implementation, access to systems and data, and decision-making authority for trade-offs.
What if we're already mid-migration?
I can still help, though earlier is better. If you're mid-migration and things aren't going well, I can assess damage and create a recovery plan.
Do you do the redirect mapping?
Yes. I create the URL mapping strategy and redirect plan. Your dev team implements the actual redirects (I validate they're correct).