Moving an online store to Shopify can be a big improvement: faster, simpler to run, easier checkout. The risk is losing the search visibility your old store built up. That happens for one main reason: URLs change and nobody redirects them. Do the migration carefully and most stores keep their rankings; skip the planning and it can take months to recover.
This is the process we follow, whether the store is moving from WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace or a custom platform.
Why rankings drop after a migration
- Changed URLs without redirects: Google’s indexed pages and other sites’ links now point to “page not found”.
- Lost content: long category descriptions, product details or blog posts don’t make it across.
- Lost metadata: custom titles and descriptions replaced by defaults.
- Structural changes: categories merged or split without thinking about what ranked.
- Technical issues at launch: the new store accidentally blocked from search, or very slow.
How Shopify structures URLs
Shopify uses fixed paths you can’t change:
- Products:
/products/product-name - Collections:
/collections/collection-name - Pages:
/pages/page-name - Blog posts:
/blogs/blog-name/post-name
Your old store almost certainly used different paths, so nearly every URL will change. That’s normal. The job is to make sure every important old URL redirects to its closest new equivalent.
Step 1: inventory everything before you touch anything
- Every URL on the old site: crawl it, and export your sitemap.
- The pages that matter: from Google Search Console, export the pages with clicks and impressions; from analytics, the pages with traffic and sales.
- Pages with links from other sites: these carry authority you don’t want to lose.
- Metadata: current titles, descriptions and headings for important pages.
- Content: product descriptions, category text, blog posts, images and their alt text.
Keep this as a spreadsheet. It becomes your redirect map and your post-launch checklist.
Step 2: plan the new structure
Migration is a good moment to tidy the catalogue, but be careful. If an old category ranked well, keep an equivalent collection rather than merging it away. Decide product handles (the URL part) deliberately; short, descriptive handles are best.
Step 3: move the data
- Products: titles, descriptions, variants, prices, SKUs, weights, images and alt text.
- Collections and their descriptions.
- Customers: customer records can usually be imported, but passwords can’t be carried across between platforms, so plan how existing customers will reactivate their accounts.
- Order history: decide whether you need it in Shopify or just archived.
- Reviews: product reviews are often in a separate system; check that your reviews app can import them.
- Blog posts and pages.
Then rewrite titles and meta descriptions for important pages to match or improve on the originals. Don’t leave them to defaults.
Step 4: build the redirect map
For each old URL, map the closest new URL:
- Old product → new product
- Old category → new collection
- Old blog post → new blog post
- Old information pages → new pages
- Discontinued products → the most relevant collection, not the home page
Shopify has a built-in URL redirects feature and supports bulk import. Two practical points from Shopify’s documentation: redirects only work from URLs that don’t exist on the store (broken URLs), and you can set them up before you transfer the domain, so they’re live the moment the switch happens.
Avoid redirect chains (old URL → interim URL → new URL); point each old URL straight at its final destination.
Step 5: pre-launch checks
- The store isn’t password-protected or blocked from search at launch.
- Spot-check redirects for your top pages.
- Titles, descriptions and headings are in place for important pages.
- Structured data for products (price, availability) is present.
- Speed is acceptable: check the theme and apps. Our free Shopify check covers speed and SEO basics.
- Analytics and Search Console are connected to the new store.
Step 6: after launch
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
- Watch the Pages report for “not found” errors over the following weeks and add redirects for anything you missed.
- Compare clicks and impressions for your important pages against the pre-migration baseline.
- Keep the redirects permanently. Old links on other sites don’t disappear.
Some fluctuation in the first weeks is normal while Google processes the changes. Steady losses on specific pages usually point to a missing redirect or missing content on that page.
Common mistakes
- Redirecting everything to the home page.
- Forgetting image URLs and old blog posts.
- Launching with the store still blocked from search.
- Dropping long category descriptions that were doing the ranking.
- Installing a dozen apps at launch and slowing the store down.
Platform choice first
If you haven’t decided yet, our comparison of Shopify and WooCommerce for Canadian retailers covers the trade-offs, and our guide to setting up Shopify in Canada covers tax and shipping once you’ve moved.
A realistic migration timeline
Every store is different, but the stages are predictable:
- Audit and inventory: crawl the old site, export Search Console and analytics data, list every URL and its value.
- Plan: new structure, collections, product handles and the redirect map.
- Build and import: theme, products, collections, content, customers and reviews.
- Review: check content, metadata, redirects and speed on the new store before launch.
- Launch: redirects in place, domain switched, sitemap submitted.
- Monitor: watch for errors and ranking changes over the following weeks, and fix anything missed.
Avoid launching right before your busiest season. Give yourself a quieter period to watch the numbers and fix issues.
Moving from WooCommerce versus Wix or Squarespace
- From WooCommerce: you usually have full access to your data, and often a large blog. Plan where the blog lives; some stores keep WordPress for content and move only the shop.
- From Wix or Squarespace: exports can be more limited, so check early which data can come across and what needs re-entering. URL patterns are different again, so the redirect map matters just as much.
Migrating with us
When we move a store to Shopify, we plan the migration of products, customers and URLs so existing links and search visibility carry over. That’s part of our Shopify development service; product upload is $10 per product including images, variants and collections. If you’re unsure whether to migrate at all, a Shopify Audit ($149) on your current store, or a broader website audit, is the right first step. Tell us about your store through Start a project.
Written by the CHRISPS studio in Cambridge, Ontario. Shopify behaviour referenced is from Shopify’s Help Center at the time of writing.