The Complete Shopify Migration Checklist: Before, During and After

Key Takeaways

• A Shopify migration is a data, SEO, integration and testing project, not a product import. Treat it as one and most common failures disappear.
• The work that decides success happens before you build anything: audit the old store, find your highest value pages, and build the redirect map first.
• The redirect map is the most important document in the project and the one most often missing. Of the last 80 stores we migrated, 75 arrived without one.
• Structured data is the SEO asset most often lost in transit. Of the migrations we take on, 90% arrive with it broken or missing.
• Test business processes end to end, not integrations in isolation. A green status light does not mean an order reaches your warehouse.
• Set a performance baseline before you switch, launch when trading is quiet, and monitor for at least 90 days.

Quick Answer

A Shopify migration runs in three phases. Before migration, define the scope, audit the existing store, identify your highest value pages, build a complete redirect map, set up Shopify as a development store, choose a theme and apps, and migrate products, customers, orders and content. During migration, complete the final data transfer, configure shipping and payments, test every integration end to end, implement and check the 301 redirects, and prepare a launch plan. After launch, switch the domain, remove any indexing blocks, submit the sitemap, and monitor rankings, revenue, 404s and Search Console daily for two weeks and regularly for 90 days. The 30 steps below cover each in order.

Table of Contents

• Phase 1: Before Migration
• Phase 2: During Migration
• Phase 3: Launch and After
• How to Keep Your SEO Rankings
• Why Matters Perspective
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Thoughts
• Related Articles

This checklist is based on our experience migrating stores from WooCommerce, Magento, Squarespace and BigCommerce. Not every item applies to every store, but working through it in order means nothing important is missed. For budgeting, see how much a Shopify migration costs, and for platform specific detail see our Magento and WooCommerce migration guides.

Phase 1: Before Migration

Phase 1 covers everything before the switch to Shopify, including a first import of your products, customers and content into the new store, so you can build and test on real data. Phase 2 completes that migration and prepares the launch.

Step 1: Define your migration scope

Decide whether you are migrating the store as it is or migrating and redesigning at once. These are different projects. A straight migration moves data, recreates essential functions and protects SEO. A redesign adds UX, design, development, content and far more testing. The scope you set here largely decides the cost.

Step 2: Audit your existing store

Crawl the current site with a tool such as Screaming Frog or Sitebulb and record, for each important URL, the address, status code, title, meta description, H1, canonical, internal links, organic traffic, organic revenue, backlinks and page type. Export 12 months of Search Console data, find the landing pages earning organic revenue in GA4, and list every plugin, extension and integration with what it does. This becomes both your blueprint and your baseline for checking the new store.

Step 3: Identify your highest value pages

Sort Search Console by clicks and impressions, sort Analytics by organic revenue, and use a backlink tool or Search Console's Links report to find pages with valuable links. These pages need the most careful redirects, preserved content and checked metadata, so flag them in the redirect map.

Step 4: Build your URL redirect map

This is the most important document in the migration and the one merchants are least likely to arrive with: of the last 80 stores we migrated, 75 had none. Every valuable old URL needs a destination. Build a spreadsheet with the old URL, new Shopify URL, page type, priority and check status.

Expect structural changes: WooCommerce's /product/ becomes Shopify's /products/, categories become /collections/, and blog paths differ. Pages without an exact equivalent should go to the closest relevant page, never to the homepage by default. In Shopify, URL redirects now sit under Content, then Menus, then URL redirects, with CSV import for large batches.

Step 5: Choose your Shopify plan

The main differences are transaction fees, reporting, staff accounts, international features and how far checkout can be customised, which goes deepest on Plus. Plan choice barely affects the migration itself but decides what is available afterwards, and B2B now runs on every plan from Basic up. Check Shopify's UK pricing for current details.

Step 6: Create your Shopify store

Treat the new store as a development environment while the old site keeps trading. Configure the basics early: store details, currencies, Markets, tax, shipping zones, payments, notifications and staff permissions. Do not point the live domain at it just because it looks ready; that belongs in the launch plan.

Step 7: Choose and configure your theme

Decide between a configured Shopify theme and a custom build based on what the store needs, not on the most expensive option. Resist reproducing the old site pixel for pixel, since a migration is a chance to fix what does not work, but avoid changing everything at once, because every design change is another variable to test. Our Shopify developers can help you choose.

Step 8: Install only the apps you need

Do not assume every old plugin needs a Shopify equivalent. For each one, ask what it does, whether it is still needed, and whether Shopify handles it natively. This usually cuts the app count, which matters because every app adds cost, weight and another dependency. Subscription businesses may be moving to Recharge, which we are a partner of, or another Shopify compatible platform. Document every app with its purpose and cost.

Step 9: Migrate your product data

Account for titles, descriptions, images, SKUs, barcodes, prices, compare at prices, stock, variants, options, collections, tags, types, vendors and SEO fields. An automated import is not a correct import: formatting breaks, variants restructure and collection relationships need recreating. Sample across categories, including your best sellers and most complex variants, and compare source and destination programmatically for missing or duplicated records.

Step 10: Migrate customer and order data

Customer data is commercially important and covered by data protection law. Decide deliberately how much order history to bring, since customers look for past orders and the business needs them for service and reporting. Passwords usually cannot be transferred, so plan how customers will regain access and test account behaviour after import.

Step 11: Migrate your content

Blog posts, guides, landing pages and help content can carry significant traffic and links. Decide for each whether to migrate, update, merge or retire it, and make sure the redirect map covers anything removed. A migration that keeps product pages but quietly drops established articles still causes serious SEO damage.

Step 12: Configure Shopify SEO

Check titles, meta descriptions, H1s, canonicals, URLs, alt text, internal links, sitemap, robots.txt, structured data and indexing settings. Update internal links to point at new URLs rather than relying on redirects, and make sure development URLs, duplicates and filtered pages are not indexed. Structured data deserves its own check: 90% of the migrations we take on arrive with it broken or missing.

Step 13: Recreate your integrations

ERP, CRM, email, accounting, fulfilment, warehouse, payments, support, subscriptions, loyalty and marketplaces each need recreating, replacing or deliberately retiring, with their own test plan. If orders go to an ERP, test from checkout to the ERP receiving the order. If stock syncs, test changes in both directions.

Step 14: Configure analytics and set a baseline

Set up GA4, Search Console, Tag Manager, advertising pixels and Klaviyo or your email platform. Record a baseline first: organic traffic and revenue, conversion rate, average order value, paid conversions and email revenue. Then place test orders and confirm each purchase reaches every platform, because tracking failures are invisible on a store that otherwise works.

Step 15: Test the new store

Test functions and the customer experience together:

Use real scenarios rather than clicking around: test orders, discount codes, new accounts, out of stock items, failed payments, several shipping options and international orders. The more important the function, the harder you test it.

Step 16: Run a final SEO audit

Before the domain switch, crawl the new store and compare it with the original. Confirm important pages return 200, redirects are in place, metadata and H1s are present, the sitemap and robots.txt are correct, internal links point to new URLs, structured data works, and nothing important is blocked. The aim is no known critical issues, not perfection.

Phase 2: During Migration

Step 17: Complete the data migration

Run a test migration first on larger stores to catch mapping and formatting problems safely. Then set a cut off on the old platform and run a final incremental migration just before launch, so there is a clear moment when Shopify becomes the source of truth.

Step 18: Configure shipping, payments and checkout

A store can look finished with a broken checkout. Test the full journey with different payment methods, real basket combinations, free shipping thresholds, international markets and subscription checkouts, from a customer's point of view.

Step 19: Test apps and integrations end to end

One order may need to reach fulfilment, update stock, send a confirmation, reach your email platform, change a customer's segments and record revenue. Each part can pass alone while the chain fails. Subscription businesses should also test creating, skipping, pausing, swapping, updating payment, cancelling and renewing.

Step 20: Implement and test 301 redirects

Load the redirect map once URLs are final and crawl your old URL list against it. Each old URL should return a 301 to the right, relevant page, which returns 200, with no chains or loops. Check old campaign pages and discontinued products too, since they can still carry links.

Step 21: Complete user acceptance testing

Someone who knows the business should use the store as a customer would, on desktop and mobile, then as staff would: finding orders, updating products, processing refunds and handling service queries.

Step 22: Prepare the launch plan

The domain switch should follow a written plan:

Launch when trading is quiet, never just before a campaign or seasonal peak, so there is time to fix surprises before demand arrives.

Phase 3: Launch and After

Step 23: Switch the domain to Shopify

Once connected, retest the key journeys straight away, and test several old URLs directly, because a working homepage tells you nothing about your redirects.

Step 24: Remove launch blocks

Remove password protection and any indexing restrictions, check robots.txt, and submit the sitemap in Search Console. Do not try to force indexing of every page by hand; good internal links and a valid sitemap are enough.

Step 25: Monitor closely

Watch organic traffic, rankings, revenue, conversion, 404s, redirects, indexing, speed, payment failures and support tickets against your baseline. Some fluctuation is normal while search engines process the new URLs. A sharp fall across many pages, a cluster of 404s or a drop in checkout conversion needs investigating immediately, and if orders vanish from analytics, check tracking before assuming sales have fallen.

Step 26: Crawl the live store

Crawl again and compare with the pre migration crawl for broken links, missing pages, chains, wrong canonicals, duplicate titles and internal links still pointing at old URLs.

Step 27: Watch Google Search Console

Check indexing, 404s, redirect errors, sitemap processing and Core Web Vitals, paying most attention to the high value pages from Step 3. Segment by page type and category, because a stable total can hide a serious fall in one important section.

Step 28: Measure rankings against revenue

Rankings matter, but organic sessions, transactions, revenue and conversion matter more. Stable traffic with falling organic revenue means the pages attracting visitors have changed. Done well, the gains are measurable: across our migrations, PageSpeed typically improves by around 68%.

Step 29: Fix problems by commercial impact

Some issues only appear after launch. Prioritise them:

Step 30: Keep monitoring for at least 90 days

The first 90 days show how the new store really performs. It is also when to tackle what did not belong in the migration: conversion work, navigation, collection and product page improvements, and trimming unnecessary apps.

How to Keep Your SEO Rankings

Most ranking losses after a migration come from a short list of causes, and every one of them is preventable. Google's own guidance on site moves with URL changes asks for the same things this checklist does: map every old URL to its new equivalent, use permanent redirects, update internal links and sitemaps, monitor both old and new URLs after the move, and keep the redirects in place for at least a year.

1. Missing redirects. Valuable URLs with no destination, usually because no redirect map existed (Steps 3, 4 and 20).
2. Redirects to the wrong place. Everything pointed at the homepage or at loosely related pages, which search engines can treat as missing pages.
3. Lost content. Category copy, guides and FAQs dropped because the new templates had nowhere to put them (Step 11).
4. Broken structured data. Product markup such as price and availability missing after the move, which we find on 90% of inbound migrations (Step 12).
5. Indexing mistakes. A launch block left in place, or development and filtered URLs left indexable (Steps 16 and 24).

If rankings dip in the first fortnight, check these five before assuming anything else.

Why Matters Perspective

The migrations that go wrong are almost never the ones where something technical failed. They are the ones where something was never planned: a redirect nobody mapped, an integration nobody tested end to end, a content page nobody realised was earning traffic. The redirect map is the clearest example, and it is not a criticism that almost nobody arrives with one, because no migration tool asks for it. But it does mean the document that decides how much organic revenue survives is usually created late, under pressure, or not at all.

That is why this checklist is front loaded: sixteen of thirty steps happen before the final switch to Shopify. The other pattern worth naming is that merchants overestimate the data import and underestimate testing. Importing products is largely automated. Confirming that an order placed on a phone with a discount code reaches fulfilment, triggers the right email and records correctly in analytics is not, and that is where problems hide.

Our migrations average about one month from kick off to launch, and our Shopify developers handle them end to end with a 3 month guarantee on development projects. If you are planning a move and want a second pair of eyes on the scope, email us.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a Shopify migration take from start to finish?

Our migrations average about one month from kick off to launch. A small store moving as it is can be quicker, while a redesign, a custom theme or several integrations such as an ERP can take considerably longer. Scope, catalogue size and integrations decide the timeline.

Do I need a URL redirect map to migrate to Shopify?

Yes, if you want to keep your organic traffic. Every valuable old URL needs a deliberate destination on the new store. Of the last 80 stores we migrated, 75 arrived without one, which is the most common reason rankings fall after a migration.

Can I keep my domain name when migrating to Shopify?

Yes, and most merchants do. You point your domain at Shopify. Keeping the same domain means only the paths change, which makes the move simpler for search engines than changing domain and URLs at the same time.

Will my customers need to create new accounts after migration?

Customer records can be imported, but passwords cannot be transferred from most platforms. Plan how customers will access their accounts, such as Shopify's account invitations or passwordless sign in, and brief customer service before launch.

Will I lose my SEO rankings when I migrate to Shopify?

Not if SEO is its own workstream. A complete redirect map, preserved content and metadata, working structured data and close monitoring after launch protect most of your visibility. Some movement in the first weeks is normal while search engines process the new URLs.

Do I need to close my old store before launching on Shopify?

No. Build and test the Shopify store while the old one stays live, set a data cut off point, run a final migration, then switch the domain. Keep the old platform accessible for a few weeks afterwards for reconciliation.

What if I find problems after launch?

Monitor Search Console, analytics and customer feedback daily for the first two weeks. Most issues after launch involve redirects, tracking or integrations, and all can be fixed quickly if spotted early. Prioritise anything affecting checkout or payments first.

Final Thoughts

Thirty steps looks daunting written out, but most are decisions rather than work, and most happen before anything is built. A migration that fails usually does so because something was never considered, not because a step was done badly. Work through Phase 1 properly and the rest becomes execution. Skip it and you will spend the 90 days after launch discovering what you missed, usually through Search Console and at greater cost than the planning would have taken.

Related Articles

• How Much Does a Shopify Migration Cost? A Transparent Pricing Guide
• How to Migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify: A Step by Step Guide
• How to Migrate from Magento to Shopify: A Step by Step Guide
• How to Optimise Your Shopify Store for SEO
• WooCommerce vs Shopify: An Honest Comparison
• Magento vs Shopify: Which Ecommerce Platform Is Right for You?
• Squarespace vs Shopify: Which Platform Is Right for You?
• How to Choose the Best Shopify Development Company for Your Business