Site Migrations & Rebranding

I plan and run migrations to protect your organic traffic during changes.

Why are the risks

SEO migrations are primarily a risk-mitigation exercise. It’s not worth investing more money into the migration than you’d lose if everything went horribly wrong.

Platform, domain or brand changes are high-risk but high-reward when handled correctly. I translate the technical steps into clear business trade-offs, map the value at stake, and deliver an actionable, engineer-ready migration plan that limits downside and protects revenue.

What I cover

Domain & site migrations (www → new domain, subdomain changes).
Platform / CMS migrations (e.g., WordPress → headless, legacy CMS → Next.js).
Full site redesigns and rebrands (content model changes, URL changes).
Redirect planning and execution (source → target mapping, chain elimination).
Pre-launch planning, staging tests, and post-launch monitoring and rollback.
Small, prioritized migration audits: focused, high-impact findings — not a 50-page manual.

Value-at-stake framework (how I decide how much to spend)

Identify high-value URLs — list pages that drive most organic conversions and revenue.
Baseline revenue signal — for each URL, pull baseline monthly organic sessions, conversion rate, and average revenue per conversion (or a proxy like LTV or lead value).
Estimate impact window — pick a realistic recovery period (e.g., 1–3 months) to model temporary loss.
Compute value at stake — baseline monthly organic revenue × expected months of impact for those pages. (This gives the dollar exposure if things go badly.)
Budget guidance — target migration cost well below the value at stake. As a rule of thumb, aim for migration spend to be under ~25% of the value at stake (typical target range: 10–25%), depending on risk appetite.

This gives a business case: don’t spend more protecting the site than you would reasonably lose.

FAQ

Q — How much should I invest in migration?
A — Use the value-at-stake estimate. Target total migration cost substantially below that figure. Typical guidance: aim for 10–25% of value at stake depending on complexity and risk tolerance.

Q — Do migrations always cause traffic loss?
A — Not always. Small, well-planned migrations can have zero or minimal impact. The goal is to limit downside and speed up recovery if any dip occurs.

Q — What’s the minimum work you recommend for a safe migration?
A — At least: (1) redirect map for high-value pages, (2) pre-launch rendering checks, (3) live smoke tests and monitoring for the first 72 hours.