SEO-only migration
SEO migration services for sites your developer builds
For owners and marketing leads whose developer or agency builds the new site, and for agencies that want the SEO side handled.
If your developer or agency is building the new site, we do the SEO side of the relaunch: a signed URL inventory, a one-to-one redirect map your developer imports, and crawls of staging and the live site through day 30. The Migration Map costs from $1,390 / £1,090; the Launch Check from $590 / £470.
SEO-only billing: 50% to book; 50% invoiced when the map covers every signed-list URL.
Redirect map
Sample| Old URL | New URL | Status | Rule | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /services/seo-audit/ | /seo/audit/ | 301 | One to one | Service moved under /seo/ |
| /blog/2019/wp-tips/ | /guides/wp-tips/ | 301 | /blog/{year}/{slug}/ → /guides/{slug}/ | Year dropped from post URLs |
| /shop/?item=24 | /products/blue-mug/ | 301 | One to one, by product ID | Query string matched |
| /about-us.html | /about/ | 301 | One to one | .html ending dropped |
| /spring-promo/ | – | 410 | Retired | Expired offer, no equivalent page |
| /contact/ | /contact/ | 200 | Unchanged | Kept as is |
Is someone else building your new site?
SEO Migration Studio’s SEO-only packages cover the URL work of a relaunch that your developer or agency builds: the URL inventory, the redirect map and the launch QA. They fit a redesign, a platform switch into WordPress, a URL structure change or a domain change.
The staging crawl is the check between the build and launch day. A redirect rule can work for one form of an old URL and miss another, such as the same path without its trailing slash or with a capital letter. The crawl checks every URL on your signed inventory exactly as Google Search Console and linking sites record it, and each miss goes back to your developer before launch.
Other situations have their own pages:
- Moving into WordPress from another platform, and handing over the content move too: platform moves into WordPress, end to end.
- Changing host, domain or URL structure on an existing WordPress site, and handing over the move too: WordPress moves done end to end.
- Redesigning a WordPress site, and handing over the build too: a redesign built end to end.
- Running an agency that wants the SEO side under its own name: white-label QA for client launches.
- Already launched, and clicks fell: post-launch traffic recovery.
Map, Launch Check or both
The three SEO-only packages split the work by when it happens: the map before the build, the crawls around launch. Each package comes in three size tiers set by your site’s URL count, and the price list below prints every tier.
| Your situation | Package | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| The new templates are not built yet | Migration Map | Signed URL inventory, redirect map and import file, parity sheet, staging checklist, launch-day runbook |
| Your developer already has a redirect map | Launch Check | Staging crawl against the map, launch-day checks, day-7 and day-30 crawls, fix lists |
| You want the map and the crawls together | SEO Migration Package | Everything in the Map and the Launch Check, plus Weekly Redirect Guard for a set period after launch |
Book the Map before your developer starts on the templates, so each URL on the signed inventory is mapped to one new page and the parity sheet lists the titles, headings and metadata the templates carry over. If your developer has already written a map, the Launch Check checks it on staging and again on the live site after launch. To build the map in-house, start from the redirect map template and book the Launch Check before launch.
A host move that keeps every URL needs less SEO work: with no new addresses there is nothing to map, so the Launch Check alone fits that move.
When each part of the SEO migration happens
The SEO work runs alongside your developer’s build, in this order:
- You sign the URL inventory, the list of old URLs the map must cover.
- We map each URL on the signed inventory to one page and hand over the redirect map, the redirect import file, the parity sheet, the staging checklist and the launch-day runbook, with a walkthrough call for your developer.
- Before launch, the staging crawl checks staging against the map.
- On launch day, inside the agreed launch window, we check the redirects, robots.txt, noindex tags, canonicals, sitemaps, Search Console and analytics on the live site.
- On day 7 and day 30, a crawl checks every URL on the signed inventory again and produces a fix list.
The Map covers steps 1 and 2; the Launch Check covers steps 3 to 5. We take on at most 1 new SEO-only launch a month. Book as soon as the launch date is set. The full phase-by-phase process shows your part and ours in each phase, and what changes when your developer builds the site.
What we need from you and your developer
From you: read access to Search Console for the current site, the launch date, and the person who signs the URL inventory. From your developer: the staging URL with access for a crawler, the redirect method the new server or plugin uses, and a contact for the fix lists. With admin access to the new WordPress site, the Launch Check’s hands-on fix hours go straight to the issues the crawls find.
Send the launch date and a rough URL count with your quote request. Fixed quotes come back within 1 business day. Quotes and calls are free.
When the domain changes too
A rebrand that moves the site to a new domain adds work on the old domain as well as the new one. Google’s site-move guidance says to “submit a Change of Address in Search Console for the old site” and to keep the redirects “for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year”1.
For a domain change, the SEO Migration Package, from $1,980 / £1,560, maps the old domain’s URLs to pages on the new one, and its Launch Check covers the Change of Address in Search Console on launch day. The Domain-Change Kit, with host-level 301s for the old domain and a list of profiles and citations to update, comes with the end-to-end move of a WordPress site to a new domain. The steps a business site needs for the switch itself are in the domain-change plan.
After the day-30 crawl
Redirects can still break after the Launch Check ends: a permalink change moves a mapped page, a deleted page leaves its redirects ending in a 404, and a deactivated redirect plugin stops running its rules. Weekly Redirect Guard keeps checking the signed inventory, up to its URL limit, and alerts you and your developer when a URL stops reaching its mapped page. The SEO Migration Package includes Guard for a set period; with the Map or the Launch Check alone, it is an add-on at $149 / £119 a month.
Google’s site-move guidance is plain about rankings: “Expect temporary fluctuation in site ranking during the move.”1 No one can promise a ranking after a migration. In an SEO-only project, your developer implements the redirects and the crawls check the result: whether each URL on the signed inventory reaches its mapped page.
Migration Map prices and options
Founding-Client 7-Business-Day Every-URL Migration Blueprint for Developer-Built Relaunches
Owners and marketers whose developer or agency builds the new site
| Size | USD | GBP |
|---|---|---|
| Size S: up to 500 URLs | $1,390 | £1,090 |
| Size M: up to 2,000 URLs | $2,390 | £1,890 |
| Size L: up to 10,000 URLs | $3,890 | £3,090 |
Includes
- Signed URL inventory (Search Console clicks/impressions over 16 months, backlinks, index status, sitemaps)
- One-to-one redirect map as CSV plus the server/plugin import format, with pattern rules and logged retire decisions
- Metadata and content parity sheet
- Staging checklist and launch-day runbook
- 45-minute developer walkthrough
Not included
- Implementing the redirects on your server (your developer does it; we can quote it)
- Copywriting
- Design
30-Day Launch Check
Sites launching with a redirect map, written by us or by their developer
| Size | USD | GBP |
|---|---|---|
| Size S: up to 500 URLs | $590 | £470 |
| Size M: up to 2,000 URLs | $890 | £710 |
| Size L: up to 10,000 URLs | $1,390 | £1,090 |
Includes
- Staging crawl against the map 1-2 business days before launch
- Launch-day verification in the agreed window (robots.txt, noindex, canonicals, redirects, sitemaps, Search Console including change of address for domain moves, analytics firing)
- Day-7 and day-30 crawls with a fix list
- Up to 2 hours of hands-on fixes if given access
Not included
- Hands-on fixes beyond 2 hours
- Writing the redirect map (that is the Migration Map)
SEO Migration Package
Relaunches built by a developer or agency that want the full SEO layer without the build
| Size | USD | GBP |
|---|---|---|
| Size S: up to 500 URLs | $1,980 | £1,560 |
| Size M: up to 2,000 URLs | $3,280 | £2,600 |
| Size L: up to 10,000 URLs | $5,280 | £4,180 |
Includes
- Everything in the Migration Map and the 30-Day Launch Check
- 90 days of Weekly Redirect Guard (monitoring plus alerts to you and your developer)
Not included
- The WordPress build (your developer or agency does it)
- Copywriting
- Design
Weekly Redirect Guard
Any relaunched site (built by us or by another builder) that wants redirects and indexing watched for the year Google recommends
| Size | USD | GBP |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 2,000 URLs | $149 | £119 |
Includes
- Weekly crawl of the signed list (up to 2,000 URLs), plus a Search Console coverage and 404 watch
- Alert by the next business day
- Up to 2 fix hours a month
- One-page monthly report by the 5th business day
Not included
- Fix hours beyond 2 a month
- Signed lists over 2,000 URLs
Terms for Migration Map and options
SEO-only billing
- Applies to
- Migration Map and SEO Migration Package.
- How it is billed
- The second 50% is invoiced only when the map covers every URL on your signed list.
- How it runs
- Automatic: you receive the map with its coverage against the signed list.
- Limit
- The signed list is the URL inventory you signed before mapping started.
Map fix commitment
90 days post-launch: each signed-list URL broken by a map error gets a corrected map entry within 1 business day of your claim.
- Condition
- A map error: the map sends a signed-list URL to the wrong target, to no target, or omits a URL on the signed list. Your developer implements the map as written, and you send the launch date.
- Remedy
- A corrected map entry within 1 business day of your claim.
- How to claim
- Email the URL list within 90 days of launch; we confirm within 2 business days.
- Limit
- Once per URL. Not covered: the map not implemented as written; server, CDN or plugin rules outside the map; URLs added after sign-off; changes after launch by others.
Launch Check billing
50% to book, 50% when the day-30 report is delivered.
- Applies to
- 30-Day Launch Check.
- How it is billed
- The second 50% is invoiced when the day-30 report is delivered.
- Limit
- One launch per Launch Check.
Founding-Client bonus
Projects signed by 29 January 2027, 11:59 p.m. ET get 9 more months of Redirect Guard (sold separately at $149 / £119 a month).
- Who qualifies
- A Migration, Redesign, Intensive, SEO Migration Package or Recovery Fix signed before 29 January 2027, 11:59 p.m. ET.
- What you get
- 9 more months of Weekly Redirect Guard after the included 3, starting after your own launch.
- How it is applied
- Included in the order form when it is signed before the deadline.
- Limit
- Once per project. The window runs once and closes at 29 January 2027, 11:59 p.m. ET.
Cancel at month-end
Month to month; cancel anytime, effective at the end of the paid month.
- Applies to
- Weekly Redirect Guard.
- What happens
- Cancellation takes effect at the end of the month you have paid for.
- How to cancel
- Email a cancellation before the next month starts.
- Limit
- No refund for a part month.
Frequently asked questions
Our developer is building the site. How does this fit?
What exactly does our developer receive?
What if our developer does not implement the map exactly?
How do you count URLs?
Do you cover relaunches on Shopify, Webflow or other platforms?
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