WooCommerce to Shopify migrations fail SEO when redirect mapping is incomplete, canonical tags are wrong, or the DNS cutover is rushed. None of these failures are inevitable — they're all process failures.
01Why migrations lose SEO
- Missing 301 redirects: URLs that return 404 lose their link equity and drop from Google's index
- Wrong canonicals: pages that exist on both the old and new domain can be seen as duplicate content
- Sitemap not submitted: Google doesn't discover the new URL structure
- Rushed DNS cutover: not giving Google time to recrawl the new structure
02Step 1: Pre-migration audit
Before you touch anything, crawl the live WooCommerce site with Screaming Frog and export every indexed URL from Google Search Console. These two datasets are your source of truth.
Don't start the migration before completing the URL audit. Rebuilding redirect maps after the fact — when you've already lost rankings — is the most expensive mistake you can make.
03Step 2: URL mapping
WooCommerce and Shopify have different URL structures. Map every WooCommerce URL pattern to its Shopify equivalent:
- /product/product-name → /products/product-name
- /product-category/category-name → /collections/category-name
- /?p=123 → /products/product-name (post IDs need special handling)
- /blog/post-name → /blogs/news/post-name
- /?page_id=456 → /pages/page-name
04Step 3: Load redirects before go-live
Shopify allows up to 100,000 URL redirects. Load them all before you change the DNS. Validate by crawling the staging store with the redirect CSV applied.
05Step 4: Controlled DNS cutover
Lower your DNS TTL to 300 seconds 24 hours before cutover. Change DNS records to point to Shopify. Verify the new store is live on all URLs. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console immediately.
06Step 5: Post-launch monitoring
Monitor Google Search Console for crawl errors daily for the first 30 days. Watch for 404 spikes (missing redirects) and coverage drops (indexation issues). Fix any errors within 48 hours.