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Shopify Migration Checklist™

Everything that must be right in a platform switch.

25 control points in five phases — the same structure we work by ourselves. Read it here, or get it as a working document to check off with your team.

1. Before the decision

  • Inventory your current platform: apps/plugins, custom code and integrations
  • Document every revenue-critical feature (checkout, shipping, discounts, B2B pricing)
  • Export a complete list of every URL with traffic or link equity
  • Map your data volumes: products, variants, customers, orders, reviews
  • Calculate the total cost of your current platform — including maintenance hours

2. SEO protection

  • Build a 301 map: every old URL → new URL, no exceptions
  • Move title tags, meta descriptions and structured data
  • Secure hreflang and language structure for international stores
  • Keep or improve the internal link structure and navigation
  • Set up rank tracking before the move so changes are visible immediately

3. Data migration

  • Migrate products and variants — validate against the source with sampling
  • Migrate customers and order history (inform about new logins)
  • Move reviews with correct product links
  • Test discount codes, gift cards and customer groups
  • Plan a delta migration for orders that arrive during the switch

4. Build & integrations

  • Build the theme against a performance budget: LCP under 1.6 s on key pages
  • Connect and test ERP, inventory, shipping, payments and accounting in staging
  • Implement tracking: GA4, GTM, Conversion API — and verify every event
  • Set up email flows and sync lists before launch
  • Run test orders through every flow: payment, shipping, returns

5. Launch & after

  • Choose a low-traffic window and prepare a rollback plan
  • Activate redirects at the same moment DNS switches — verify immediately
  • Submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console the same day
  • Monitor rankings, Core Web Vitals and conversion daily for 4–6 weeks
  • Decommission old hosting only after a verified stable period

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Rather not do it all yourself?

This is exactly the process we run for our clients — with SEO protection, validation and a rollback plan built in.

See our migration service