SEO Migration
for Redesigns, Replatforms and Domain Changes
Moving to a new website shouldn't cost you the rankings, traffic and AI visibility you've spent years building. We plan, check and monitor every step so your new site starts strong.
Why Website Migrations Lose Traffic
A new website is meant to help your business grow. Too often, it does the opposite. Traffic drops the week after launch, enquiries slow down, and nobody's quite sure why.
It's rarely one big mistake. It's usually a handful of small ones:
- Old URLs that don't redirect to the right new pages
- Content that was cut, merged or rewritten without checking what it ranked for
- A "noindex" tag or blocked robots.txt left over from the staging site
- Internal links, titles and structured data that didn't carry across
- Analytics and conversion tracking that stopped working on launch day
A short dip after launch is normal while Google re-crawls your site. A long one usually isn't. With the right preparation, most migrations recover quickly, and some come out ahead.
We've spent 14 years doing SEO for businesses in Thailand and overseas, and we've seen what goes wrong. Our job is to catch it before your customers do.
- 14+ years in Thai and Australian SEO
- 300+ businesses helped
Why Businesses Trust Us With Their Migrations
01
Senior People From Start to Launch Day
The specialists who plan your migration are the same people checking your site on launch day. No hand-offs, no juniors learning on your website.
02
We Work Alongside Your Developers
Whoever is building your new site, whether that's your in-house team or a web agency, we give them clear SEO requirements, a redirect map they can import and fast answers when questions come up.
03
Google and AI Search Covered
We check that search engines and AI tools can still find, crawl and understand your site after the move, so your brand keeps showing up in Google results, AI Overviews and AI answers.
Case Studies
Search Studio has been VPS HiSpeed's SEO partner since 2016. Over 9 years of consistent work, Thailand's #1 VPS provider went from a growing challenger to the dominant name in local search.
89.46% Organic growth 12 months
Read the case study
Lussopack crafts luxury packaging for global brands from their factory in Bangkok. They needed SEO that could reach buyers worldwide. Today, leads arrive from 15+ countries, organic traffic has nearly tripled, and conversions have grown by 133%.
178.75% Organic Traffic Increase
Read the case study
Australia’s #1 just-add-water home care brand was invisible on Google. In 6 months, Skipper reached page 1 and outranked Amazon, Woolworths, and Aldi for key searches.
84.29% Organic Traffic Increase
Read the case studyTypes of Migration We Handle
Every migration carries a different kind of risk. We plan around the one you're facing.
Website Redesign
A new design often means new templates, new navigation and rewritten content. We make sure the pages and content that earn your traffic survive the redesign, and that the new layout is easy for search engines to crawl.
Platform or CMS Change
Moving from WordPress to Shopify, from a custom build to a headless or static site, or between any two platforms changes how URLs, templates and metadata work. We map everything across and check the new platform handles SEO properly.
Domain Change or Rebrand
A new domain means search engines have to transfer years of trust to a new address. We plan the redirects, update your key listings and profiles, and monitor closely until the new domain has taken over.
URL and Structure Changes
Moving from a subdomain to a subfolder, switching to HTTPS, reorganising categories or tidying up URL structures all change addresses that Google already knows. We map old to new and keep internal links consistent.
Merging Websites
Combining several sites into one can make you much stronger in search, or lose a lot of traffic. We decide which content to keep, merge or retire, and redirect each old site so its value flows to the right pages.
Adding Languages or Markets
Launching a Thai or English version, or new country sections, changes your site structure. We set up URLs, hreflang and market-specific content so each audience finds the right version. See our international SEO service for ongoing multi-market work.
What's Included in Our SEO Migration Service
You get a clear list of deliverables, not a vague promise to "help with SEO".
- Benchmark of your current rankings, traffic, top pages and backlinks
- Full crawl and URL inventory of the current site
- Redirect map from every important old URL to its new home, in a format your developers can import
- Review of the new site on staging, covering content, metadata, headings, internal links and structured data
- Content check, so nothing that earns traffic gets lost
- Robots.txt, sitemap and AI crawler access check
- Analytics, Search Console and conversion tracking check
- Launch-day checklist, worked through with your team
- Post-launch monitoring of rankings, traffic, crawl errors and indexing
- A final report showing how the new site is performing against the benchmark
Need ongoing SEO once the new site is live? Our technical SEO and Managed SEO services pick up where the migration leaves off.
When to Bring Us In
2 to 3 months before launch
The best time. We can shape the new site structure, set SEO requirements before the build starts and avoid costly changes later.
During the build
Still a good time. We review templates and staging pages as they're built, and prepare the redirect map in parallel.
A few weeks before launch
Tight, but workable. We focus on the redirect map, a full staging review and the launch checklist, so the biggest risks are covered.
After launch, if traffic has dropped
It's not too late. Our migration recovery audit compares the old and new sites, finds what was lost and gives you a prioritised list of fixes to win it back.
What Our Clients are Saying
Extremely happy with the SEO service from these guys. I have been with them for 3 years and currently have 2 active sites sitting on page 1 with a few rank 1 terms. Search Studio is the only SEO agency I would recommend anyone to use!
Joel Male Founder I’m very happy with the SEO service from Search Studio. The team is professional, easy to talk to, and explains everything clearly. I’ve seen real improvement in my website ranking. Special thanks to khun Fon & khun Mam for always taking great care of my account and responding quickly. Highly recommended!
Tanit Virunkitkoson Managing Director In just a few months, Fonthip and her team at Search Studio have transformed our online performance. They have significantly improved our website’s SEO, resulting in a massive increase in leads and conversions. Search Studio has proven to be one of the invaluable partners for our SEO journey. Their expertise and knowledge have truly impressed us.
Joe McCord Head of Growth For the past 14 years we have worked with various SEO agencies, all of which were nothing but a bunch of crooks; until we found Search Studio in Chiang Mai. We have been working together for almost 2 years now and we could not be more happy, they deliver great results. Building backlinks, writing blog articles and various SEO optimizations on our website, fantastic work done, and in perfect English. I am quite impressed because medical aesthetics is not their area of expertise and yet they write excellent and very relevant articles, something I have never seen with other agencies I have had the misfortune to work with in the past. You can rely on them in any case, they will achieve and deliver only the best results. Thank you Search Studio.
Renaud d’Hercourt Founder What Does an SEO Migration Cost?
Every migration is scoped individually. These are the main things that shape the cost.
Size of your website
The number of pages and URLs affects how much crawling, mapping and checking is needed. A 50-page brochure site and a 20,000-product shop are very different projects.
Type of migration
A redesign on the same platform is usually simpler than a domain change, a platform move or several sites being merged into one.
How much is changing
If your URLs, content and structure are all changing at once, there's more to map, review and test.
How long we monitor
Most migrations need 4 to 12 weeks of close monitoring after launch. Larger or riskier moves need longer.
Ways to work with us
Migration plan
What it is Benchmark, URL inventory, redirect map and SEO requirements for your developers
Best for Teams with strong in-house developers who want an expert plan
Full migration support
What it is Everything in the plan, plus staging review, launch-day support and post-launch monitoring
Best for Most redesigns, replatforms and domain changes
Migration recovery audit
What it is A comparison of the old and new sites with a prioritised list of fixes
Best for Sites that have already launched and lost traffic
White label migration support
What it is Migration SEO delivered under your brand for your clients' rebuilds
Best for Web and digital agencies. See White Label SEO
Our SEO Migration Process in 4 Steps
Benchmark and Plan
We record how your current site performs, crawl every URL and agree the goals, risks and timeline with your team.
Map and Review
We build the redirect map, set SEO requirements for the new site and review templates and staging pages before anything goes live.
Launch Together
On launch day we work through the checklist with your developers, test redirects, check indexing settings and confirm tracking is working.
Monitor and Fix
We watch rankings, traffic and crawl errors closely after launch, fix issues as they appear and report back against the benchmark.
Typical timelines
Redesign on the same platform
Planning before launch 2 to 4 weeks
Monitoring after launch 4 to 6 weeks
Platform or CMS change
Planning before launch 4 to 8 weeks
Monitoring after launch 6 to 8 weeks
Domain change or rebrand
Planning before launch 4 to 8 weeks
Monitoring after launch 8 to 12 weeks
Merging several websites
Planning before launch 6 to 12 weeks
Monitoring after launch 8 to 12 weeks
Larger sites take longer. We'll give you a timeline for your project after the first review.
Industries We Work With
SEO Solutions Can Benefit Your Business
Our SEO strategies are built around the challenges of each industry, helping businesses in every sector reach their goals.
Learn More IndustriesFrequently Asked Questions
What is an SEO migration?
An SEO migration is the work of protecting your search visibility when your website changes in a big way, such as a redesign, a new platform, a new domain or a new URL structure. It covers planning, redirects, checking the new site before launch and monitoring afterwards.
Will I lose rankings when I move to a new website?
Most sites see some movement for a few weeks while search engines re-crawl the new version. With proper planning and redirects, rankings usually settle back quickly. Big, lasting drops nearly always come from missing redirects, lost content or technical settings left over from staging, which is exactly what we check for.
How long does it take to recover after a migration?
For a well-planned migration, traffic usually settles within 4 to 8 weeks. Domain changes and large sites can take a few months. If traffic is still well below normal after that, something has usually gone wrong and needs fixing.
When should SEO be involved in a website project?
As early as possible, ideally before the new site structure and templates are designed. It's much cheaper to get URLs, content and templates right during planning than to fix them after launch.
Do you build the new website?
Our focus is the SEO side of the migration. We work alongside whoever is building your new site, whether that's your in-house developers or a web agency, giving them clear requirements, a redirect map and checks at each stage.
What do you need from us to get started?
Access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics, the current site, the staging site once it's ready, and your planned launch date. A list of any URLs or content you plan to change or remove helps too.
Can you fix a migration that's already gone wrong?
Yes. Our migration recovery audit compares your old and new sites, finds missing redirects, lost content and technical problems, and gives you a prioritised list of fixes. The sooner we start, the more traffic we can usually win back.
Does changing my domain hurt SEO?
It can if it's done badly. Search engines need clear signals that your old domain has moved, mainly permanent (301) redirects from every old URL to the matching new one, kept in place long term. With that, most of your existing authority carries across.
Does a migration affect AI Search visibility?
Yes. AI tools and Google's AI Overviews draw on pages they can crawl and trust. If your new site blocks AI crawlers, loses content or changes key brand information, your visibility in AI answers can drop. We include AI crawler access and content checks in every migration.
How much does an SEO migration cost?
It depends on the size of your site, the type of migration, how much is changing and how long you need monitoring. We'll send you a clear proposal after a quick look at your current site and your plans.
Planning a Website Migration?
Tell us what's changing and when you plan to launch. We'll tell you where the biggest risks are and how to protect your rankings.
Get a Pre-Launch ReviewLast updated