Migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify is one of the highest-leverage moves a stuck DTC brand can make — but it can also destroy your SEO if you do it wrong. Here's the process we use.
Before you touch anything
- Export every URL from WooCommerce (Screaming Frog or a sitemap crawl)
- Pull Google Search Console performance data for the last 12 months
- Snapshot current rankings for your top 50 keywords
- Back up the entire WooCommerce site
- Document every plugin and what it does
Build Shopify on a separate domain
Use the .myshopify.com URL during build. Don't expose the new store to Google until it's ready. Add a noindex meta tag during development.
Migrate data
Apps like Matrixify or Cart2Cart handle products, customers, and orders. Reviews migrate via Judge.me or Yotpo importers. Test the import on a small batch first.
Build the 301 redirect map
This is the step most people skip — and the reason most migrations lose rankings. Every old URL (product, collection, blog post, landing page) needs a 301 redirect to its closest equivalent on Shopify. Shopify's URL Redirects feature handles this; bulk import via CSV.
Cutover
- Switch DNS to Shopify
- Remove the noindex tag
- Verify domain in Google Search Console (both old and new property)
- Submit new sitemap.xml
- Use the Search Console URL Inspection tool to request indexing on top pages
First 30 days
Rankings will wobble. That's normal. Monitor in Search Console. Fix any 404s that show up immediately. Expect a 5–15% temporary dip in organic traffic that recovers — and usually grows past baseline — within 60 days.