Website migration services that keep every URL working
Boffin Coders provides website migration services for site owners and for the agencies who build for them. A migration moves your site to a new platform, host, domain or design. We list every URL the old site has, map each one to its new address, compare the sitemaps before and after launch, and read Search Console until the move settles. Our own timezones.in moved 10,723 pages to Next.js with no URL lost.
- Every URL listed before work starts
- Code and accounts in your name
- Invoiced after you see the work
Two migrations you can check from your own terminal
Both sites are ours, so every figure below can be opened and tested. Much of our client work sits under NDA, so we walk you through it on a call.
10,723 pages moved to Next.js, no URL lost
The site is built from six templates, and one address function builds 9,045 of its pages, so one careless edit could move thousands of URLs. The sitemap was saved before the deploy and after it: 10,722 addresses before, 10,723 after, one page added and none removed. The project page covers the build and what broke.
Moved from WordPress to Next.js and Payload
This website used to run on WordPress. Its old addresses were mapped from the not-found export in Search Console: 322 URLs, covered by 178 permanent redirects, 139 exact and 39 patterns, all written in the site’s code where anyone can test them with curl. Fifteen of the patterns carry an exception, because an old category name matched a page that still works. The redirect rules that eat live pages explains the trap and the fix.
How do you migrate a website without losing SEO?
You migrate a website without losing SEO by treating every URL as something to account for. Boffin Coders lists every address before work starts, from the sitemap and a Search Console export, gives each one a new home or a reason to retire, then compares the old and new sitemaps on launch day. Titles, headings, canonical tags and internal links are checked as well, because a URL can survive while its ranking does not.
The comparison is two downloads and twelve lines of Python. We have published the whole method, including what it cannot catch, as site migration without losing SEO. Run it on your own site before you hire a website migration company, including us. Take the first snapshot before anything changes, because it cannot be taken afterwards.
- 1
List every URL
sitemap.xml and the Search Console export
- 2
Map each to its new address
One permanent redirect, one hop
- /about-us.htmlto/about301
- /2019/05/tips/to/blog/tips301
- /servicesto/services200
- 3
Compare the sitemaps
before.xml against after.xml
Dropped: none
- 4
Launch
The old server stays as a way back
- 5
Check Search Console
Not found and Pages reports, after launch
What do SEO migration services check besides the URLs?
SEO migration services check everything that tells Google what a page is, not only where it lives. A page can keep its address and still lose its title, its main heading, its canonical tag or the links that point at it, and its ranking goes with them. Boffin Coders checks these six things on every template before launch, and checks the redirects again after it.
The address
Every URL in the old sitemap and the Search Console export answers on the new site, with the page itself or one redirect to its closest match. Checked by comparing the two lists, not the two totals.
The title and description
What a page says in search results. Moved word for word unless you ask for a change, so the migration is not also a rewrite, and if a ranking moves you can tell why.
The main heading
The H1 that Google matches against the search. Templates are compared one page type at a time, because one change to a template moves the heading on every page built from it.
The canonical tag
The line that tells Google which address is the official one. A new platform often writes it differently, or points every page at the home page. We read it on a sample of every template.
Internal links
The links between your own pages pass authority from one to another. Menus, footers and links inside the copy are changed to the new addresses, so they do not pass through a redirect on every click.
Redirect rules
A pattern that sends many old addresses at once is written with exceptions, so a rule meant for retired pages cannot catch a page that still works. Every rule is tested with curl before launch and again after it.
Structured data, image addresses, forms and the analytics tag move in the same pass. To keep the rankings growing after launch, there is our monthly SEO work.
What happens to your URLs and redirects?
Every URL on your current site ends the migration with a known outcome, and you see the list before launch. Boffin Coders keeps an address wherever the new platform allows it, sends a moved page to its new address with a single permanent 301 redirect, and retires a page only to its closest replacement. The full map lives in your code or your server settings, where your next developer can read it.
| On your current site | In the migration | How you check it |
|---|---|---|
| A page that keeps its address | Served at the same URL by the new platform. Nothing to redirect. | It answers 200 on launch day |
| A page whose address changes | One permanent 301 to the new address, in a single hop, never a chain. | curl shows one 301, then 200 |
| A page you are retiring | A 301 to the closest page on the same subject, or a plain not-found answer when nothing replaces it. You decide which. | Listed in the map with the reason |
| A redirect from an earlier move | Pointed straight at the final address, so visitors and Google take one hop, not two or three. | No chains left in the map |
| A file or page outside the sitemap | PDFs, old campaign pages and links only ever sent by email, taken from the Search Console export and your analytics. | Present in the map |
Trailing slashes, upper and lower case, and www against the bare domain are settled once, at the server, so each page has exactly one address.
Should you move from WordPress to a modern stack?
Most WordPress sites should stay on WordPress. Our WordPress migration services move a site to a faster host or a cleaner theme when speed is the complaint, and move it off WordPress, usually to Next.js with a headless CMS such as Payload, when the site has become an application. Boffin Coders made that second move with this website, and the redirect map from it is in our code.
WordPress to a better host
Same site, same theme, a new server. Files and database are moved, every DNS record is copied, including the ones your email depends on, and the old host stays live until the new one has answered every URL. Often the cheapest fix when the site is slow.
Onto WordPress from another platform
From Wix, Squarespace or an older CMS, when your team wants an editor it already knows. Pages, posts, images and their alt text move by script where the old platform exports them, and by hand where it does not. For work after the move, you can hire WordPress developers by the month.
WordPress to Next.js and a headless CMS
For a site with logins, bookings, large catalogues or pages built from data. Content moves into Payload or another headless CMS, the front end is rebuilt in Next.js, and every old address is mapped before the switch. If you want to keep WordPress as the editor, that is headless WordPress development.
Store moves to Shopify
From WooCommerce, Magento or BigCommerce: products, variants and customers, and order history where the platforms allow it. Shopify sets its own address pattern for products and collections, so on a store move almost every URL changes, and the redirect map does most of the work.
Moving for speed alone? First ask for the time to first byte, the size of the largest image and the number of scripts. If those are the problem, the fix is days of work on the site you already have.
What do you keep after the migration?
You keep everything the migration produces, in your own name. Boffin Coders works in your domain registrar, your hosting account and your code repository from the first day, as a member rather than an owner. When the move is done there is nothing to hand over, and you also keep the evidence: both URL lists, the redirect map and the comparison between them.
The domain and DNS
Registered to you, with every record written down before the switch, including the ones your email depends on.
The hosting account
In your name and paid on your card. We are added as members, and you can remove us at any time.
The code
In a repository under your GitHub or GitLab organisation, with a README that lets the next developer run the site in an hour.
The redirect map
Every old address and where it now goes, in the site’s code or server settings, so it survives the next rebuild too.
The before-and-after URL lists
Both sitemaps and the comparison, saved with the date, so you can show later what moved and what did not.
Search Console and analytics
Your own properties, kept and verified on the new site, so the history before the move stays joined to the history after it.
Can your agency sell a migration under its own name?
Yes. Boffin Coders works as the website migration agency behind yours: the same URL list, redirect map and sitemap comparison, delivered under your brand into the repository you name. We sign non-circumvention before scoping and never contact your client unless you ask. Agencies buy it as part of our white-label web design or in two-week sprints, invoiced after you see the work.
Your brand on the work
Pull requests, the redirect map and the launch checklist carry your agency’s name. Your client never sees ours.
Your client stays yours
We talk to you, not to them, unless you bring us into a call. Non-circumvention is signed before you share the brief.
Evidence in plain files
The two URL lists, the comparison and the curl checks are plain files in your repository. You decide what your client sees.
What do website migration services cost, and how long do they take?
Boffin Coders prices a website migration from its scope: how many URLs and templates the site has, how much content moves by script and how much by hand, and what else connects to it. A full migration is a project from US$4,000. A smaller move, such as one WordPress site to a new host, runs by the hour at US$12-30 an hour. You are invoiced after you see the work on the new site.
URLs and templates
A thousand pages from three templates is less work than two hundred pages each built by hand. A template is mapped once, a hand-built page one at a time.
Content that moves by hand
Text inside page builders and shortcodes rarely exports cleanly. The more of it there is, the more of the time goes to moving and checking it.
Design changes
A migration that keeps the design is the quickest. A new design at the same time is scoped as its own line, so you can see each cost.
What connects to the site
Forms, a CRM, payments, search, a members’ area. Each one is tested on the new site before the domain switches, and each is a line in the scope.
On time: timezones.in, 10,723 pages from six templates, moved to Next.js in one week, because its pages are built from data. The scope gives you a date before any work starts.
Published, not quoted on the call
In USD. Hourly and monthly rates move with the stack and the seniority, from a junior on routine work to a senior on complex builds. Nothing is quoted outside them, and if the number does not work for you, you have saved yourself a meeting.
- A website migration starts at
- US$4,000
- Scoped once, with the lines shown.
- Short pieces of work
- US$12-30 an hour
- By seniority and the work.
- A developer by the month
- From US$2,000 a month
- Month to month, a month’s notice either way.
- Agency sprint
- US$2,000 per two-week sprint
- Under your brand, invoiced after you see the work.
Before you hire a website migration company
The questions owners and agencies ask before handing over a site that brings in their work.
Website migration services move a working website to a new platform, host, domain or design without losing the visitors and search rankings it already has. Most of the work is accounting for addresses: listing every URL, deciding where each one goes, writing the redirects and proving after launch that nothing went missing. Boffin Coders does this for site owners and, under their brand, for agencies.
Not answered here?
Work we’ve delivered, and what we’ve written
Moving a site that already earns its traffic?
Twenty minutes with the engineer who would run the move. Bring the domain and, if you have one, a Search Console export. You leave knowing what moves, what changes address, and roughly what it costs from the published rates.