Shopify Migration Checklist: Everything You Need Before You Switch

Shopify Migration Checklist: Everything You Need Before You Switch

Before you migrate to Shopify, you need four things in place: a complete crawl of your current site, a 301 redirect map for every indexed URL, exported metadata (titles, descriptions, alt text), and a staging environment to test before going live. Skip any of these and you are solving problems after launch instead of before.

Here is the full checklist, in the order you should actually use it.

Key Takeaways

- Most migration problems are discoverable before launch -- the checklist here covers the ones that cause ranking drops and data loss

- Redirect mapping is the highest-use pre-launch task: one missed URL can wipe out years of link equity

- Your metadata (meta titles, descriptions) must be exported before you leave your current platform -- it will not transfer automatically

- Order history and customer data have specific export and import requirements that vary by platform

- Budget at least 2 weeks of post-launch monitoring -- migration SEO recovery is not instant

Phase 1: Before You Start

Crawl Your Current Site

Run a full crawl of your existing store before anyone touches anything. Use Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or a similar tool. Export everything:

• All URLs currently returning a 200 status
• Meta titles and descriptions
• H1 tags
• Canonical tag targets
• Image filenames and alt text
• Internal link structure
• Pages returning 301, 302, or 404 (these need to be cleaned up, not migrated)

This crawl is your baseline. If something goes wrong after migration, you need to know exactly what the site looked like before.

Also pull from Google Search Console:

• Top pages by clicks (last 12 months)
• Top pages by impressions (last 12 months)
• Any pages with manual actions or security issues

Mark your top-performing URLs in a separate tab. These are the ones that cannot have broken redirects.

Audit Your Current Platform's Data

Before migrating, understand exactly what you have:

• Products: Total count, variant count, SKU format
• Collections/Categories: How they are structured, any custom URL rewrites
• Customers: Total count, fields used (custom fields may not transfer)
• Orders: Total count, date range you need to preserve
• Blog content: Total posts, whether they have custom slugs
• Metafields/Custom data: Any fields your current platform uses that Shopify may not have a native equivalent for

Knowing this up front prevents surprises mid-migration.

Phase 2: Redirect Map

This is not optional. Every URL your current platform serves -- and that Google has indexed -- needs a redirect to its Shopify equivalent.

Build the Redirect CSV

Format: two columns. Old URL (full path, e.g., /category/widgets/widget-pro) and new URL (/collections/widgets/products/widget-pro or whatever the Shopify equivalent is).

Rules:

• Use 301 redirects only (permanent)
• No redirect chains (old URL should point directly to the final Shopify URL, not to another redirect)
• Include paginated URLs (e.g., /category?page=2) -- these should redirect to the collection root
• Include filtered views if your current platform indexed them

Prioritise by Traffic

Not all URLs are equal. Sort your redirect CSV by traffic (use the GSC export). Fix the high-traffic redirects first, then work down.

The stores that lose rankings during migration almost always have one thing in common: they built the redirect map after launch. Get it done before you go live.

Phase 3: Product and Collection Migration

Product Data Checklist

• [ ] Product titles migrated
• [ ] Product descriptions migrated (check formatting -- HTML often needs cleanup)
• [ ] Product images migrated (check file sizes -- Shopify recommends under 20MB per image)
• [ ] Product variants migrated (size, color, etc.)
• [ ] SKUs migrated and matched
• [ ] Prices migrated (check currency)
• [ ] Weight and shipping dimensions migrated (if using calculated shipping)
• [ ] Inventory quantities migrated
• [ ] Product tags migrated
• [ ] Product metafields migrated (if applicable)

SEO Metadata Checklist (Products)

• [ ] Meta titles imported (Shopify CSV column: SEO Title)
• [ ] Meta descriptions imported (Shopify CSV column: SEO Description)
• [ ] Product handles match old URL slugs where possible
• [ ] Image alt text migrated

Collection Checklist

• [ ] All collections recreated in Shopify
• [ ] Collection descriptions migrated
• [ ] Collection meta titles set
• [ ] Collection meta descriptions set
• [ ] Collection handles match old category slugs where possible
• [ ] Manual vs. automated collection rules configured correctly

Phase 4: Customer and Order Data

Customer Migration

Shopify allows customer import via CSV. The standard fields are: email, first name, last name, phone, address fields, and tags.

What does not transfer automatically:

• Passwords (customers will need to reset -- Shopify can send a bulk password reset email)
• Custom fields from your current platform
• Subscription or loyalty programme data

If you have a loyalty programme or subscription product, this needs a separate plan before migration.

Order History

Shopify allows order history import, but the process differs by platform. Some platforms (WooCommerce, Magento) have dedicated migration apps that handle this. Others require a custom CSV import or a third-party migration service.

Important: Order history migration does not recreate all order data. Refund history, notes, and certain custom fields often do not transfer. If you need complete order records, keep your old platform accessible (read-only) for 12 months post-migration.

Phase 5: Shopify Setup

Theme and Store Configuration

• [ ] Theme selected and configured
• [ ] Homepage designed
• [ ] Navigation menus set up
• [ ] Footer links added
• [ ] Contact page live
• [ ] About page live
• [ ] 404 page customised
• [ ] Favicon uploaded

Payment and Checkout

• [ ] Payment gateway configured and tested
• [ ] Tax settings configured for your markets
• [ ] Shipping rates set up and tested
• [ ] Checkout tested end-to-end (complete a test order)
• [ ] Order confirmation email tested
• [ ] Refund process tested

Apps

Install only what you need. Every app adds load time. Typical essential stack:

• Reviews (Judgeme or Okendo)
• Email capture (Klaviyo or Omnisend)
• Analytics (GA4 via Shopify integration)
• Cookie consent (if selling to EU customers)

A cluttered app stack is one of the fastest ways to tank your Shopify store's speed after migration. If you want an objective view of what to keep, a Store Health Audit covers this specifically.

Phase 6: Pre-Launch SEO Checks

• [ ] 301 redirect CSV uploaded and tested
• [ ] Sitemap generated and accessible (/sitemap.xml)
• [ ] Robots.txt reviewed (Shopify generates this automatically -- check it is not blocking anything important)
• [ ] Canonical tags verified on product pages (should point to /products/[handle], not the collection-scoped version)
• [ ] Meta titles set on all key pages
• [ ] Meta descriptions set on all key pages
• [ ] H1 tags present on all key pages
• [ ] Images have alt text
• [ ] Schema markup verified (product schema, breadcrumb schema)

Test Your Top Redirects

Before launch, manually test the 20-30 URLs that drive the most traffic from your GSC export. Open each old URL and verify it redirects to the correct Shopify page with a 301 status.

Use a browser extension like Redirect Path (Chrome) or check status codes via curl: curl -I https://yoursite.com/old-url

Phase 7: Launch Day

Before You Point the Domain

1. Complete one final test order on the staging/development store
2. Verify all redirects are in place
3. Confirm payment gateway is in live mode (not test mode)
4. Confirm your email notifications are set up for new orders

Domain Transfer

When you point your domain to Shopify, there will be a brief DNS propagation period (typically 24-48 hours). During this time, some visitors may still reach your old store. If possible, keep your old store in read-only mode (no new orders accepted) during this period to prevent split orders.

Immediately After Launch

• [ ] Submit sitemap to Google Search Console
• [ ] Request indexing for your top 20 pages via GSC URL Inspection
• [ ] Test your 20 priority redirects one more time from the live domain
• [ ] Check for any mixed content warnings (HTTP images on HTTPS pages)
• [ ] Verify Google Analytics is receiving data

Phase 8: Post-Launch Monitoring

Migration does not end at launch. The next 90 days matter.

Week 1:

• Check GSC Coverage report daily for new 404 errors
• Monitor organic traffic in GA4 (a 10-20% temporary dip is normal)
• Fix any redirect gaps immediately

Weeks 2-4:

• Watch impression and click trends in GSC
• Check your top 20 URLs are ranking as expected
• Look for any crawl anomalies

Days 30-90:

• Rankings should be recovering toward pre-migration levels
• If they are not, audit your redirects against GSC crawl errors
• Check for duplicate content issues (canonicals, collection/product URL overlap)

The Merchant Who Skipped Phase 1

James ran a WooCommerce store with 800 products and eight years of organic traffic. When he decided to migrate to Shopify, he hired a developer who was excellent at theme configuration and product migration. The store launched in three weeks, looked great, and loaded fast.

Six weeks after launch, James's organic traffic was down 55%. The developer had built the redirect map from memory, not from a crawl. About 180 URLs that Google had indexed -- mostly tag pages and filtered views -- were returning 404s. Each one was a dead end for link equity that had accumulated over eight years.

Recovery took four months and a lot of manual redirect work that should have taken two days before launch.

The checklist above exists precisely for cases like James's. A pre-migration crawl takes a few hours. The alternative costs months.

Use This Checklist, Not a Shortcut

The stores that migrate cleanly are the ones that follow the process. Crawl first. Map redirects before launch. Test before going live. Monitor for 90 days.

If you want this handled for you -- from the initial crawl through the post-launch audit -- our fixed-price Shopify migration service covers every phase on this list. Small stores from $2,500. Complex migrations from $5,000. No surprises.

Get a migration quote