Moving your online store to Shopify is one of the best decisions many Australian businesses make. But there is one word that stops business owners in their tracks: SEO. Years of Google rankings, backlinks, and organic traffic built up on your existing platform — what happens to all of that when you switch?
The short answer: if the migration is done correctly, you keep it all. If it is done incorrectly, you can lose a significant portion of your organic traffic — sometimes permanently.
At HHP Design, Shopify migrations are one of our core specialities. We have migrated hundreds of stores from WooCommerce, eBay, Etsy, Magento, Neto, and other platforms.
Why SEO Is the Most Important Part of Any Platform Migration
When you migrate from one platform to Shopify, several things change that directly affect your Google rankings:
- URL structure changes: WooCommerce uses
/product/product-name/while Shopify uses/products/product-name. Every URL changes — meaning every indexed page becomes a new URL in Google’s eyes. - Page structure changes: Title tags, meta descriptions, canonical tags, structured data, and internal linking all need to be rebuilt on the new platform.
- Site architecture changes: How your categories and navigation are structured affects how Google crawls and indexes your store.
Without proper planning, a migration can cause organic traffic to drop by 20–60% in the weeks after launch. With proper planning, most stores retain 90%+ of their rankings — and many improve, because Shopify’s technical performance is generally stronger than WooCommerce.
The 8-Step Migration Process HHP Design Follows
Step 1: Pre-Migration SEO Audit
Before anything moves, we document exactly where your store stands. This becomes the benchmark you measure against after launch.
- Export all URLs using Screaming Frog or your sitemap
- Record current Google rankings for your top 20–50 keywords
- Export Google Search Console data — impressions, clicks, top pages
- Document all backlinks using Ahrefs or Semrush
- Identify which pages drive the most organic traffic — highest priority
Step 2: URL Mapping — The Most Critical Step
This is where most DIY migrations go wrong. Every single URL on your old store must be mapped to its corresponding URL on the new Shopify store.
WooCommerce URL: yourdomain.com.au/product/red-sneakers/
Shopify URL: yourdomain.com.au/products/red-sneakers
The /product/ path becomes /products/ — every page changes and every one needs a 301 redirect.
We create a spreadsheet mapping every old URL to its new Shopify equivalent — covering products, collections, pages, and blog posts.
Step 3: Set Up Your Shopify Store
Before importing data, we set up the Shopify store correctly — theme, navigation, collections, payment gateways, shipping zones, tax settings, and apps. Getting the structure right before importing saves significant rework.
Step 4: Migrate Your Data
- Products — titles, descriptions, images, variants, pricing, stock levels, SKUs
- Collections — categories reorganised into Shopify’s collection structure
- Customer accounts — contact details and purchase history
- Order history — for reporting and customer service continuity
- Blog posts and static pages — with internal links updated to Shopify URLs
Step 5: Rebuild SEO Elements
- All meta titles and descriptions transferred or rewritten
- Image alt text maintained across all products
- Canonical tags correctly configured
- Structured data (Product, Organization, BreadcrumbList schema) in place
- robots.txt correctly configured
- XML sitemap generated and ready to submit
Step 6: Implement 301 Redirects
Using the URL mapping spreadsheet, we implement every 301 redirect in Shopify’s redirect tool. This tells Google your content has permanently moved — preserving link equity and ranking signals.
- Missing 301 redirects is the #1 cause of ranking loss after a migration. Every old URL without a redirect becomes a 404 error — breaking links, losing ranking signals, and creating a poor user experience.
Step 7: Pre-Launch Testing
- Test every redirect — enter old URLs and confirm they land on the correct new page
- Test the full purchase path from landing page through checkout
- Check all payment gateways — Shopify Payments, Afterpay, Zip
- Verify shipping rates including Australia Post real-time rates
- Test on mobile devices
Step 8: Launch and Post-Migration Monitoring
- Submit the new XML sitemap to Google Search Console
- Request indexing of priority pages
- Monitor Search Console for crawl errors and 404s
- Track keyword rankings weekly for the first 8 weeks
- Compare organic traffic to pre-migration baseline
- Fix any redirect errors immediately
Migrating from eBay or Etsy to Shopify
eBay to Shopify
eBay doesn’t have SEO rankings in the same way as a standalone website, so there are no URL redirects to manage. The primary goal is setting up your Shopify store with clean, well-optimised product data from day one — so you can start building your own Google rankings immediately.
Etsy to Shopify
Etsy sellers have the same situation — their product rankings live on Etsy’s domain, not their own. We export your Etsy listings, clean and reformat the data, then import to Shopify with a content strategy built around your product types from the start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I lose my Google rankings when I migrate to Shopify?
Not if the migration is done correctly. The key is implementing 301 redirects for every URL that changes, preserving your meta titles and descriptions, and maintaining technical SEO quality. HHP Design migrations typically retain 90%+ of rankings.
How long does a Shopify migration take?
A typical WooCommerce to Shopify migration takes 2–6 weeks depending on store size. eBay and Etsy migrations are generally faster as they don’t require URL redirect mapping.
What data can be migrated from WooCommerce to Shopify?
Products (including variants, images, and descriptions), customer accounts, order history, blog posts, and static pages can all be migrated.
Can I keep my domain when I migrate to Shopify?
Yes. Your domain stays the same — we simply point it to Shopify once the new store is ready. This ensures you keep all the authority and backlinks associated with your domain.
Will my customer passwords be transferred?
No. For security reasons, customer passwords cannot be migrated between platforms. Shopify will prompt customers to create a new password for their account.
How much does a Shopify migration cost in Australia?
HHP Design’s Shopify migration services start from $3,000 + GST. The final cost depends on catalogue size and complexity. We provide a detailed written quote after a free discovery call.