How to Migrate WooCommerce to Shopify Without Losing SEO

Are you planning to migrate WooCommerce to Shopify? 

Perhaps it’s the technical headaches you’d rather avoid? Or maybe you’re already tired of using WooCommerce and want a new platform to work on, just for a change of experience… 

If you’re tired of the old WooCommerce page designs or the same functionality and features, and you want to switch to Shopify, then one of the key concerns you’ll have is SEO. 

Yes, your worry is correct. Some of your product pages are already ranking on top in Google Search, and now a simple platform shift might worry you. What if you lose your SEO ranking? 

If you’re worried, then this article is written for you. 

Today, we will explore whether it is possible to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify without losing SEO. 

If you’re just starting out, here’s a step-by-step guide for store launch on Shopify in UAE: 

How to Start Your Shopify Store in UAE in 2026? 

Without further ado, let’s begin. 

What are the SEO Risks eCommerce Storeowners Face in Migration? 

When you’re choosing to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify, it’s probably because you want your store to have a fresh look. Maybe the backend was glitchy and complicated, and you want to have a smoother backend. But without careful planning, it can put your hard-earned SEO at risk. 

Here are a few things you need to watch out for: 

1. URL Structure Mismatch
   WooCommerce URLs often differ from Shopify’s default structure. For example, a product URL like yourstore.com/product/shoes might change to yourstore.com/products/shoes, which can break existing links and cause 404 errors if not redirected properly.
2. Loss of Meta Data
   Meta titles, descriptions, and header tags may not transfer automatically during migration. Losing these can directly impact your click-through rates and search rankings.
3. Broken Links and 404 Errors
   Internal links, blog posts, and category pages might break if URLs are altered. Broken links not only frustrate users but also signal poor site quality to search engines.
4. Structured Data/Schema Issues
   WooCommerce often has rich snippets for products (price, reviews, availability). Shopify’s default templates may not preserve this data, affecting your visibility in search results.
5. Potential Traffic and Ranking Drops
   Even a perfectly executed migration can temporarily affect rankings. Search engines need time to reindex URLs, and any overlooked technical or content issues can cause longer-term drops in organic traffic.

The Pre-Migration Checklist 

Before you hit “Go” on your WooCommerce to Shopify migration, a careful pre-migration audit is highly significant. Missing even one step can cost you traffic, rankings, and revenue. 

Here’s your SEO-focused checklist:

Run a Website Audit – If you’re handling SEO, start by auditing your entire website. Begin by identifying all existing pages, posts, categories, and product URLs. Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to find your top-performing pages. Check which pages have high-quality backlinks and which pages drive the most organic traffic.

Create a Backup – Before exporting your website from WooCommerce to Shopify, create a full backup. This should include product information, images, blog content, SEO metadata, meta titles/descriptions, header tags, and alt texts. Also, make a copy of your current XML sitemap and store it safely in your backup.

Take Inventory of Backlinks – Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to compile a comprehensive list of inbound links. Identify pages with high-quality backlinks to ensure their URLs are either retained or properly redirected to the corresponding Shopify pages.

Plan Your 301 Redirects – Create a URL mapping sheet listing all old WooCommerce URLs alongside their new Shopify counterparts. Plan redirects for every page, including product pages, category pages, and blog posts. Also, account for any discontinued pages by developing relevant alternative destinations.

Test Shopify in Advance – Before going live, use a staging environment to thoroughly test your Shopify store. Check the URL structure, SEO metadata, and page content to ensure everything matches or improves upon your WooCommerce setup. Make sure the Shopify theme supports rich snippets, fast loading times, and mobile optimization for the best user experience and SEO performance.

Prepare Analytics & Tracking – Set up all essential tracking tools on Shopify before launch. Install Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Facebook Pixel. Configure event tracking for key actions such as purchases, form submissions, and clicks, so you can monitor user behavior and measure performance from day one.

Preserving URL & Structure 

One of the biggest SEO risks when moving from WooCommerce to Shopify is changing your URL structure. Even small differences can trigger 404 errors and hurt your rankings. 

Here’s how to keep your URLs SEO-friendly during the migration: 

1. Keep URL Slugs Constant

• WooCommerce example: yourstore.com/product/blue-sneakers
• Shopify default: yourstore.com/products/blue-sneakers

Use Shopify’s URL customization to match the original slug wherever possible. If a full match isn’t possible, implement a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.

2. Maintain Category Hierarchy

• WooCommerce category: yourstore.com/category/shoes/sneakers
• Shopify default: yourstore.com/collections/sneakers

Map each category to a relevant Shopify collection and redirect the old category URLs. For instance:

Old: yourstore.com/category/shoes/sneakers  

Redirect → New: yourstore.com/collections/sneakers

3. Use 301 Redirects for All URL Changes

Any page, product, or category URL that changes should have a permanent 301 redirect. It will ensure Google passes SEO value to the new page instead of treating it as an entirely new page. 

4. Preserve Blog URLs

• WooCommerce blog URL: yourstore.com/blog/best-running-shoes
• Shopify blog default: yourstore.com/blogs/news/best-running-shoes

You can either customize the Shopify URL to match the old URl or set up a 301 redirect. 

For example, Redirect → /blogs/news/best-running-shoes → /blog/best-running-shoes. 

5. Internal Linking and Navigation

You can also check for all internal links in product descriptions, blog posts and menus. Find updated links which point to the correct Shopify URLs and completely avoid links which are broken links. 

6. Test Everything in a Staging Environment

You can further use tools such as Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to crawl your staging site and make sure there are no broken links which exist before sending your website live. 

Just check that 301 redirects are correctly placed and landing pages retain SEO metadata.

Preserving URLs and structure is a mix of strategy and attention to detail. Each redirected link ensures your SEO authority survives the move, keeping Google happy and your traffic stable.

Migrating Content & SEO Metadata

Content and metadata are the backbone of your SEO. 

When migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify, keeping them intact is essential to avoid ranking drops. 

Here’s how to handle it effectively:

Export & Import Page/Post Content – You can have your WooCommerce content exported through CSV or XML to Shopify which includes product descriptions, blog posts, category pages and more. Shopify comes with features to successfully important content using apps like Matrixify or via CSV. 

Preserve Metadata – Many of your meta titles and meta descriptions don’t get transferred automatically. If you lose them, it can drop your click-through rate instantly. 

For example, if you have a WooCommerce page with Meta Title: “Buy Blue Sneakers Online – Free Shipping | YourStore” with a Meta Description: “Shop premium blue sneakers with breathable mesh. Fast delivery & easy returns.” Then, you can have the entire thing transferred from WooCommerce to Shopify & use the “Edit SEO” section for every product/page to input the same meta title and meta description. 

Maintain Header Tags (H1, H2 and H3) – Headers organize your content and signal page structure to Google. For example: 

• H1: Blue Sneakers Collection
• H2: Features & Benefits
• H3: Material & Care Instructions

Make sure to mirror them correctly to your Shopify Store. 

Alt Text for Images – WooCommerce product images have alt text for easy site accessibility and SEO.  For example, Alt Text in WooCommerce “Blue running sneakers for men” can be the same when migrating to Shopify retaining the small alt text to preserve its keyword relevance within the new Shopify store. 

Internal Linking –  You can check all internal links within product descriptions, blog posts and menus. Study the broken internal links and find out which of them can hurt Google’s overall crawlability. 

For example, a blog post linking to a product page will come off as: 

• Old link: /product/blue-sneakers
• New link: /products/blue-sneakers or set up 301 redirect.

Preserve Structured Data (Schema Markup) – WooCommerce often comes with product schema with a price tag, availability options and its specific ratings. 

Shopify can change this using apps like JSON-LD for SEO or built-in Shopify schema support. 

Example: A product with rich snippets shows:

• Price: $79
• Rating: 4.5/5
• Availability: In Stock

Content migration isn’t just a simple copy-paste task, it’s more about keeping every SEO signal intact. Meta data, headers, alt texts, and structured data ensure Google continues to recognize and rank pages. 

Handling Technical SEO

Even if your content, URLs, and metadata are perfect, technical SEO issues can quietly tank your rankings after migration. Here’s how to cover all bases:

• Sitemap Creation & Submission

Shopify automatically generates a sitemap at /sitemap.xml. 

Submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools immediately after migration.

For example, your Old WooCommerce sitemap /sitemap_index.xml can be taken down and be replaced with Shopify sitemap /sitemap.xml and submitted to Google for reindexing. 

• Robots.txt Optimization

Shopify creates a default robots.txt file, but you may need to customize it to allow important pages or block irrelevant ones. For example, it creates product pages and collections making it crawlable.

User-agent: *

Allow: /products/

Allow: /collections/

Disallow: /checkout/

• Structured Data / Schema Validation

Make sure product schema, review schema and breadcrumbs are correctly implemented. 

To do that, you can use Google’s Rich Results Text to verify structured data. A product page is expected to have a schema which includes name, pricing, availability, rating and SKUs. 

• Page Speed Optimization

Shopify themes are generally fast, but checks off mostly for:

• Large images → Compress using Shopify image optimization.
• Unused apps/scripts → Remove to reduce load time.

You can have each of the pages well optimized with PageSpeed Insights to target >80 for mobile & desktop. 

• Mobile-Friendly Testing

Make sure your Shopify store is mobile ready which means you optimize it for mobile-first indexing in Google’s default. Make sure your Shopify theme is completely responsive.

You can test it using the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool. 

For example, you can check product pages, checkout flows and blog pages for mobile readiness. 

• HTTPS & SSL

Implement HTTPS & SSL certificates. 

Shopify offers you an option to add free SSL certificates for all domains. Just make sure to add HTTPS and enforce it for all pages to maintain secure indexing. Make use of redirects like http:// URLs to https://. 

• Monitor Crawl Errors Post-Migration

You can also use Google Search Console to track 404s, find redirect problems or check the page for indexing problems. Try to find ways to fix such errors within the first few weeks so your rankings don’t take a dip. 

A solid technical SEO strategy works as the scaffolding for your content and URLs. Without having a proper implementation, you can’t perfectly migrate pages or it may eventually fail to rank or get indexed appropriately. 

Backlinks & External SEO Signals 

If there’s one powerful asset in SEO marketing, it’s none other but backlinks to your site. 

When you’re migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify, don’t miss out or ignore backlinks as it can lead to massive traffic spikes and can further contribute to ranking losses. 

In this section, we will break down how to preserve and leverage backlinks in your SEO effectively. 

Start with Site Audit 

You can start with a site audit by using tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to generate a complete list of inbound links. You can find pages with the highest quality backlinks pointing to them first. 

Map Backlinks to New URLs 

While exploring the site, find old URLs with backlinks and redirect them to the corresponding new Shopify URL using the 301 redirects. It will pass the SEO “link juice” from the old page to the new one. 

Handle Discontinued Pages Wisely

If certain products or pages won’t exist on Shopify, it can redirect them to the most relevant alternative which includes category page, similar product page, or homepage (when and if necessary). 

It’s best to avoid redirecting multiple old pages to the homepage unless absolutely necessary. 

You may end up diluting link equity. 

Update Important External Links 

If it comes to high-value backlinks, you control stuff like guest posts or partnerships. 

You can also update them to point to your new Shopify URL. For example, if you wrote a guest post linking to your site like yourstore.com/blog/best-running-shoes, you can update it to your store. 

Monitor Referral Traffic Post-Migration

Check Google Analytics and Search Console for traffic incoming from referral sources. 

If there are sudden drops, this could eventually indicate the possibility of broken backlinks or similar redirect issues. You can fix them immediately in your new store to maintain these authorities. 

Preserve Social Signals 

If your pages were shared on social media, make sure the shared links redirect correctly to the new URLs. It will ensure your social traffic isn’t lost and OG tags (for previews) remain well intact. 

Backlinks are SEO gold. Every old link pointing to your WooCommerce site must find its rightful home on Shopify, or you risk losing authority, rankings, and valuable traffic. 

Careful mapping and redirecting is what keeps your link equity alive during migration.

Post-Migration Steps

• Test all 301 redirects to ensure they point to the correct URLs
• Crawl the site to identify and fix broken links
• Verify that all pages, products, and blog posts are indexed in Google Search Console
• Resubmit the XML sitemap to search engines
• Monitor organic traffic and keyword rankings closely for changes
• Check page speed and mobile performance for all key pages
• Validate structured data and rich snippets using Google’s Rich Results Test
• Ensure internal linking is intact and updated where necessary
• Monitor referral traffic and backlinks to confirm link equity is preserved
• Review meta titles, descriptions, and headers for accuracy
• Check that HTTPS/SSL is properly implemented on all pages
• Track crawl errors, 404s, and other indexing issues and fix promptly

If you’re done with all of the steps mentioned above, now it’s time to launch your Shopify eCommerce. 

Start implementing the new SEO marketing strategy on your Shopify store today. 

Are you struggling to migrate your store from WooCommerce to Shopify or another eCommerce platform of your choice? Do you struggle with transferring data from one platform to another? 

If you want to improve your site’s ranking in search results, feel free to get in touch with Branex. 

We can help you optimize your online store presence and migrate it safely from store A to store B without breaking the bank. Our eCommerce development in UAE can execute it perfectly for you.