Magento SEO Before You Replatform

Last reviewed October 2026.

Most rankings lost in a migration are lost before launch, in the weeks spent planning the new store. This guide covers what to record, map, export and fix on your Magento store first, so your search traffic moves with you.

Why are Magento stores replatforming in 2026?

Because several Magento support deadlines land close together. Standard support for Magento 2.4.6 ended on August 11, 2026. Adobe Commerce customers get extended support to August 31, 2027, but Magento Open Source stores get no further patches. PHP 8.2, the newest PHP version 2.4.6 supports, loses security support at the end of 2026.

Source: Adobe Commerce lifecycle policy, checked October 2026. Check Adobe's policy page for your version.

There's a harder deadline for Adobe Commerce on Cloud. From June 1, 2027, Adobe will suspend traffic to Cloud stores still running 2.4.4 or 2.4.5. Stores on 2.4.6 or 2.4.7 follow from June 1, 2028. In practice, an unsupported Cloud store can go offline.

Every Magento store faces the same choice: upgrade, or replatform. If you're replatforming, the SEO work starts now.

What should you do to your Magento SEO before you replatform?

Before replatforming, record how your Magento store performs in search and list every URL that earns traffic or links. Map each one to its new address, export your SEO content, and fix problems you don't want to carry over. Do this before design starts, because the URL map and content decisions shape the new store.

1. Benchmark rankings, traffic, backlinks and conversions.
2. Inventory every URL that matters, from several sources.
3. Map each old URL to its closest new page.
4. Export titles, descriptions, content, alt text and structured data.
5. Fix broken links and redirect chains on Magento first.
6. Freeze major content and URL changes until after launch.

How do you benchmark Magento SEO before migrating?

Export at least 12 months of Google Search Console data and your top landing pages from analytics, with their revenue. Add your current keyword rankings and every page with backlinks. Save it all with the date. After launch, you'll compare against this baseline to catch drops early and prove what the migration changed.

• Search Console: queries and pages for the last 16 months, the maximum it keeps.
• Analytics: organic landing pages with sessions, conversions and revenue.
• Rankings: your priority keywords, recorded on a fixed date.
• Backlinks: every page with external links, from a tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush.
• Bing Webmaster Tools: the same page data. ChatGPT's search leans on Bing.

Why one source isn't enough

A site crawl only finds pages linked from your site. Search Console finds pages Google knows about, analytics finds pages people land on, and backlink tools find pages other sites link to. Each catches pages the others miss, especially old products and campaign pages. Combine all of them before you start mapping.

How do Magento URLs map to Shopify?

Shopify uses a fixed URL structure: products live under /products/, categories under /collections/, content under /pages/ and articles under /blogs/. Magento URLs usually end in .html and can include category paths and store codes. So every Magento URL needs an explicit redirect to its new Shopify address.

Watch the duplicates. Magento can serve the same product at several URLs if category paths are switched on. Redirect every version, not just the canonical one, because some will have earned links.

Keep handles close to the original. Use the Magento URL key as the Shopify handle where you can. It keeps redirects simple and the new URLs recognizable.

What Magento SEO data needs exporting?

Export each product's and category's meta title, meta description, URL key, description and image alt text. Add custom attributes, structured data choices and any hreflang setup for multiple store views. Shopify has fields for most of these, and custom attributes usually become Shopify metafields.

Do Magento meta keywords matter?

No. Magento has a meta keywords field, but Google doesn't use it for ranking, and Shopify has no equivalent field. Don't spend time migrating it.

Magento's search terms report is different and worth keeping. It shows what shoppers type into your site search, which tells you which products and collections people look for. Use it to plan Shopify collections and product titles, not as meta data.

What should you fix on Magento before migrating?

Fix broken links, redirect chains and thin pages before you migrate, so you don't carry Magento's problems into Shopify. But avoid large content rewrites or URL changes right before launch. Changing too much at once makes it impossible to tell what caused any drop in rankings.

• Collapse redirect chains so each old URL redirects once.
• Fix or redirect 404s that still receive traffic or links.
• Decide on layered navigation pages. Only keep filter pages that genuinely rank and convert.
• Note canonical choices for products in several categories.
• Leave top-ranking content alone until the new store is stable.

What's on a website migration SEO checklist for launch day?

Use this website migration SEO checklist on launch day: import all redirects, check a sample works, submit the new sitemap and confirm the store is open to search engines. Then compare traffic and rankings against your baseline every week for eight weeks, fixing 404s and redirect gaps as Search Console reports them.

Before launch

• Redirect file imported and tested on a sample of each URL pattern
• Titles, descriptions and alt text imported
• Structured data checked on each page type
• Analytics, Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools verified on the new store

Launch day

• Store password removed and robots.txt allowing crawling
• New sitemap submitted to Google and Bing
• Top 50 pages checked by hand

First eight weeks

• Weekly comparison with the baseline
• Search Console 404s fixed as they appear
• Backlinked pages confirmed to redirect correctly

This SEO site migration checklist works as an ecommerce replatforming checklist for any platform. For the full Shopify picture, see our Shopify SEO checklist.

How does Shopify vs Magento total cost of ownership compare?

Magento Open Source has no license fee, but stores pay for hosting, security patching, version upgrades, extensions and developer time. Adobe Commerce adds a license. Shopify bundles hosting, security and platform updates into a monthly plan. Plans run from $29 a month on yearly billing to Shopify Plus from $2,300 a month, so more of the budget goes to the store itself.

See Shopify pricing in 2026 and our Shopify migration cost guide for project costs.

When do you need a Magento SEO expert?

Bring in a Magento SEO expert, or a migration agency with Magento experience, as soon as you decide to replatform. The person mapping URLs needs to understand how Magento generates them, including category paths, store codes and filter parameters. That knowledge prevents the redirect gaps that cause most migration traffic losses.

Whether you hire a Magento SEO service or a migration agency, ask any Magento SEO experts or ecommerce platform migration services you consider:

• "How will you find every URL, not just the ones in a crawl?"
• "How do you handle products with several category-path URLs?"
• "What happens to layered navigation and filter pages?"
• "How do you migrate multiple store views and languages?"
• "What do you monitor after launch, and for how long?"

How we handle Magento to Shopify migrations

Our Magento to Shopify migration service starts with the URL inventory and benchmark, before any design. Two examples of SEO-preserving migrations:

• Time4Learning moved from a legacy platform to Shopify Plus with SEO preserved on its high-traffic blog content. Time4Learning case study
• Lifelines merged two websites into one Shopify store without disrupting live traffic, then grew sales 78%. Lifelines case study

See our Shopify Plus migration services.

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