What is a site migration, build, or post-build recovery?
These are three related moments in a website's life, each with different risks.
- Site migration is when a website moves - a new domain, a switch from HTTP to HTTPS, restructured URLs, or a move between platforms. Search engines need to be carefully guided from the old version to the new one.
- Site build is a full redesign or rebuild, often on new technology entirely. Even without changing domains, a rebuild can strip out the technical SEO groundwork the old site quietly relied on.
- Post-site-build recovery is what happens afterwards, if either of the above wasn't handled with SEO in mind - diagnosing why traffic or rankings dropped, and rebuilding them back up.
We work across all three, whether you're planning ahead or already dealing with the aftermath.
Who is this for?
This tends to matter at one of two moments - before a migration or rebuild happens, or right after one's gone wrong. Here's how to tell which applies to you.
This tends to be the right service if:
- You're planning to redesign, rebuild, or re-platform your website
- You're moving to a new domain, or merging multiple sites into one
- You've recently launched a new site and traffic/enquiries have dropped
- You have a beautiful new site, but SEO is an after thought
- You're unsure if your current site's rankings would survive a rebuild
If your site is stable and simply needs ongoing improvement rather than a migration or rebuild, our technical SEO service covers that instead.
What we offer
Migrations, builds, and recovery each carry their own specific risks. Here's where we focus, whether you're planning ahead or already dealing with the aftermath.
The moment your SEO is most at risk
Every year, a huge number of otherwise well-run websites lose significant traffic overnight - not because of a Google penalty, but because a migration, rebuild, or new launch wasn't planned with SEO in mind.
Redirects get missed, URLs change, content disappears, and search engines quietly start treating your "new and improved" site as an entirely unfamiliar one.
This matters just as much for AI visibility as traditional search. If your site's structure changes without a plan, tools like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews lose the signals they'd built up about your business too - meaning a launch can quietly cost you both rankings and generative engine optimisation (GEO) ground at the same time.
Whether you're about to go through this, or you've already been through it and traffic has dropped, this is where we come in.
Planning ahead
If you're planning a migration, rebuild, or new site, this is where we start - protecting what you've already built before anything changes. Here is what we do for this type of project.
We map your current site's full SEO footprint - pages, rankings, backlinks, structure - before anything changes.
A clear redirect map and technical checklist, agreed before development starts.
We're there at go-live to catch and fix issues immediately, not weeks later.
Close tracking in the days and weeks after launch, when problems are easiest to catch and correct.
Website recovery
If a migration or rebuild has already happened and something's gone wrong, this is where we start - finding out what broke, and getting it fixed. Here are some of things we work on as part of this project.
We identify exactly what changed and what broke - redirects, content, structure, technical errors.
Not everything needs fixing at once; we focus on what will recover traffic fastest.
We make the fixes directly, or work with your existing developer to get them made.
Ongoing monitoring to confirm rankings and traffic are genuinely coming back, not just temporarily bouncing.
Doing it all together
If you're planning a new site anyway, there's a strong case for having the same team handle the design, the development, and the SEO from day one - rather than building the site first and calling us in afterwards to fix what the process missed.
This is exactly the situation that causes most of the post-launch SEO problems we get called in to fix: a design and development team focused on how the site looks and functions, with SEO treated as an afterthought (or nobody's responsibility at all).
By the time it's live, the redirects are missing, the URL structure has changed without a plan, and the technical foundations that search engines rely on simply haven't been considered.
When we handle web design, web development, and SEO as one project, that risk mostly disappears. SEO isn't bolted on at the end - it's part of the plan from the first conversation, built into the site's structure, technical setup, and content as it's being built rather than retrofitted once it's already live.
This tends to make sense if:
- You're planning a new site and don't yet have a developer or designer lined up
- You've got a designer or developer already, but no one's responsible for the SEO
- You want one team accountable for the whole outcome
If you already have a development team you're happy with, we're also glad to work alongside them - just make sure SEO has a seat at the table from the start, whoever that's with.
FAQs
A few things clients often ask, whether they're about to go start this type of project or already have.
As early as possible, ideally before development starts. The earlier SEO is part of the plan, the less there is to fix afterwards.
In most cases, yes. Most post-launch drops come from identifiable, fixable issues - missing redirects, lost content, technical errors - rather than anything more serious. A recovery audit will tell you exactly what's happened.
It depends on what's wrong, but many issues (like missing redirects) can be fixed quickly, with recovery becoming visible within a few weeks as search engines re-crawl the site. More complex recovery can take longer.
Both. We can manage the whole process if you're using us for the rebuild too, or work alongside an existing developer or agency to make sure SEO is handled properly during their process.
Yes - a poorly handled migration or rebuild can disrupt the same signals AI tools rely on, alongside traditional search rankings. We account for both.
Planning a migration, rebuild, or new site?
Get us involved before development starts, and we'll make sure your SEO groundwork moves with you & doesn't get left behind.
Already launched & traffic has dropped?
We'll diagnose exactly what went wrong and put together a clear plan to help get your rankings back.