Migrating to Shopify: how to keep your products and Google rankings

2 Nov 2026 /3 min read /Blog /Dimitar Dimitrov

Short answer: when you migrate to Shopify, products, customers, content and SEO data move across, and every old URL is redirected to its new one with a 301 redirect. Without the redirects, a store loses its Google rankings within weeks.

Migration is not copying the old site. Shopify has its own structure, and old code cannot simply be carried over. The right approach is to keep what works and leave behind what weighs the store down.

Before you start: an inventory of the old store

Before the first import, list:

every URL for products, categories, pages and articles;
the pages with the most visits and sales;
the titles and meta descriptions that already rank in Google;
the shipping and payment methods your customers use.

That list is the basis for the redirects and for the checks after launch.

What moves across

Products: names, descriptions, variants, SKUs, stock and photos. Large catalogues are imported by CSV, then checked for the fields that often go missing, such as variants, weights and tags.
Customers and orders: moved with a migration app. Customer passwords do not transfer, so customers have to set a new one.
Pages and articles: moved as text, without the old code and styling.
SEO data: titles, meta descriptions and image alt texts.

URLs and 301 redirects

Shopify uses a fixed URL structure: products live under /products/, categories under /collections/, pages under /pages/ and articles under /blogs/. Almost every old URL will change.

Each old URL has to point to its closest new equivalent. Shopify has a built-in redirect tool where redirects are added one by one or imported from a file. Sending everything to the home page instead of the matching product does not keep the ranking.

Shipping and payments after the migration

Test every shipping and payment method separately. Local couriers such as Econt and Speedy in Bulgaria, and cash on delivery, run through third-party apps on Shopify, so place a test order with each method before launch.

Checks after launch

Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
Check the report for 404 pages and add any missing redirects.
Compare rankings for your main pages week by week during the first month.
Check mobile speed, especially after installing apps.

What if Shopify is not the right choice?

With a large catalogue or specific shipping needs, WooCommerce is often the better fit. The principles of migration are the same. That is how I moved 1,300 products from OpenCart to WooCommerce for Kosev Service, with automated shipping labels and new menus. The two platforms are compared in Shopify or WooCommerce.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my Google rankings after migrating?

A short dip is normal while Google crawls the new URLs. If every old URL is redirected correctly and the content is kept, rankings recover.

How long does a migration take?

It depends on the number of products and how clean the data in the old store is. A store with a few hundred products and tidy data moves faster than a catalogue of thousands with inconsistent variants.

Can I change the design during the migration?

Yes, and it often makes sense. What matters is keeping the URLs, content and SEO data that already bring in traffic.

If you are planning a migration, see how I work on Shopify stores and WooCommerce stores, or write to me with the platform you are moving from and how many products you have.