SEO Considerations in Platform Migrations

Introduction

Migrating an online store from Shopify to Shopware is a major undertaking that requires careful planning and technical precision. Beyond just moving products and content, one of the most critical aspects is preserving your hard-earned search engine optimization (SEO) equity. SEO integration must be at the forefront of any platform migration strategy, as a poorly managed migration can lead to broken links, loss of rankings, and drops in organic traffic.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk through a professional, step-by-step approach to ensure a smooth migration from Shopify to Shopware without compromising SEO value. We’ll cover everything from pre-migration audits and technical prerequisites to URL redirects, meta data transfer, structured data, canonical tags, content and image migration, internal linking, sitemap updates, and Google Search Console configuration. The guide is structured as a practical implementation plan targeted at store owners, developers, and agencies – complete with technical details, best practices, troubleshooting tips, and FAQs. By following these steps, you can successfully transition platforms while maintaining or even improving your search visibility.

SEO Risks in Platform Migrations

Migrating an e-commerce platform is not just a simple “flip the switch” change – it fundamentally alters the backend of your site, and if not executed carefully, it can pose significant SEO risks. Understanding these risks ahead of time will help you mitigate them:

• Loss of URL Equity: One of the biggest risks is changing URL structures. Shopify and Shopware have different URL formats, and if URLs change without proper redirection, all the backlinks and search equity pointing to the old Shopify URLs could be lost. Search engines treat different URLs as different pages; if a page moves, you must permanently redirect the old URL to the new one to carry over its ranking signals. A 301 redirect indicates a permanent move and passes link equity (ranking power) to the new page. Without 301 redirects, users and crawlers hitting old addresses will get 404 errors, hurting both user experience and SEO.
• Traffic and Ranking Drops: Even with redirects, site migrations often see temporary fluctuations in search rankings. A poorly managed migration (e.g., missing redirects, missing content, or significant site structure changes) can cause a substantial drop in organic traffic. This typically happens when search engines can’t find the content that was ranking before, or if the new site is not properly crawlable. Common pitfalls include forgetting to migrate critical content or metadata, which can make new pages less relevant to the keywords they used to rank for, or introducing errors that prevent search engines from indexing the new site effectively.
• Duplicate Content and Canonical Issues: Platform migrations can inadvertently create duplicate content issues. For example, if both the old Shopify site and the new Shopware site are accessible at the same time (even on different URLs or subdomains), search engines might see two versions of your site. It’s crucial to avoid parallel indexing of both sites. Also, differences in how Shopify and Shopware handle trailing slashes, cases, or URL parameters might lead to duplicate content if not managed (e.g., a page accessible at both /product-name and /product-name/ could be seen as duplicates if canonical tags or redirects aren’t set properly). Ensuring correct rel=canonical tags on Shopware and consistent URL formatting (with or without trailing slashes) will help prevent such issues.
• Meta Data and Structured Data Loss: During migration, it’s easy to overlook SEO metadata. Page titles, meta descriptions, alt attributes for images, and structured data (like JSON-LD for products and reviews) all contribute to SEO and click-through rates. If these elements aren’t carried over to the new platform, you risk losing rich snippets in search results and decreasing relevance. For instance, if your Shopify product pages had structured data for prices and ratings, you’ll want to implement similar markup in Shopware to maintain those rich results. The canonical link elements also need to be properly configured on the new site to indicate the preferred version of each page (to avoid any confusion from things like session IDs or parameterized URLs).
• Internal Linking and Navigation Changes: A new platform often means a new navigation structure or site architecture. If category groupings or menu structures change, internal links throughout the site might change as well. Broken internal links or significantly altered site hierarchy can impede crawlability and dilute the internal PageRank flow. Maintaining a logical structure and updating all internal links (e.g., links in menus, footers, or within page content) to point to the new URLs is essential so that users and crawlers can navigate the new site easily. A well-structured internal linking strategy ensures important pages still receive link equity from other pages, which is vital for SEO.
• Technical Issues and Downtime: The migration process can introduce technical issues that affect SEO, such as server downtime, slow load times on the new site, misconfigured robots.txt or meta robots tags, and improper SSL/HTTPS setup. Any significant downtime during the migration (or immediately after launch) can result in search engines finding the site unavailable, which can negatively impact indexing and rankings. Similarly, if the new Shopware site loads slower than the Shopify site (due to unoptimized server settings or heavier theme code), it could affect your Core Web Vitals and search performance. Ensuring the new environment is optimized for speed and stability is part of SEO consideration.

Understanding these risks upfront allows you to create a mitigation plan. Next, we’ll delve into the technical prerequisites to have in place before migrating, and then step-by-step instructions to preserve SEO value at every stage of the Shopify to Shopware migration.

Technical Prerequisites

Before diving into the migration process, it’s important to prepare your technical environment and ensure you have everything you need for a smooth transition. Here are the key prerequisites and setup tasks:

1. Shopware Environment & Version: Make sure you have a Shopware installation ready (preferably Shopware 6, as it’s the latest major version with robust SEO features and support). Check the Shopware version compatibility with any plugins you plan to use – for example, if you intend to use an SEO plugin or a blog plugin on Shopware, ensure they support your Shopware version. Using the latest stable Shopware release is recommended for security and performance (at the time of writing, Shopware’s stable release is 6.x). Install Shopware on a development or staging server first, not directly on your live domain, so you can configure and test everything without impacting your current Shopify site.
2. Server and Hosting Configuration: Unlike Shopify (a hosted SaaS platform), Shopware is typically self-hosted (unless you use Shopware’s cloud edition). Ensure your server meets Shopware’s system requirements: for example, PHP (the required version, e.g., PHP 8.x), a supported database (MySQL/MariaDB), Apache or Nginx with the necessary extensions (like mod_rewrite for Apache), and adequate memory and CPU resources. Configure the server for SEO-friendly URLs – this usually means enabling URL rewriting. For Apache, ensure that the .htaccess file (provided by Shopware) is present and AllowOverride is enabled so that SEO-friendly URL rules work. For Nginx, use the recommended configuration from Shopware docs for URL rewrites. Confirm that HTTPS (SSL) is set up on the new server for your domain, as running the site securely (with valid certificates) is important for SEO and user trust. You can set up the SSL certificate on the staging domain or plan to quickly apply it when switching over the live domain. Also, double-check file permissions and hosting settings so that Shopware can generate files like the cache and sitemap.
3. Domain and DNS Planning: Plan how you will point your domain to the new Shopware site at launch. If your Shopify store is currently on a custom domain (e.g., www.yourstore.com ), you likely had DNS records pointing to Shopify. At launch time, you’ll need to update the DNS A record to point to your new Shopware server’s IP address (or CNAME if using a cloud service). Reducing the DNS TTL (time-to-live) a couple of days before launch can make the switch propagate faster, minimizing downtime. Also, decide if you will use a temporary subdomain for testing (like staging.yourstore.com ) – if so, ensure that the staging site is either password-protected or has robots.txt rules or meta robots tags to disallow indexing, so you don’t accidentally have the staging site indexed by Google (which could cause duplicate content issues).
4. Access to Shopify Data: Gather all the access and tools you’ll need to extract data from Shopify. This includes:
   • Shopify Admin Access: Ensure you have Administrator access to your Shopify store’s admin panel. This will allow you to export data such as products, collections, and maybe customer data if needed (customer data is not directly SEO-related but part of migration).
   • Shopify APIs or Apps (if required): For content that Shopify doesn’t export easily (like blog posts or pages), you might need to use Shopify’s API or an app from the Shopify App Store to export that data. Identify these tools early if needed.
   • Crawling Tools: It’s very useful to have a crawling tool like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or a similar site auditor. This will help in your pre-migration SEO audit by extracting URLs, metadata, and identifying any existing SEO issues on the Shopify site that you should be aware of (e.g., broken links or duplicate titles). Ensure you have one of these tools installed on your computer, or use an online crawler.
5. Redirection Strategy and Tools: Decide how you will implement redirects on the new site. Since Shopify handled URLs and didn’t give server access, you likely didn’t manage redirects via .htaccess there (Shopify has its own URL redirect manager in the admin for any custom redirects). In Shopware, you have control over the server configuration. You can implement redirects at the web server level (Apache/Nginx) or possibly via Shopware’s routing if it offers such a feature (Shopware may allow some redirect management through its admin or via a plugin). If you plan to use an .htaccess file or server config for redirects, make sure you have access to those files on the Shopware server. For a large number of redirects, preparing a CSV or script might be helpful – some administrators use tools to generate redirect rules in bulk. Being comfortable with editing a text file of redirect rules or having a developer ready to assist is recommended.
6. Content Freeze Timing: Plan a “content freeze” on your Shopify store when you get close to the migration date. This means avoiding adding new products, blog posts, or making major content changes right before the migration. This is to ensure your exported data stays current. If you must continue processing orders or such on Shopify until the switch, that’s fine (orders aren’t directly related to SEO), but content that affects SEO (like new pages or changes to titles) should ideally pause until after migration or be manually applied to the new site as well.

Having these prerequisites sorted out provides a solid foundation. With the environment prepared and tools on hand, you can proceed to auditing your current site and gathering all the SEO data that needs to be migrated.

Pre-Migration SEO Audit

Before making any changes, perform a thorough SEO audit of your existing Shopify store. The goal of this audit is to document the current state of SEO on your site – essentially, to create a benchmark and a checklist of everything that needs to be transitioned. Here’s how to conduct the audit step by step:

1. Crawl the Shopify Site for URLs and Content: Use a crawling tool (or even a manual process with sitemap files) to get a list of all indexable pages on your Shopify site. This includes:
   • Product pages ( /products/ URLs on Shopify),
   • Collection (category) pages ( /collections/ URLs),
   • Static content pages (like About, Contact, FAQ, typically under /pages/ ),
   • Blog posts (often under /blogs/ or /blog/ depending on your setup),
   • Homepage (obviously),
   • Any other special landing pages or important URLs.

   Many Shopify stores have a sitemap index at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml which links to sub-sitemaps for products, collections, blogs, etc. You can fetch those sitemaps to easily get a comprehensive URL list. Alternatively, a crawler will find URLs by following links. Save this list of URLs as it will be the basis for mapping to new URLs on Shopware. Ensure that the list includes not just the page URL, but also some identifier of what it is (for example, you might note “/products/blue-widget – Blue Widget Product Page”). This helps when matching it to the corresponding page on Shopware later. By doing this, you guarantee no page is left behind during migration.

2. Record SEO Metadata: For each key page (especially products, categories, and high-traffic content pages), note the current SEO metadata:
   • Page Title (Meta Title): The title tag as seen in the HTML <title> or as shown in search results.
   • Meta Description: The meta description content.
   • Headings: Particularly H1s on pages. It’s good to ensure your product names (often the H1) are carried over, and category page headings are similar.
   • Image Alt Attributes: Check that your product images have descriptive alt text in Shopify. You’ll want to bring those over to Shopware to maintain image SEO. The alt attribute in HTML provides alternative text for images and is important for accessibility and image search rankings (e.g., an image of a product should have alt text like “Blue Widget gadget front view” rather than a blank or generic text).
   • Structured Data: Examine if your Shopify theme or apps were adding structured data (JSON-LD or microdata). You can use Google’s Rich Results Test on a product URL to see if it detects schema markup (like Product, Review, Organization schema, etc.). Make a note of what types of structured data are present so you can implement similar markup on Shopware. Common ones for e-commerce include Product (with price, availability, SKU, etc.), BreadcrumbList (breadcrumbs navigation), Website (for searchbox), and Article/BlogPosting for blog content.

   Documenting these elements is crucial so that when you recreate the page on Shopware, you can replicate or improve them. For example, if a product had a crafted meta description that was performing well (high click-through rate), you’d want to reuse it. If some pages lack meta descriptions or have duplicate titles, note that too – the migration could be a chance to fix those issues (but be cautious about changing too much at once; keeping things consistent initially is often safer for SEO stability).

3. Check Current Performance Metrics: Use Google Analytics (if installed) and Google Search Console for your Shopify site to identify which pages are most critical:
   • In Analytics, see which landing pages get the most organic traffic. These are the pages you must handle carefully (i.e., ensure they’re migrated and redirected perfectly, and content is preserved).
   • In Search Console, check the Performance report for top queries and pages, and the Coverage report for any existing errors or warnings. If, for instance, Search Console shows some 404 errors or duplicate content issues on the Shopify site now, address those pre-migration if possible or ensure they don’t carry over. Also, note if there are any URL removals or other special settings – you might need to replicate or adjust those after migration.
4. Identify Link Structure and Navigation: Map out the navigation menu structure and how products are linked to collections, etc., on Shopify. Shopify’s URL structure is fairly standardized (e.g., product URLs might all be under /products/ , but often the actual visible URL might include the product name, since Shopify can drop the /products/ for the default domain – depending on how the domain is set up). Meanwhile, Shopware will generate its own URLs for products and categories. You want to see if you can maintain a similar hierarchy. For example, if your Shopify had categories and then products (Shopify might not show category in the URL by default, whereas Shopware might include category if configured so). Decide if the new site will incorporate category in the URL or keep a flat structure. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but keeping URL structure as consistent as possible with the old one (without creating overly complex solutions) will ease the transition. If changes are needed, that’s okay, but it just means a redirect for every changed URL. During the audit, list out patterns like:
   • “All products are currently directly under /products/ . In Shopware, will we have them under root or /products/ ? Or maybe /Category/Product ? Let’s plan that.”
   • “Blog posts are under /blog/news/ in Shopify. In Shopware, we might not have a blog module out-of-the-box – how will we handle blog content? Possibly via a plugin or separate CMS – to be addressed later.”
5. Evaluate Content Quality and Duplication: Review the content on key pages. A migration is often a good time to prune or improve content, but be careful: making drastic content changes concurrent with a platform migration can complicate SEO results. If rankings drop, you won’t know if it was the platform change or the content change. Ideally, keep content very similar during the move. But do note any thin or duplicate content issues the site already has. For instance, Shopify might have created tag pages or duplicate category filtering pages (depending on usage of tags/collections). Mark any pages you don’t plan to migrate and decide what to do with them (e.g., some might be noindexed pages on Shopify – if they were noindexed and not needed, maybe you won’t recreate them in Shopware at all, but ensure the old URL at least redirects somewhere sensible).
6. Backlink Profile and External Links: It might be outside the site itself, but it’s useful to know if some external sites heavily link to certain pages (you can find this via Search Console’s “Links” report or tools like Ahrefs/Majestic if available). If you find, for example, that an old blog post or a particular collection has many backlinks, that page is high priority to preserve and redirect. You could also discover if any external sites link to odd URLs (like maybe an old URL that no longer exists in Shopify – if so, you might incorporate that into your redirect mapping to catch any stragglers).

By the end of the SEO audit, you should have a spreadsheet or document containing: all current URLs, their key SEO elements, their performance metrics (if critical), and notes on what their counterpart will be in Shopware (if decided). This audit serves as the blueprint for the migration, ensuring you don’t miss anything essential. It’s much easier to handle SEO proactively than to fix issues after the new site is live.

Preparing Shopify Data

With the audit in hand, the next step is to extract and prepare all the necessary data from Shopify for importing into Shopware. This goes beyond SEO, but it directly impacts SEO because missing or mis-imported data can result in missing pages or content on the new site. Here’s how to gather and organize your Shopify data for the move:

• Export Product Data: In your Shopify admin, use the Products > Export feature to get a CSV of all products. Shopify’s product export will include details like product titles, descriptions, variant info, prices, SKU, etc. Critically for SEO, it often includes the SEO title and meta description fields for each product (if you have filled those in Shopify’s SEO section for the product). It might also include the image URLs (on Shopify’s CDN) and alt text for images. Verify the CSV columns to see if SEO metadata is included; Shopify’s standard export does include a column for “SEO Title” and “SEO Description” if I recall correctly. Save this CSV file. You’ll likely need to transform or import this into Shopware’s format. If Shopware has an import tool, you might map fields from this CSV to Shopware’s product fields. Ensure that product handles or identifiers in Shopify (like the product’s slug or handle) are noted because those might correspond to how we map old URLs to new (the Shopify handle is often the URL slug).
• Export Collections (Categories): Shopify’s concept of collections (both manual and automated collections) would translate to categories in Shopware. If you have many collections, export them as well. There might not be a direct CSV export for collections in the Shopify admin UI, but you could use the API or simply document them manually (since the number might be manageable). Key things: collection names, their descriptions (collection pages can have description text which is important for SEO content on category pages), and their SEO metadata (title/description). If the collection pages had any unique content or banners, note that so you can recreate that in Shopware category pages or Shopping Experiences.
• Export Pages (CMS content pages): Shopify “Pages” (found under Online Store > Pages) like About Us, Contact, etc., don’t have a built-in bulk export in the UI. For a handful of pages, you can manually copy the content or use an app or the API to export them. The content (HTML/text) of those pages needs to be moved to Shopware. Also note their URLs and SEO titles/descriptions. For example, if you have a page at /pages/about-us with title “About Our Company”, you will create a similar page in Shopware (perhaps Shopware has a CMS module or you might create an “Experience” page) and ensure it is accessible at an appropriate URL (maybe /about-us on the new site). Because these pages often have backlinks (like your About page might not, but a Guides page or FAQ might), preserve the URL path if possible or set a redirect.
• Export Blog Posts: If you maintained a blog on Shopify (Shopify allows a blog section, commonly the default one is “News” or “Blog”). Exporting blog posts might require an app or using the Shopify API, as the admin UI doesn’t provide a direct export for blog articles. However, check if any third-party apps can export blog posts to a CSV or Markdown. If not, you might have to manually copy them or recreate them. Take note of each blog post’s URL, title, content, publish date, and any metadata like meta description. Moving a blog is sometimes tricky with Shopware because out-of-the-box Shopware (as of version 6) is primarily an e-commerce platform without a native blog module. You might need a Shopware Blog plugin or consider moving your blog to a different system (e.g., WordPress) and linking it. But if you want it within Shopware, plan to install a plugin that provides blog functionality. Ensure that blog URLs on the new site will be logically similar (even if not identical). For instance, if your blog posts were at /blogs/news/title-of-post , maybe on the new site they’ll be at /blog/title-of-post – then you’d redirect accordingly. If moving to a completely separate blog domain or subdomain, that’s a slightly different scenario (and you’d need cross-domain redirects or simply have the old blog URLs redirect to the new blog location).
• Download or Catalog Images: When transferring platforms, product images and other media need to be moved as well. In your product CSV from Shopify, you likely have URLs for each image (pointing to Shopify’s CDN). Those images will remain on Shopify’s CDN only while your Shopify store is active. It’s best to download all product images (there are apps and tools that can bulk download all your Shopify store images). Alternatively, during the import into Shopware, if you provide those image URLs, Shopware might fetch them and store locally (some import tools do this). Just ensure no image is left behind. Also, keep the filenames or alt text in mind – Shopware might rename images on import, but it’s SEO-friendly to have descriptive filenames if possible (though it’s a minor factor). Maintain the alt text association with each image so you can reassign it in Shopware for accessibility and SEO.
• Gather Shopify Redirects: If your Shopify store had any existing redirects set up (Shopify lets you create URL redirects, often used when you reorganized content or changed handles), export or list them. In Shopify admin under Online Store → Navigation → URL Redirects (this path might have changed, but there is a section for URL Redirects), you can view all the redirects you had. These will not automatically port over, so you must implement them in Shopware as well. Often, these might be legacy from an older site or changes you made over time. While migrating, you can sometimes simplify if some of those are no longer needed (for example, if a product was renamed and you had a redirect from old handle to new handle, and now in Shopware you give it the final handle, you just need one redirect from the very old to the current). But as a rule, preserve all important legacy redirects to ensure no traffic is lost. Document each: “Old URL → New URL” as part of your mapping.
• Shopify Theme for Reference: It might not be obvious, but keep a copy of your Shopify theme (or at least access to its code) for reference, specifically if any SEO-relevant customizations were done. For instance, some Shopify themes have additional meta tags or structured data. Having that reference can help you implement similar features on Shopware. You don’t need to literally copy the theme, but knowing how your Shopify site was structured (liquid templates, etc.) can guide your Shopware theme configuration.
• Data Cleanup and Formatting: Once you have all this data, you might need to transform it for Shopware. Shopware likely has its own import format for products and categories. Clean the data: for example, ensure there are no newline issues, escaped characters, etc., in the CSV that might throw off an import. Also, decide on things like SKU or identifiers if they change. If you maintain the same SKUs, you could use them to match products between old and new if needed (though URL is the main thing for SEO, SKUs are more internal). For variants, ensure you properly map options (Shopify options vs Shopware variants – you might need to do some mapping to maintain variant relationships).

By the end of this stage, you should have all Shopify content in hand, nicely organized: product CSVs, images, pages content, blog content, and lists of URLs/redirects. This forms the raw material with which you will build the new Shopware site. Taking the time to gather everything means you won’t be scrambling later to find a missing product description or meta tag. Now it’s time to set up the new Shopware site and integrate all this data, paying special attention to SEO settings.

Setting Up SEO in Shopware

With your new Shopware installation ready and your Shopify data prepared, you can begin configuring Shopware to not only import that data but to ensure the site is optimized for SEO from the get-go. Shopware offers a range of SEO settings and capabilities – leveraging them properly is key to preserving (and possibly enhancing) your SEO performance. Let’s go through the main areas of focus:

1. Configure Global SEO Settings in Shopware

In Shopware 6, there is an SEO settings section typically found in the administration panel (often under Settings > Shop > SEO or a similar path). Here you can define things like the template for SEO URLs. Shopware allows you to create URL templates using variables – for example, you might set product URLs to something like {{ product.name }} which would generate URLs based on product names. You might also include categories in the URL if desired (e.g., {{ product.categories.first.name }}/{{ product.name }} could yield a URL like /CategoryName/ProductName if you want category in path).

Based on your earlier decision in the audit, configure these templates to either closely mimic Shopify’s structure or to what makes sense for your store. Example: If on Shopify your product URL was https://store.com/products/blue-widget , and you prefer not to have “products” in the URL on Shopware, you can just use the product name as the URL. In that case, you’ll set the template accordingly and note that you will need a redirect from /products/blue-widget to /blue-widget . On the other hand, Shopware by default doesn’t put a hard-coded “products” segment – which is fine. For categories, Shopify had /collections/ prefix for category pages. In Shopware, you might just have /category-name . You can likely configure a custom static prefix if you wanted (but it’s usually not necessary). The goal is to have clean, descriptive URLs that ideally don’t stray too far from what Google has already indexed from your Shopify site. If small differences exist (like dropping a prefix), that’s okay as long as we handle redirects.

2. Import or Create Categories (Collections) in Shopware

Before products, it’s often wise to set up the categories in Shopware, because products will be assigned to categories. Recreate your product category structure (the equivalent of Shopify collections) in Shopware’s catalog. While doing so, fill in the SEO-related fields for each category:

• Category page titles (Shopware might use the category name as the title by default, but you might have a separate meta title field).
• Meta descriptions for categories (use the descriptions from Shopify collections if you have them, or craft new ones).
• Category description content: if your collection pages on Shopify had some introductory text (many stores put some SEO text on category pages), ensure that is placed in the category’s description or in a content section of the Shopware category page. In Shopware 6, you might use the Shopping Experiences (a CMS-like feature) to design category pages with text blocks, etc. Make sure those are populated with relevant content so that your category pages aren’t empty.

Also, consider category SEO settings like listing pagination. Ensure paginated category pages either have proper rel="next/prev" (Shopware might handle this by default) or a strategy to avoid duplicate content (like maybe you want only page 1 indexed, etc. – but that’s advanced SEO strategy you might not need to adjust immediately).

3. Import Products into Shopware

Now, bring in your products. Use Shopware’s import tool or do it manually via the admin for a few products to test. Map the fields from your Shopify product export to the Shopware fields. Key things to get right:

• Product name, description (these form the on-page content).
• Price, stock, etc. (not SEO, but important for site functionality).
• Meta Title and Description: Shopware likely has fields for these in each product’s SEO tab. Make sure the imported data places the Shopify “SEO title” into Shopware’s meta title field for the product, and same for description. If for some reason import can’t do that, you might have to manually copy for critical products – but many imports can.
• URL (SEO URL alias): Depending on how Shopware works, the URL might be autogenerated based on the product name and SEO template configured. Check a couple of products after import: see if the URL looks correct (and not something like a random ID). Shopware usually generates a URL like /blue-widget automatically. If it conflicts (like two products with same name), it might append an ID – handle those cases by maybe adding a unique identifier or adjusting the name slightly.
• Images: Ensure product images are properly imported. After import, each product should show its images in Shopware’s media library and on the product page. Also, reassign the alt text to these images. Shopware might have a field for image alt text per product image. If not, a default approach is that Shopware might use the product name as alt text automatically (some platforms do that if alt is empty, which is better than nothing). However, ideally put something descriptive, especially if it was well-crafted on Shopify.
• Variants: If your products had variants (options like size/color), verify they’re set up correctly in Shopware. Sometimes variant URLs can be an SEO consideration (e.g., do all variants share one product detail page URL, which is common, or do they each have their own URL? Shopware usually keeps one page for all variants of a product). Just ensure the canonical tag on variants (if they can be accessed via different URLs with a query param or something) is handled. Usually, this is fine out of the box.

After importing, browse the Shopware frontend (if available on staging) to ensure product pages display correctly with title tags, descriptions, etc. You might need to tweak the theme to display certain things – for example, ensure that the <title> element in the HTML is pulling the product’s meta title, and not just some default. Same for meta description. If using a standard Shopware theme or popular theme, this should be all set, but it’s worth checking the page source to be sure your SEO metadata appears.

4. Set Up CMS Pages in Shopware

Now recreate those content pages (About, Contact, etc.) in Shopware. Shopware 6 has a Shopping Experiences feature for creating custom pages, or you might simply create new layout pages. Make pages for each and paste in the content from Shopify. Preserve headings and text as they were (unless you are making improvements). Set the page’s meta title and description to what you had (or improve it slightly if needed). If the URL on Shopify was /pages/about-us , on Shopware perhaps you’ll make it /about-us (depending on how Shopware structures CMS pages – maybe it might include the page in the URL or you might have to route it). Ensure these pages are accessible on the new site (add them to the menu if they were in the menu before).

Additionally, check if Shopware has default pages like Privacy Policy, Terms, etc., or if you need to create those. Often those don’t affect SEO much, but still link to them in footer etc., as they provide completeness (and some trust for users).

5. Structured Data & Rich Snippets

Now that content is in place, implement structured data on Shopware to match (or exceed) what you had on Shopify. This often requires editing the theme templates or using a plugin. If you have developer resources, adding JSON-LD scripts to the product detail page template for product schema is a good approach. Include properties such as name, image, description, SKU, brand, price, availability, aggregateRating (if you have reviews), etc. Shopware might not output this by default, so a custom theme tweak or plugin can do it. Make sure the structured data follows Google’s guidelines. This will help search engines understand your content and display rich results (like star ratings or price in search results if applicable). Similarly, if you have breadcrumb navigation on the site (most themes do), ensure it’s marked up with BreadcrumbList schema – often the theme will add the appropriate markup (check the HTML or use Google’s tester). For blog posts or pages, use Article/BlogPosting schema if relevant.

6. Canonical Tags & Noindex

Verify how Shopware handles canonical tags. On product pages, if a product can be accessed via multiple URLs (like through different categories or filters), Shopware should set a canonical to the main product URL. Check a sample product page’s source for a <link rel=”canonical”>. If it’s missing or incorrect, configure it. Shopware likely has canonical logic built-in. For any pages that you don’t want indexed on the new site (for example, maybe some duplicate content pages or certain filtered pages), set them to noindex where possible. Immediately after migration, you might not have many such cases if you kept it simple. But, for instance, if your Shopware generates session IDs in URLs or other param pages, ensure those are handled via canonical or robots rules.

7. Internal Linking Adjustments

As the content is now in Shopware, go through and update internal links within content. For example, if your About Us page text in Shopify had a link to a product like /products/blue-widget , that link is now pointing to the old Shopify structure. You should update it to /blue-widget (or whatever the new URL is). Similarly, blog posts often link to products or category pages – those need to be updated. You can do this manually if there aren’t too many, or use a search-and-replace tool in the database (if you’re comfortable) to replace instances of old URL paths with new ones. This step ensures that once live, users clicking around and search engine crawlers following links within your site won’t constantly hit redirects. Instead, they’ll go straight to the correct URLs, which is better for crawl efficiency. It also prevents potential redirect chains. Tip: make a list of common find/replace pairs (like “/products/” → “/” perhaps, and “/collections/[collection-name]” → new category path).

8. Image SEO and Performance

After images are loaded into Shopware, optimize them:

• Check that image alt texts are set (we touched on this).
• Make sure images are not excessively large (Shopware can generate thumbnails in various sizes for responsive loading; configure that as needed).
• If using a CDN for images (Shopware might not by default, but you can consider it if needed for speed), set that up now. This could be part of performance optimization. While not directly traditional “SEO”, site speed and image optimization do affect SEO via page experience metrics.
• Generate an XML sitemap in Shopware. Shopware likely can produce a sitemap of your store (maybe at /sitemap.xml automatically). Check if it’s enabled and working. The sitemap should include all the new URLs of products, categories, and possibly pages. If Shopware doesn’t include content pages in the sitemap by default, see if you can add them or if you need a plugin for a comprehensive sitemap. A complete sitemap will be handy to submit to Google later and verify that all pages are accounted for.

9. Robots.txt Configuration

Shopware may create a default robots.txt . Open it (usually accessible via yourdomain.com/robots.txt on the staging domain) and see what it contains. Ensure it’s not disallowing any important sections. Sometimes platforms block certain core directories (that’s fine, like /admin etc.), but make sure it’s not blocking something like /search if you have a search page (you might want to block internal query pages though) or not inadvertently disallowing the entire site (some staging setups do Disallow: / for safety). For launch, you’ll want a robots.txt that allows all main sections and perhaps references the sitemap: e.g., a line Sitemap: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml is good to include at the end of robots.txt for convenience.

By the end of this setup, your Shopware site should be populated with your content and properly configured with SEO best practices in mind. It’s now essentially a “new version” of your site ready to go, but using a different platform. The next critical piece is connecting the dots between the old URLs and new URLs – that is, setting up the redirects.

Redirect Mapping

One of the most important tasks in any site migration is implementing URL redirects. This ensures that anyone (or any search engine bot) trying to access an old Shopify URL will be automatically sent to the appropriate new Shopware URL. Done correctly, redirects preserve your SEO “juice” by telling search engines that the content has moved permanently (using HTTP 301 status). Here’s how to tackle redirect mapping systematically:

1. Create a URL Mapping Spreadsheet

Using the list of all Shopify URLs you gathered in the audit, start mapping each to its new Shopware URL. The spreadsheet should have at least two columns: “Old Shopify URL” and “New Shopware URL”. For example:

Old Shopify URL	New Shopware URL
https://www.yourstore.com/products/blue-widget	https://www.yourstore.com/blue-widget (assuming no /products/ prefix now)
https://www.yourstore.com/collections/widgets	https://www.yourstore.com/widgets (category page)
https://www.yourstore.com/pages/about-us	https://www.yourstore.com/about-us
https://www.yourstore.com/blogs/news/article-title	https://www.yourstore.com/blog/article-title

Do this for every single page that was indexed or that users might have bookmarked. This includes product pages, collection pages, blog posts, main pages, and any significant tag or filter pages that you know have traffic. Also include the homepage if the domain is the same (though that stays the same URL, so no redirect needed, but if you had something like your store at a Shopify subdomain and now moving to root domain or vice versa, that would matter). Don’t forget image URLs if they were indexed (though typically you don’t redirect images, but if you want, you could for user experience if someone had an image URL linked – not critical for SEO). A thorough mapping ensures no surprises later.

2. Determine Redirect Patterns

While mapping, you’ll notice patterns that can simplify your redirect implementation:

• All products follow the pattern /products/[handle] on Shopify and maybe just /[handle] on Shopware. You could potentially set one rule to handle all if you can use regex (e.g., redirect ^/products/(.*) to /$1 ). But be careful: ensure that doesn’t overlap with something else like /products as a standalone page (Shopify had /products as a listing of all products maybe? Actually Shopify doesn’t have a master “all products” page by default visible to public).
• Collections go from /collections/[name] to /[name] or maybe /category/[name] depending on what you chose. Plan a pattern for that too.
• Blog posts: /blogs/news/[article] to maybe /blog/[article] . If you have multiple blogs in Shopify (Shopify allows multiple “blogs”), you might have to account for each (e.g., /blogs/press/[post] etc.).
• Shopify often has some odd URLs like /collections/all which lists all products. If you never used that, fine, but if it exists and is indexed, decide if you’ll redirect /collections/all to maybe your Shopware homepage or a primary category.
• Customer account pages, cart, etc., don’t worry too much for SEO (they might have different URLs but those aren’t indexed pages).
• If you changed your domain (for example, moving from a Shopify-provided subdomain to your own domain or vice versa), that’s a whole different case of domain redirect, but presumably you are keeping the same primary domain here.

3. Implement Redirects on the Server or Shopware

Now, you need to actually create these redirects. You have a few options:

• Web Server (Apache) .htaccess: If you’re using Apache, you can list redirect rules in the .htaccess file or the site’s config. This is a straightforward approach. Each redirect rule can follow the format:
  
  Redirect 301 /old-path /new-path
  
  For example, a rule might be:
  Redirect 301 /products/blue-widget /blue-widget
  This covers a specific product. You could also use mod_rewrite for more complex patterns if needed. For instance, a catch-all:
  
  RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^products/(.*)$ /$1 [R=301,L]
  
  would take anything under products/ and redirect to root/slug . But be cautious with catch-alls; only use them if sure.
  
  As another example, to redirect all Shopify collection URLs, you might do:
  Redirect 301 /collections/widgets /widgets
Redirect 301 /collections/gadgets /gadgets
  Or use a pattern similarly. It’s sometimes safer to list them individually if the number is not huge, because you can control each one (especially if some collection names changed).
  
  You could place these in .htaccess above the Shopware rewrite section (so they execute first). Apache’s Redirect directive is simple and doesn’t require regex (except patterns, but that uses mod_alias ’s pattern style which is less flexible than mod_rewrite ). For flexibility, mod_rewrite can be used:
  
  RewriteRule ^blogs/news/(.*)$ /blog/$1 [R=301,L]
  to handle all blog posts if that pattern holds.
  
  Example from documentation: A typical Apache redirect syntax looks like:
  Redirect 301 /oldpage.html https://www.example.com/newpage.html , which permanently redirects an old URL to a new URL.
• Web Server (Nginx): If using Nginx, the concept is similar but the configuration syntax is different (in the Nginx config file, using rewrite directives or return 301 directives).
• Shopware or Plugin: Check if Shopware has a built-in URL forwarding feature. Some CMS have an extension where you can input old URL and new URL into a table via the admin. If available, that can be user-friendly. There are also plugins in the Shopware marketplace specifically for managing redirects (which might allow bulk import of a CSV of redirects). If you prefer not to manually handle server configs, this could be an approach. Just verify that it issues a proper 301 status and doesn’t heavily impact performance (some systems process thousands of redirects efficiently, others less so).

Regardless of method, after adding these rules, test a few on your staging environment (you might simulate the domain via hosts file to test). For instance, type an old Shopify URL in the browser and see if it lands on the new page. Check the HTTP status code using your browser’s dev tools (Network tab) or an HTTP status checker – it should be “301 Moved Permanently” followed by the new location.

4. Handle Special Cases and Non-1:1 Redirects

In some situations, you might not have a one-to-one page replacement:

• A product that existed on Shopify is no longer going to exist on Shopware (maybe you decided to drop that product). You should still redirect its URL, ideally to a close substitute. If there’s a newer model, redirect to that product; if not, maybe redirect to the category page it belonged to, or as a last resort, to the homepage. Avoid leaving it as 404 because you may have backlinks or customers who saved it. A relevant redirect is better than a generic one, for user experience.
• A collection that was on Shopify might be reorganized into multiple categories on Shopware. You could decide one primary category to redirect to, or create a landing page listing the subcategories. For example, if Shopify had a collection “Sale Items” and in Shopware you handle sale differently (like a dynamic product group or a flag), you might redirect /collections/sale to just the homepage or a new sale page if you create one.
• Blog migration: If you are not continuing the blog on Shopware (say you move to WordPress blog), then each old blog URL should redirect to the new blog URL on WordPress. That may mean cross-domain redirects if the blog domain changed (which is fine). Ensure the pattern covers those, or list them individually if needed.
• Case sensitivity and trailing slashes: Shopify URLs typically did not require a trailing slash (though it would often redirect to a no-trailing slash version). Shopware might by default add trailing slashes to directories (depending on web server config). Decide on a consistent approach (with or without slash) and ensure your redirects account for it. For instance, if someone hits /products/blue-widget/ with a slash, does your rule catch it? You might need to handle that too, or globally configure the server to normalize. It’s often easiest to ensure both with and without slash get handled (maybe have a rule to strip trailing slashes globally). Similarly, Shopify might have forced lowercase URLs; if any uppercase variants exist or weird query params, handle them or ignore them.
• Old redirect chains: If some Shopify URLs were already redirects to other Shopify URLs (maybe due to changed handles), try to collapse them in this new mapping. For example, if /products/old-name redirected to /products/new-name on Shopify, and now in Shopware the product is at /new-name , just make one redirect from /products/old-name to /new-name . That avoids a chain (old → Shopify new → Shopware new). We want to minimize multi-step redirects.

5. Upload and Enable Redirects

Once you are confident in your redirect rules, deploy them on your server (or activate the plugin rules). If on a staging environment that isn’t publicly accessible, you might only be able to test them locally (by tricking your system to resolve the domain to staging IP). When you actually flip the switch to go live (in the Launch phase), these rules need to be in place immediately as the site goes live. Ideally, you put them live a few minutes before or exactly when the DNS change happens so that even during the transition, users are redirected correctly. There’s usually a small window where some users might still hit the Shopify site until DNS propagates, but those users will just see the old site (which is fine if it’s still up). Once DNS fully propagates, all traffic hits the new server with these redirects.

6. Verify a Few Important Redirects

Make a short list of the top 10-20 URLs (e.g. your most-visited product and content pages) and test them manually once the site is live (or on staging via hosts-file override).

• Ensure each old Shopify URL resolves to the correct new Shopware page.
• Confirm the HTTP status is 301 Moved Permanently —not 302 (temporary).
• Double-check that the new page renders properly and contains the expected content.

Completing the redirect mapping and implementation effectively creates a “change-of-address” for every URL, preserving ranking signals and guiding search engines to the new location.

Testing and Validation

Before declaring the migration complete and launching the new site, rigorous testing and validation is necessary. This phase is like a dress rehearsal – you want to catch and fix any issues in a controlled environment rather than on your live site with customers and search engines watching. Here’s a testing checklist to follow:

1. Functional Testing of the New Site

Ensure the new Shopware site works properly from a user perspective:

• Click through the homepage, navigation menu, product listings, product detail pages, cart, checkout (if possible in staging, maybe in test mode), and content pages. Verify that there are no broken links or missing images.
• Test forms (contact form, newsletter signup, etc.) if any, to ensure they work.
• If you have a search feature, test it as well (though that’s more UX, but broken search could hurt users).
• Basically, confirm that all major functionalities are operational on Shopware.

2. SEO Spot-Checks on Key Pages

For a selection of important pages (e.g., your top 10 product pages, a few category pages, the homepage, a blog post, and a content page):

• View page source for 10 important pages and confirm:
  • View page source (or use SEO browser extensions) to verify the presence of the correct title tag, meta description, canonical tag, and any structured data. Compare with your audit spreadsheet to ensure nothing critical is missing.
  • If a page was supposed to be noindexed (rare, but maybe a certain page like an internal search result), check that the meta robots tag is present.
  • Check that headings (H1) are present and correct (e.g., the product name is an H1 on the product page).
  • Use Google’s Rich Results Test tool (or Structured Data Testing Tool) on a product URL to see if it picks up your schema markup correctly (if you implemented some). This can be done while it’s on staging by using the public URL (if staging is accessible) or using the code snippet mode if not.
  • Ensure the site is generating the sitemap (visit /sitemap.xml). Validate the sitemap format (you can use online XML sitemap validators or just eyeball it for now). Does it contain all the pages it should? Sometimes initial generation might miss some if a plugin or config is needed to include CMS pages.
  • Check robots.txt content as mentioned before, to ensure it’s correct for launch (it should allow everything and list sitemap; if on staging you had disallow all, remember to change that for launch).
• Open Google Rich Results Test to validate schema.
• Check that /sitemap.xml exists and lists all new URLs.
• Confirm /robots.txt allows crawling and references the sitemap.

3. Redirect Testing

• You can use a crawler like Screaming Frog in “List” mode: input a list of old Shopify URLs and crawl them against the new site (by configuring Screaming Frog to use the new site’s host via hosts file or after launch). Screaming Frog will show the response codes and the final destination of each. This way you can quickly see if any redirect is broken or going to the wrong place.
• Alternatively, manually test in the browser: pick representative URLs like an old product URL, an old collection URL, etc. Make sure none of them result in a 404 on the new site. If you find any that do, address the redirect rule.
• Check for redirect chains: e.g., old URL -> interim URL -> new URL. Ideally, old goes directly to new in one step. If you find a chain, you might have overlapping rules (e.g., a Shopify redirect was also still in effect then your new redirect etc.). Clean it if possible (though one chain of two steps is not the end of the world, but it’s best practice to eliminate extra hops to preserve link equity and improve speed).
• Don’t forget to test the homepage if domain is changing. For example, if your Shopify was at store.myshopify.com and now it’s www.yourdomain.com, ensure the myshopify domain will redirect to your new domain (Shopify might do this for a while or you might set that up – however, in most cases, people used a custom domain with Shopify so it’s the same domain on Shopware).
• If possible, test some less obvious URLs: e.g., an old image URL or an old PDF or something if any, just to decide if they need redirection or not.

4. Performance Testing

Run some basic performance tests on the staging site. Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix on a couple of page URLs. Compare results to your current Shopify site if you want to gauge differences. Shopware might require some caching configuration (ensure that the production mode or caching is enabled on staging so you get realistic results). Check core metrics like First Contentful Paint, LCP, etc. If any glaring slowdowns appear, you might address them now (maybe optimize some large image or enable a plugin for caching). While you might fine-tune further after launch, it’s good to ensure no critical performance issues (like pages taking 5+ seconds to first byte or such) because that could affect SEO if not fixed.

5. Ensure Mobile & Browser Testing

Ensure the new site is mobile-friendly, as mobile usability is a factor in SEO. Open the staging site on a mobile device or use your browser’s device emulator. Check that the layout is responsive and that no elements are cut off or broken. Mobile PageSpeed results are also important to check. Also test the site in different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) to catch any potential rendering issues (not directly SEO, but user experience matters).

6. Google Search Console Prep

You can’t test Search Console integration fully until the site is live on the domain, but you can prepare:

• Verify the domain property (if not already done).
• Have the sitemap URL ready for submission post-launch.

7. Staging → Live Checklist

Ensure that the staging environment differences are accounted for:

• Update base-URL settings from staging domain to live domain.
• Remove basic-auth / password protection.
• Disable any global noindex flags.
• Switch DNS (lower TTL in advance for faster propagation).

8. Final Content Sync:

If there was a gap of time between when you exported Shopify data and now, consider if any content changed on Shopify in the interim:

• New orders or customer records don’t affect SEO, but if new product reviews were added and you plan to migrate reviews, maybe those need adding.
• If a product’s stock changed and it’s now out of stock, you might want to reflect that (not SEO per se but user-facing).
• If you decided to keep collecting blog comments or something on Shopify, those wouldn’t transfer easily, but just be aware of differences.
• Essentially, make sure the Shopware site is up to date with any last-minute edits from Shopify (perhaps you froze content changes as recommended, in which case you’re fine).

After thorough testing, you should feel confident that the new site is ready for prime time. The final steps are to execute the launch (switching from Shopify to Shopware as the live site) and closely monitor the aftermath to catch any SEO issues early.

Launch and Monitoring

The launch phase is where all your preparation comes together. It’s critical to execute the switch carefully and then keep a close eye on the site’s performance and health in search engines. Here’s what to do during and after launch:

1. Launch Execution (Switching Platforms):
   • DNS Cutover: Update your DNS records to point your domain to the new Shopware server. If you prepared a low TTL, the changes will propagate quickly (often within minutes to an hour). If not, it might take longer for all users to see the new site. Coordinate this at a low-traffic time if possible (late night or early morning, depending on your user base’s time zone). During DNS propagation, some visitors will still hit the old Shopify site and others the new site – that’s okay in a short window.
   • Shopify Maintenance Mode: To avoid any potential orders or changes on the Shopify side during propagation, you might consider putting up a password page or maintenance message on Shopify right at launch time. Shopify has an option to disable the storefront (for example, if you close the store or add a storefront password). If a user hits the old site in that window, they’ll see it’s down for maintenance – not ideal, but better than them maybe buying something on the old site at the same time. Since propagation is quick if done right, this is usually a small inconvenience. Alternatively, coordinate to immediately disable Shopify once you confirm traffic is hitting Shopware.
   • SSL and Security: Right after DNS switch, ensure that HTTPS is working on the new site. Sometimes you might have set up Let’s Encrypt or another certificate on the server; double-check that it’s serving properly and the certificate is valid for your domain. If any mixed-content warnings appear (HTTP resources on HTTPS page), fix those by updating URLs to https (this could happen if some images or scripts were hard-coded with http).
   • Enabling Live Config: If you needed to change any config (like base URL in Shopware), do that now. Do a final test on the live domain (just like on staging) to make sure everything is behaving.
2. Post-Launch Smoke Test:
   • Browse a few pages on the live domain. Verify content, layout, etc., just like staging.
   • Test a couple of the old URLs (with the live domain) for redirects. E.g., go to yourdomain.com/products/blue-widget in a browser on the live site, see if it goes to yourdomain.com/blue-widget.
   • Use an HTTP header checker on one redirect to ensure it’s a 301 and not a 404 or 302.
   • Check the robots.txt on the live site to ensure it’s correct (not disallowing unnecessarily).
   • If anything looks off (like “page not found” or weird homepage showing Shopify still), it might be DNS caching – flush DNS or try from another network, or use an online tool to fetch the site to ensure it’s the Shopware version.
3. Submit Sitemaps to Search Engines:
   • In Google Search Console, go to the property for your site (ideally you have a domain property or the URL prefix). Navigate to Sitemaps, and submit the URL of your sitemap (e.g., https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml). If you have multiple sitemaps (Shopware might break it into multiple files for products, categories, etc.), submit the main index or each one as needed. GSC will crawl them soon, which helps Google discover all your new URLs quickly.
   • In GSC, you can also use the URL Inspection tool on a few key pages (like your homepage and a couple of major pages). Click “Request Indexing” – this prompts Google to crawl them sooner. This can be useful to jumpstart the crawling of your new site. Particularly, do this for the homepage and maybe top category page, as Google often finds other links from there.
   • In Bing Webmaster Tools (if you use it), similarly submit the sitemap there.
   • If your domain changed (again, not in this scenario likely), you would use the Change of Address tool in GSC to tell Google about the domain move. Since presumably the domain is the same, you don’t use that – Google will figure it out via the 301 redirects.
4. Monitoring Google Search Console:
   • Coverage Report (Index Coverage): This will show if Google is encountering any errors on the site. Check if there are 404 errors being reported for old URLs. Ideally, if your redirects are perfect, you should not see a bunch of “Not Found” errors – because Google hitting an old URL should get a 301, not a 404. However, sometimes if a redirect was misconfigured, it could result in a 404 or some pages might have been missed. If you see specific URLs in error, address them by adding redirects or fixing links. Initially, there might be some soft 404s or odd warnings – evaluate each.
   • Redirects/Exclusions: GSC might list some pages as “Excluded: Page with redirect” which is expected for old URLs – it means Google saw the redirect and knows that URL is not an actual content page anymore. That’s fine. If you see “Duplicate without canonical” or “Alternate page with canonical” – check those too, to ensure canonical tags are correct on the new site.
   • Performance (search traffic): Keep an eye on clicks and impressions in the Performance report. It’s normal for impressions to fluctuate. You might see a slight dip in the first week or two as Google reprocesses the changes. But if everything is done right, you should retain your rankings for the most part. Sometimes you might even see improvement if the new site is faster or better structured. If a major drop occurs, investigate immediately – something might be wrong (e.g., accidentally noindexed pages or broken content).
   • URL Inspection: If some important pages aren’t getting indexed after a week or so, use URL Inspection on them. It can tell you if Google sees something off (like “Page is not indexed: blocked by robots” or “Duplicate content”). It will also show the fetched page and what canonical Google chose, etc. This can help troubleshoot any unexpected deindexing.
   • Mobile Usability and Core Web Vitals: GSC will update these reports after a while. Check if any mobile usability issues pop up (like clickable elements too close, etc.) – unlikely if theme is good. Core Web Vitals might fluctuate with the new site – watch the reports for LCP, CLS issues and try to fix if any serious issues are flagged.
5. Analytics Monitoring:
   • Monitor real-time and daily traffic levels. On launch day, you might see lower traffic until Google starts sending traffic to new site (due to caching, etc.), but often because domain is same, users come normally. Some old Google results might still show the old URLs for a bit; thanks to your redirects, those visitors will still reach the new site seamlessly. Over time (days to weeks), Google will update the URLs shown in search results to the new ones.
   • Compare week-over-week organic sessions. A small drop (say 5-10%) in the immediate week isn’t unusual, but a large drop (50%+) would be a red flag. If you see the latter, do a deep dive into what keywords or pages lost traffic. It could be an indication of missing content or an SEO element on those pages.
   • Track conversion rates and other engagement metrics on the new site to ensure the user experience change didn’t negatively affect your business metrics. If, for example, you see a spike in bounce rate on certain pages, it might be due to something like missing content or slower load – which could indirectly affect SEO if it persists.
6. Crawl the Site as Googlebot: Some SEO tools or cloud crawlers allow you to crawl your site impersonating Googlebot. After launch, it might be useful to run a crawl (like with Screaming Frog, switching the user agent to Googlebot) to see if everything is accessible. This can reveal if any section was inadvertently blocked or if some pages are orphaned (no internal links) – though you likely took care of linking. If you find orphan pages (pages that exist but nothing links to them), add links where appropriate, because Google might not find them otherwise except via sitemap.
7. Monitor Error Logs: Check your server logs or Shopware logs for 404 errors or other issues. The web server access log will show 404s for any URL requests that didn’t get handled. You might catch some obscure URLs that Google or users hit. If you see patterns like /products/something returning 404 – maybe you missed that product in redirects. Or some query strings (like ?variant=123) causing issues. If found, implement additional redirects as needed. Often, within the first week or two, you’ll patch a handful of missed URLs.
8. Keep Shopify Account (Short Period): It might be wise to keep your Shopify store subscription active for at least a couple of weeks overlap (if financially feasible) but with a storefront password or closed, just in case you need to reference something or if you had to roll back (which is unlikely if planning was solid). After you see the new site stable and SEO holding, you can cancel Shopify. (Remember to cancel to avoid unnecessary charges. Also, remove any app integrations that might still be pinging Shopify, etc.)
9. Leverage Google’s Re-crawl (if needed): If after a while some pages aren’t indexed or the new site’s updated content isn’t shown, you can manually request indexing in GSC for those pages again, or even use the Indexing API if it was a job posting or such (not applicable here likely). But usually patience is key; Google will recrawl thousands of pages over a few days to weeks depending on site size and importance.

Throughout the monitoring phase, maintain a log of any issues found and actions taken. Site migrations can have a “settling” period where things fluctuate, but generally if all steps were done correctly, you can come through it with minimal impact. The key is to catch and correct any issues early – which is why diligent monitoring is necessary for at least 2-4 weeks post-migration.

If all goes well, you’ll see your new Shopware site fully replace the old Shopify one in search results (the search snippets might still show “/products/” in URLs for a short while, but clicking goes to new, and eventually Google updates the display URL too). Congratulations – you’ve successfully migrated platforms with your SEO intact!

Troubleshooting

Even with careful planning, migrations can encounter hiccups. Here are some common issues that might arise, along with troubleshooting tips to resolve them:

• Pages Dropping Out of Index: You notice some pages that used to be indexed are no longer in Google’s index after the migration. First, identify which pages. Are they pages that had high rankings before? If so, check the following for those pages on the new site: Are they accessible (no login needed, not blocked by robots.txt)? Do they have the expected content and meta tags? Is there a canonical tag that might be pointing elsewhere? Sometimes, a misconfigured canonical could cause Google to think the page is a duplicate of another. For example, if all your product pages accidentally had a canonical pointing to the homepage, Google would drop the product pages. The fix would be to correct the canonical tags. Also ensure the pages aren’t marked noindex. If everything looks fine, it may just be Google taking time – use the URL Inspection tool to see what Google last saw on that page and request re-indexing if needed.
• Significant Traffic or Ranking Drop: If your organic traffic dropped significantly (more than, say, 20%) and isn’t recovering after a short time, investigate where it’s coming from. Use Search Console’s performance report to see which queries or pages lost positions. If the drop is site-wide on all queries, it could indicate a widespread issue – perhaps the site is slower (check performance), or Google had trouble crawling (check crawl stats in GSC to see if crawl rate fell or errors spiked). If the drop is specific to certain pages or sections, focus there – maybe certain sections weren’t migrated or redirected correctly (e.g., the blog). Check that those pages are live, contain the same content, and that the redirects from old to new are working. Also, ensure the new site isn’t missing some important on-page SEO elements that the old site had (like maybe the old site had a lot of internal links to a certain page that the new site lacks). Once you identify a cause, address it (e.g., add missing links, fix broken content, fine-tune page speed). If no obvious cause, you might consider that Google is recalculating things – if so, maintain quality and keep monitoring, it often bounces back in a few weeks if all is properly in place.
• Broken Links on the Site: Despite careful updating, you might find some broken internal links on the new site (perhaps in less visible sections, or generated links). Use an internal link checker or crawler to find 404s. For each broken link, determine if it’s pointing to an old URL (in which case add a redirect or update the link) or a typo in the new URL. Fix them either by correcting the link in content or adding a redirect rule. Broken internal links not only hurt user experience but can also waste crawl budget.
• Redirect Loops or Incorrect Redirects: If a page isn’t loading due to a redirect loop (you’ll know if your browser says “too many redirects”), inspect your redirect rules. This can happen if, for example, you set a catch-all redirect that inadvertently redirects something like /category/page to itself. To debug, disable or comment out suspect rules and try again, or use a redirect tracing tool to see the chain. Adjust the rules so that each old path maps to a unique new path and no rule overlaps incorrectly. A common loop scenario: if you had a rule redirecting /collections to / but also a rule redirecting / to something else (just hypothetical), that could loop. Ensure no such conflicts.
• Mixed Content or HTTPS Issues: After launch, if some pages show “Not fully secure” in the browser, it means some resource is still being loaded over http. Use the browser console to see what it is. Often it might be an image or script with an absolute URL from the old site (http://). Edit the content or theme to use https. Another issue could be if your SSL certificate wasn’t installed correctly or you forgot to include the intermediate certs – fix that on server so that all browsers trust it. SEO-wise, non-secure content can be a ranking issue (Google prefers HTTPS), so resolve these quickly.
• Site Speed Regressions: If the new site is markedly slower, consider performance tweaks. Enable server-side caching in Shopware (production mode, HTTP cache). Use a CDN for static files if appropriate. Optimize any heavy code in your theme. Large images should be compressed. You might also consider enabling Gzip compression on the web server for text assets if not already. A faster site pleases users and can improve SEO signals. Compare Core Web Vitals of old vs new site and aim to meet or exceed the old performance.
• Unintended Noindex/NoFollow: Double-check that no critical pages were accidentally noindexed or that internal links are not nofollowed. Sometimes, people put noindex on staging and forget to remove. If you discover such a tag still present, remove it and then request reindexing for those pages in GSC. If internal links had rel=”nofollow” (which they usually shouldn’t unless specifically added), remove those attributes so that link equity flows internally.
• Canonical Tag Issues: If you find that Google is indexing the wrong URL (for example, indexing a query variant or some lowercase/uppercase variant), check your canonical tags. All pages should self-canonicalize to their own correct URL. If you spot a mistake (like all pages having canonical to the homepage, or something silly), fix the template. In Shopware’s theme, ensure the canonical link is set to the current page’s SEO URL. If you have multiple languages or domains, ensure canonical either stays within each domain or you use hreflang appropriately (if multi-language, beyond this scope but important to handle).
• Monitoring 404s Over Time: Even months after the migration, you might see 404 hits from old URLs (perhaps from old backlinks or users with outdated bookmarks). Keep your redirect rules in place indefinitely if possible. There’s usually no harm in keeping them (aside from minor maintenance). If a year down the line you feel confident, you can drop them, but consider that some old links persist. If you must remove redirects, perhaps keep at least those for high-value backlinks to not lose them. If new 404s appear for weird URLs that never existed, ignore them (crawlers sometimes try odd things). But if they were legitimate, add a redirect or correct the link at the source if you control it.
• Users Reporting Issues: Sometimes customers might report “I Googled X and got an error” or “I had your page saved and now it’s gone.” This is anecdotal but valuable feedback. It might point to a missing redirect you weren’t aware of. Use that feedback to improve your redirects or provide a friendly 404 page experience where needed. For example, if someone had a product that is now discontinued and you redirected to homepage, maybe consider making a custom “product not available” page or ensure the homepage has some message – just user experience considerations.
• Shopify Turned Off Too Early: If for some reason search engines or some users still try to access your old Shopify URLs and your domain is no longer pointing there but the Shopify store is shut down, they might see a DNS error or Shopify 404. If you catch that scenario (like in GSC, if it says “DNS not resolved” for some old URLs), it means those users bypassed your redirect (maybe because of DNS cache). Ideally, you want Shopify still alive doing a redirect to new site if possible. This is why keeping Shopify open for a short period is suggested. If already closed, not much to do – those users will eventually get to the new domain as DNS updates, but there’s a small chance of lost visits in that window. It’s generally minor if timed right.

In summary, troubleshooting is about quickly identifying the source of any SEO or user experience issues and resolving them before they cause lasting harm. A platform migration has many moving parts, so don’t be discouraged by small issues – they can be fixed. The key is vigilance and responsiveness in the period following the migration. By addressing problems promptly, you’ll ensure the long-term success of your new Shopware site’s SEO.

Best Practices

To round out the guide, here’s a summary of best practices and additional tips to keep in mind for SEO during platform migrations:

• Plan Meticulously: SEO should never be an afterthought in a migration. Begin planning SEO aspects from day one of the migration project. Create checklists (much like this guide) and cross off each item as you address it.
• Preserve URL Consistency When Possible: The less you change URLs, the better. If you can carry over the same URL structure on the new platform, do it – it reduces the number of redirects and complexity. Of course, the platform might enforce some differences, but aim for consistency. For example, if your top-level pages like /about-us can stay /about-us, keep them identical. It’s usually product and category URLs where changes happen. If you can keep the same slugs for products and categories (just minus the Shopify-specific parts like /products/ or /collections/), that’s ideal. In cases where the new platform allows a prefix, you could even maintain those (though in Shopware you wouldn’t normally add “products” prefix).
• Use 301 Redirects for All Moved Content: It can’t be stressed enough – every old URL that had value should 301 to the new equivalent. Don’t rely on users to find things themselves or on Google to magically know where things moved. Also, avoid using 302 (temporary) for these; a 302 tells Google the move is not permanent, which is not what you want in a replatforming scenario. The only time to use 302 is if something really is temporary or testing, but not for your main migration. Also, avoid meta refresh or JavaScript redirects – stick to server-side 301s, as they’re most reliable and SEO-friendly.
• Keep Old Site Live (but Controlled) Until Fully Switched: Having the old site accessible on a secondary domain or at least not immediately deleting it can be a safety net. For example, maybe after moving to Shopware on your main domain, your Shopify store is still accessible via the .myshopify.com address (since your custom domain is removed). If possible, put up a notice or redirect on that too. But at least the data is there if you needed to reference something or roll back in an extreme emergency. Give it a cushion of a couple of weeks then decommission cleanly.
• Don’t Overhaul Everything at Once: Try not to change too many variables during migration. Stick to the same content, same design (if possible), same meta info initially. I know it’s tempting to also redesign the site or rewrite all copy – but doing that simultaneously with a platform change can mask what causes any SEO changes. The best approach is a like-for-like migration: replicate the old site on the new platform as closely as feasible. Once that’s stable and SEO is fine, you can slowly iterate improvements (like a better design or new content) in the future. If you must redesign as part of migration (maybe because the themes differ), attempt to keep things like headings, text content, etc., similar.
• Comprehensive Content Migration: Ensure all content that matters is moved. It sounds obvious, but things like blog posts, FAQs, or customer reviews are sometimes forgotten. If, for instance, your Shopify product pages displayed user reviews via an app, and those reviews aren’t migrated, you lose content and rich snippet potential. Look into migrating reviews (some services or plugins can help port reviews from Shopify to Shopware). Even if you have to export them to a CSV and import, it’s worth doing to keep that UGC (user-generated content). Same goes for any press releases or lookbooks or other content sections you had – don’t leave them behind unless they were intentionally pruned.
• Maintain Internal Link Structure: Reproduce a similar navigation and internal linking on the new site. If certain products were linked from the homepage on Shopify because they were important, do the same on Shopware. If your footer had a bunch of links for SEO (like a list of popular categories or brands), carry those into the new footer. Internal link equity is valuable; you designed it a certain way on Shopify, so try to reflect that on Shopware to begin with.
• Use a Custom 404 Page: Despite best efforts, some users might still hit a non-existent page. Design a custom 404 page on Shopware that is helpful – include links to popular categories, a search bar, maybe a message like “Oops, the page you’re looking for has moved. Here are some helpful links…”. This improves user experience and can keep them on your site even if they hit a bad URL. It’s not a direct SEO boost, but indirectly it helps reduce bounce backs to Google which Google might interpret as a bad sign if people immediately leave.
• Check for Trailing Slash and Case Sensitivity: Decide if your site will standardize on URLs with or without trailing slashes and enforce it. Many sites choose no trailing slash on URLs except when it’s a folder (but nowadays, every page is often treated as a URL without slash). In any case, ensure consistency – you can configure the web server to append or remove slashes (e.g., a trailing slash rule). Also, ensure URLs are case-insensitive. Shopify likely treated URLs case-insensitively (most do). Shopware on Apache typically would as well unless you’re on a case-sensitive filesystem. But avoid having two URLs that differ only by case. To be safe, you can add a rule to redirect any capital letters to lowercase (if you have some odd legacy links).
• Monitor Backlinks: After the migration, you might reach out to the highest value backlinks pointing to your site to update their URLs to the new ones (especially if some pointed to pages that moved). While the redirect will handle it, having the direct link updated is cleaner. For example, if a great blog linked to your old Shopify product URL, you could kindly ask them to update it to the new URL. This is optional and usually not urgent due to redirects, but it can over time reduce dependency on redirects.
• Leverage the Opportunity to Improve (Cautiously): Once the dust has settled (say a month or two post-migration and things are steady), consider improvements that the new platform enables. Perhaps Shopware allows better page layouts for SEO (like adding more content to category pages) – you could slowly introduce that. Or maybe you can implement an SEO plugin that auto-generates structured data or builds internal links. The migration itself is about retaining, but the post-migration is an opportunity to enhance. Just do it in increments and monitor impact.
• Documentation and Tracking: Keep documentation of everything you did – redirect lists, site changes, etc. This is helpful not only for you but for any team members or if an issue arises later, you have a record. Also, annotate the migration date in Google Analytics (there’s an annotation feature) so when you look at traffic graphs later, you see a note “Site migrated on X date” – providing context for any trends.
• Stay Patient and Calm: It’s normal to be anxious after a migration. Check things, but also give it a little time. If you’ve followed best practices, the outcomes are often positive or neutral in terms of SEO. Many people have migrated sites without loss – some even gain due to a more optimized site or faster performance. Don’t panic if a couple of rankings shuffle; continue focusing on providing a great site experience. Sometimes consistently good SEO after a migration can even boost you if your previous platform had limitations.

By adhering to these best practices, you set the stage for a smooth migration and a healthy post-migration site. SEO is a long game, and a successful migration is just one chapter. Continue following SEO best practices on your new Shopware platform – such as producing quality content, earning authoritative backlinks, and keeping the site technically sound – to drive ongoing growth.

FAQ

Q: Will I lose my Google rankings if I migrate my store from Shopify to Shopware?
A: If the migration is handled correctly with SEO best practices, you should be able to retain your Google rankings. The key is to ensure that all your important pages on Shopify have equivalent pages on Shopware, and that you set up 301 redirects from every old URL to the new URL. This tells Google the move is permanent and transfers the ranking signals to the new site. You may experience a minor fluctuation or dip immediately after the switch – this is normal as search engines re-index your site – but typically rankings stabilize within a few weeks. Many sites maintain their traffic levels after a well-executed migration. On the other hand, if you do not implement proper redirects or if you drastically change content/structure without precautions, then yes, significant ranking drops can occur. In summary, migrate carefully and you should not lose rankings in the long term.

Q: Can I keep the same URLs on Shopware as I had on Shopify?
A: In many cases, you can make your Shopware URLs very close to your Shopify URLs, but there might be slight differences. Shopify uses certain prefixes (like /products/ for product pages, /collections/ for categories, etc.). In Shopware, you have more freedom in URL structure. You could, if you wanted, include similar prefixes by configuring custom URL routing – but most people choose to omit them for cleaner URLs. For example, https://yourstore.com/products/blue-widget on Shopify might become https://yourstore.com/blue-widget on Shopware. The slug (the part with the name) can be identical (assuming it doesn’t conflict with another item). We recommend using the same slugs for products and categories if possible to maintain consistency. Even if the prefix changes or is removed, that’s fine – that’s what the 301 redirects are for. So, while you might not literally keep every URL exactly the same, you can get very close and ensure continuity through redirects. Shopware’s SEO settings allow you to customize URLs extensively, so with a bit of effort, you can mimic Shopify’s structure to a large extent. Just remember to set up redirects for any differences.

Q: What about my content like blog posts and pages? Does Shopware support a blog?
A: Shopware’s core (as of version 6) doesn’t include a blogging feature out-of-the-box like Shopify does. However, you have a few options:

• You can install a Shopware Blog plugin/add-on which will add blogging capabilities to your Shopware site, allowing you to create blog posts, categories, etc. Many Shopware store owners do this to manage a blog within Shopware.
• Alternatively, you could migrate your blog to a separate platform (like WordPress) and perhaps host it on a subdomain (e.g., blog.yourstore.com) or subfolder. This is a bigger decision since it introduces a second system to manage.
• If your blog content is not too extensive, another approach some take is converting key blog articles into Shopware CMS pages (using the Shopping Experiences to format them). This is viable if you only had a dozen articles, for instance, essentially treating them like informational pages.

Regardless of the method, those blog URLs on Shopify (e.g., /blogs/news/post-title) should be redirected to wherever the new location is (Shopware or external). If you use a blog plugin in Shopware, you can likely replicate the posts and assign similar URLs (maybe /blog/post-title). If external, the domain changes, so ensure cross-domain redirects (Shopify old URL –> new blog URL). In summary, Shopware can support your content, either directly with extensions or in combination with another system, so you don’t have to lose your blog. Plan this in advance so the SEO equity of your blog posts is also preserved (blog posts can drive significant organic traffic).

Q: How do I handle SEO for images during the migration?
A: Images on Shopify are usually hosted on Shopify’s CDN with URLs like cdn.shopify.com/s/files/…. When you move to Shopware, your images will be hosted on your server (or whatever CDN you choose). Here’s what to do for image SEO:

• Alt Text: Make sure every image, especially product images, have appropriate alt attributes on the new site. If your Shopify export included alt text, ensure it’s imported and associated with the image in Shopware. If not, you may need to re-add them. Alt text is important for accessibility and also for image search ranking.
• File Names: While you might not have full control over image file names in Shopware (it may rename on import), if you do have control, keeping descriptive file names is good practice (e.g., blue-widget.jpg instead of IMG1234.jpg). It’s a minor SEO factor but helpful when possible.
• Redirect old image URLs? Generally, it’s not necessary to redirect old Shopify image URLs because those were on a different domain (Shopify’s CDN). Once you shut down Shopify, those image URLs might eventually break. Search engines typically don’t keep image URLs if the page referencing them is gone or changed. Instead, focus on getting your new images indexed by having them on your pages and in your sitemap (Shopware’s sitemap can include images). If you had hotlinks from other sites to your Shopify images, you can’t really redirect those since you don’t control the Shopify CDN domain. But that scenario is less common. In short, you usually don’t do image URL redirects in this case (since domain different); you just ensure the new site’s images are optimized and let search engines index them afresh.
• Image Sitemaps: If image SEO is a big part of your traffic, consider using an image sitemap or ensure the normal sitemap includes image info (some sitemaps list image URLs per page). This will prompt Google to crawl the new images faster.

Q: Do I need to re-verify or update Google Search Console and Google Analytics after migration?
A: It depends on what’s changing:

• Google Search Console: If your domain remains the same (e.g., you were at www.yourstore.com on Shopify and remain www.yourstore.com on Shopware), you do not need to create a new property – the existing GSC property will continue to gather data. However, you should update the sitemap in GSC to your new sitemap URL (if it changed, though likely still at /sitemap.xml). Also, as a good practice, you might use the URL Inspection tool on a few pages to ensure Google can fetch them. If your domain is changing (e.g., from yourstore.myshopify.com to www.yourstore.com or any other domain change), then yes, you need to add and verify the new domain in GSC and optionally use the Change of Address tool for a smooth transition.
• Google Analytics: If you’re using the same GA tracking ID on the new site, the data will continue flowing into the same property – but be mindful of differences in platform. Shopify had GA integration (maybe via theme or an app), and now on Shopware you need to insert the GA snippet (or use Google Tag Manager). Make sure to do that so you don’t lose tracking on launch. Also update any goals or filters if they were domain-specific. If you want to keep data separate for old vs new, you could use a new GA property, but most often you’ll keep the same to have continuity. Just note the date of migration as an annotation so you know when the platform changed as you interpret analytics.
• Bing Webmaster Tools: Similar to GSC – if domain same, just update sitemap there. If domain changed, add new site in BWT.
• Other integrations: Think of any other SEO or marketing tools – e.g., if you have uptime monitoring, or SEO tools that check rankings or crawl your site, update them to account for any URL changes or new sitemap locations.

Q: How long should I keep the 301 redirects in place?
A: At minimum, keep your 301 redirects for as long as it takes search engines to fully recognize the new URLs and for users to shift. In practice, this means at least several months to a year. There’s actually little downside to keeping them indefinitely (they are lightweight rules usually). Many site owners never remove legacy redirects, because you never know who might still follow an old link. Google’s John Mueller has suggested keeping redirects for at least a year, as Googlebot and users might still use old URLs for a long time. Some specific cases:

• If you have redirects from a very old migration (like 5+ years ago) that hardly get hits, you might clean them up eventually.
• For this Shopify->Shopware migration, definitely keep them active for a year or more. Over time, if you check your server logs and see that almost no one is requesting the old URLs, you could consider removing them. But again, the benefit of keeping them (catching any stray traffic) usually outweighs the minor maintenance of leaving them.
• One caveat: if you migrate again or restructure again, you might end up chaining redirects (old -> new -> newer). At that point, update the rules to point old -> newest directly, and remove the middle. Always avoid long redirect chains.

In short, treat 301 redirects as a permanent fixture for the foreseeable future. They ensure users and SEO remain intact across changes, so there’s no rush to discard them.

Q: Are there any SEO benefits to moving to Shopware from Shopify?
A: They both can be optimized for SEO, but Shopware may offer a few advantages:

• Greater Flexibility: With Shopware (especially self-hosted), you have full control over the code and server environment. This means you can implement custom SEO features, structured data, or performance optimizations that might be harder on Shopify (which has some limitations, for instance, you can’t freely edit server configs or certain aspects of how themes work beyond a point).
• No URL Constraints: Shopify had fixed parts of URL structure (like /collections/ in URLs, etc.). In Shopware, you can craft URLs more freely to be shorter or include keywords as you prefer. That can make URLs cleaner and possibly more user-friendly (though Google can handle either, a clean URL is nice).
• Technical SEO Control: You can manage things like caching, CDNs, and do advanced technical SEO (like custom header responses, etc.) on Shopware. Also, you can add plugins or custom code for things like generating rich snippets, integrating with various marketing tools, etc.
• Multilingual/Multistore SEO: If you plan to have multiple languages or regional stores, Shopware’s architecture might handle that better using subfolders or domains for different locales, giving you more control over hreflang and such. Shopify can do multi-language to some extent but usually via third-party translation apps and subdirectories – some find Shopware or other self-hosted solutions more flexible for international SEO.
• Page Speed Potential: Shopify sites are often quite fast due to their infrastructure, but sometimes app scripts can slow them. With Shopware, you have the potential to optimize to a great extent (but it’s also possible to mess up and be slower if not careful). If you invest in good hosting and optimizations, you could achieve equal or better speed, which helps SEO with Core Web Vitals.
• No App Overhead: In Shopify, adding SEO features often meant installing apps (for redirects, schema, etc.). Each app could inject code or scripts. In Shopware, you might consolidate those needs without so many third-party scripts, making the site leaner.

That said, simply moving to Shopware won’t automatically boost SEO. It provides the potential to improve SEO if you leverage its flexibility. It also requires you to be more hands-on (Shopify handled a lot out of the box, like automatic sitemaps, some structured data in themes, etc., whereas in Shopware you might set these up manually or via plugins). So SEO results will depend on how well you implement things on Shopware. The benefit is, you’re not constrained by a hosted platform’s rules.

Q: What should I do with the old Shopify site after migration?
A: Once you’ve migrated and everything is running smoothly on Shopware, you’ll eventually want to close your Shopify account to stop paying for it. However, consider the timing:

• It’s prudent to keep the Shopify store running (on at least a basic plan) for a short while post-migration as a safety net. Possibly restrict access to it (Shopify allows you to put up a storefront password so only you can view it). This ensures that if something catastrophic happened and you needed to roll back, you have that option (though that’s rare if migration went fine).
• After a few weeks, when you’re confident the new site is stable and search engines have picked up the changes, you can cancel the Shopify subscription. When you do that, your Shopify store (including the .myshopify.com URL) will essentially go offline. Make sure your domain’s DNS is no longer pointing to Shopify at all by then (which it wouldn’t be after launch).
• Before shutting down, you might want to export any data from Shopify that wasn’t migrated (like customer orders history, if you need for records).
• Also inform any stakeholders or team members that the platform switch is permanent (so they don’t, for instance, log into Shopify and add content by mistake).
• After closing, keep an eye on Search Console for any remaining references to the myshopify.com domain or such – there shouldn’t be if everything was redirected, but just in case, you could use the URL removal tool in GSC to remove the Shopify subdomain if needed (again, only if something weird is happening like Google indexing the password page or something, which is unlikely).
• Long term, no need to maintain any link with Shopify. All SEO equity will reside with your Shopware site.

By addressing these FAQs, we hope to clarify the common uncertainties that come with platform migrations. Migrating from Shopify to Shopware is indeed a significant project, but with careful attention to SEO considerations as detailed in this guide, you can make the transition confidently and set your store up for continued success in search rankings.