Migrations fail in boring, predictable ways: DNS cut over before testing, search-replace done with a naive tool, no rollback plan. This hub holds the migration playbooks we run on client projects — hosting moves, domain changes, platform exits, staging-to-production flows — plus the planning guides for deciding whether to move at all.
Decide first: migrate, rebuild, or stay
The most expensive mistake is migrating the wrong thing. Read when a WordPress site should migrate at all and the honest comparison in hosting migration versus full rebuild before committing either way. Budgeting comes next: what custom WooCommerce development actually costs sets realistic expectations for the rebuild path.
The standard hosting migration
The anchor document is the zero-downtime migration checklist — the exact sequence we run, from TTL reduction to post-move verification. The narrative version with more context is how to move hosts without downtime. Two specialized variants cover the moves that break most often: the WooCommerce migration checklist (orders, sessions and webhooks make stores harder) and what changes when one multisite becomes twelve.
The safety net
A migration without a rollback plan is a bet, not a project. The rollback plan guide shows you what to write down before you start — and it pairs with the staging-to-production deployment checklist so regressions are caught before visitors see them. After the cutover, the post-migration SEO checklist walks the 48 hours that decide whether Google trusts your new home.
Special moves
- Domain changes: the SEO-safe domain change guide — redirects, Search Console, and the ranking patterns that are normal versus alarming.
- Protocol and URL changes: HTTP to HTTPS beyond just installing a certificate.
- Platform exits: importing content from Squarespace, Wix and Ghost — what survives, what breaks, and the import order that saves your URLs.
- Architecture changes: when multisite makes sense for B2B brands.
Building instead of moving
If the decision was “rebuild,” the planning guides carry over: how much content a site actually needs, our 2026 content strategy, and the content machine that keeps a new site alive — the one-person content plan fed by an AI-assisted workflow that does not publish slop.
How long does a zero-downtime WordPress migration take?
The active work is one to three hours for a typical business site, but you should plan two days: TTL lowered the day before, testing window on staging, cutover, then a 48-hour verification window. Stores need more because checkout and webhooks must be verified.
What breaks most often during a WordPress migration?
Environment mismatches — PHP version differences, missing extensions, absolute URLs that survived a bad search-replace, and license activations tied to the old server. Every one of these is on our migration checklist for a reason.
Will changing hosts hurt my SEO?
A clean migration with stable URLs does not hurt SEO. Rankings wobble for one to two weeks while Google re-crawls, then recover. Real damage comes from missing redirects, changed content and slow new hosting — all avoidable.
Do I need staging to migrate a site?
Strongly recommended for anything with commerce or custom code. The staging-to-production checklist shows how to ship from staging without regressions; skipping it means testing on live traffic, which is the most expensive test environment.
Migrations are a core service for our team — we run them weekly for merchants who would rather not gamble their store. If you want your current site reviewed before deciding anything, start with the free site audit or just write to us.
