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Technical SEO Traps to Watch Out
for in Ecommerce Migrations
Owain Lloyd-Williams
Independent SEO Consultant
@owainlloydwilliams| https://speakerdeck.com/owainlw
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Ecommerce Migrations:
They Matter. Duh.
Owain Lloyd-Williams | [email protected]
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9 out of 10 site migrations
damage SEO in some way.
A recent study by Numen in November 2025 showed that..
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Of 892 domains analysed, 17%
of sites never recovered traffic
to pre-migration levels.
Search Engine Land say...
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And a staggering 42% of sites
never fully recovered their traffic.
Search Engine Land say...
Owain Lloyd-Williams | [email protected]
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A 2025 survey showed 1 in 10 UK
retailers lose £1m+ per year because
their systems don’t talk to each other.
Taking a Step Back...
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Ecommerce platforms themselves are part of the
problem
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Common
Misconceptions
About
Ecommerce
Migration
Simplicity
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“We’re just changing the platform.
SEO won’t be affected.”
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“The new CMS is just more
SEO friendly.”
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“Content parity will just port over.
In fact, it’ll be even better.”
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“You’ll just be doing
redirects, right?”
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“Oh the staging site?
Yeah, of course it’s not indexable.”
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As SEOs, we know how
to approach these.
Plus, there’s so much
information out there.
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But oftentimes,
things aren’t that
simple.
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Issue 1:
Platform Constraints &
Impacts on URL Structure
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Largely configurable URL nomenclature:
/music/vinyl/name-of-product/
/artist/vinyl/name-of-product/
/shop/artist/name-of-product/
/product/
/product-category/
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Somewhat More Fixed.
/products/
/collections/
/blogs/
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Redirect File With
Thousands of Paths Like
This.
A Fine Use of Everyone’s
Time.
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Yet, There Were Plenty of Examples of
Journeys That Needed to Be Considered…
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/music/vinyl/limited-edition-vinyl/
/shop/vinyl/limited-edition-vinyl/
/records/limited-edition-vinyl/
/artist/vinyl/limited-edition-vinyl/
/shop/limited-edition-vinyl/
/store/limited-edition-vinyl/
/shop/product/limited-edition-vinyl/
/product/limited-edition-
vinyl/?utm_source=instagram
/product/limited-edition-vinyl/?fbclid=12345
/Product/limited-edition-vinyl/
/PRODUCT/limited-edition-vinyl/
/product/Limited-Edition-Vinyl/
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Solution: Catch-All Safeguard: Wildcard
Redirect/Regex Pattern Logic.
Owain Lloyd-Williams | [email protected]
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Apache .htaccess file (Only on a CDN Layer!)
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}
^/.*/([^/]+)/?$
RewriteRule ^.*$ /product/%1 [R=301,L]
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/shop/vinyl/limited-edition-release/
/new-releases/limited-edition-release/
/product/limited-edition-release/
/product/limited-edition-release/
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Ngnix (again, only on old server/CDN!)
^/.*/([^/]+)/?$
Redirect target
/product/$1
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Breaking This Down…
Pattern:
^/.*/([^/]+)/?$
^/ start of the path
.*/ any number of folders
([^/]+) capture the final part (the slug)
/?$ optional trailing slash
Redirect target:
/product/$1
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Risks
• Over compensating on matching (non product URLs)
• Redirect Chains
• Breaking pagination
• Relies on an old WooCommerce server or CDN edge
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Issue 2: Accidental Duplicate Inventories
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Parent Company & Individual Artist Site
Individual artist site is
powered by/shares
infrastructure with…
Parent record label site
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Under the Hood This Means….
• Same SKUs
• Same Inventories
• Same Product IDs
• Potential for Canonical Conflicts
• Potential for Duplicate Content
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Parent record label site
Individual artist site
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A Reminder of What Exists on Parent
Site…
• All the SKUs
• All the Inventories
• All the Product IDs
• All the potential for Canonical Conflicts
• All the potential for Duplicate Content
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Which May Cause Something Like This…
Indexation Stats
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Removing the
Offending
Pages on the
Artist Store
Simply Wasn’t
an Option.
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Solution: No index. Sitemap Cleanup.
URL Removal Requests. And Then Some.
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Artist
Image
Product Title
Artist
Image
Product Title
Content
Somewhat less content
Somewhat more content
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Internal Linking & Taxonomies Will Also
Differ
Area WooCommerce Shopify Migration Risk
Related Products
Taxonomy-driven
(categories, tags)
Collection-driven
Changes product
clustering signals
Cross-Sells/Up-Sells
Native + plugin-
enhanced
Often app-based or
manual
Potential reduction in
contextual linking
Breadcrumb Structure True hierarchical depth
Collection-based
hierarchy
Alters perceived site
architecture
Owain Lloyd-Williams | [email protected]
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Page Titles (for example) May Get Left Behind
Address Title 1
https://dev.MY-ARTIST.com/
I AM THE HOMEPAGE PAGE
TITLE…
https://dev.MY-ARTIST.com/collections/blah
….WHY AM I DUPLICATED
FROM THE HOMEPAGE?
https://dev.MY-ARTIST.com/products/bladiblah
….WHY AM I DUPLICATED
FROM THE HOMEPAGE?
https://dev.MY-ARTIST.com/products/bladiblahdeblah
….WHY AM I DUPLICATED
FROM THE HOMEPAGE?
https://dev.MY-
ARTIST.com/collections/blobbylblobbyblobby
….WHY AM I DUPLICATED
FROM THE HOMEPAGE?
https://dev.MY-ARTIST.com/products/blobblobblob
….WHY AM I DUPLICATED
FROM THE HOMEPAGE?
Owain Lloyd-Williams | [email protected]
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Faceted Navigation and Crawl Traps
Area What Changes SEO Risk
Filter URL Structure
Woo taxonomy-based
filters vs Shopify
parameter/app-based
filters
Crawl expansion & index
bloat
Duplicate Listings
Same products accessible
via multiple filter
combinations
Split ranking signals
Crawl Traps
Combinational URLs
generated at scale
Wasted crawl budget
Canonical Control
Less granular control in
Shopify vs Woo plugins
Harder duplicate
suppression
Owain Lloyd-Williams | [email protected]
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Migration Considerations Consolidated
Risk Area What Changes
Between Platforms
Why It Matters
URL Architecture
Magento/Woo flexible
→ Shopify fixed →
BigCommerce semi-
flexible
Legacy structures
can’t always be
recreated
Faceted Navigation
Layered nav vs
parameter filters vs
app logic
Crawl traps &
duplicate URLs
Template & Schema
Logic
Plugin-driven vs
theme-driven vs
automated
Signal drift & ranking
volatility
Owain Lloyd-Williams | [email protected]
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Hreflang Breaking in
Multi-Region Stores
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Understanding the Bigger
Picture in Ecommerce
Migrations
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Crawl Tests
Redirect
Map
Verification
Content
Parity
Audits
Staging
Testing
Pre-Launch Validation Steps for SEOs
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Reframing Migrations as
Architectural SEO Projects
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Final Takeaways for Agencies & In-House
Teams
Embed SEO Early Build Internal
Expertise
Learn from
Experience
Continuous SEO
Education
Owain Lloyd-Williams | [email protected]