Migrating your store without losing SEO: 301 redirects and checklist

Migrations are the most dangerous moment for a store’s SEO: moving from PrestaShop 1.6 to 9, from another platform to PrestaShop, or changing theme, URL structure or domain. If the old URLs do not lead to the new ones, Google loses everything it knew about your store.

1. URL inventory before touching anything

• Every URL in the current sitemap.
• Pages with organic traffic (Search Console, last 16 months).
• URLs with external links.
• A full crawl with a crawling tool.

2. Redirect map

A two-column table: old URL → new URL. Every old URL with value must lead to the most equivalent new page, with a 301 redirect (permanent).

• Product → same product.
• Category → equivalent category.
• Deleted product → replacement or category, never the home page.

3. Keep what works

If possible, keep the URL format. In PrestaShop, when upgrading versions within the same platform, URLs do not need to change. Also keep the titles, descriptions and texts that were ranking.

4. Test on the copy

Before going live, run every old URL against the new copy and check that each one returns a 301 to the correct new URL, that this one returns 200 and that there are no redirect chains.

5. On the day of the switch

• Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
• Check robots.txt (the copy’s usually blocks everything).
• Monitor 404 errors and coverage for several weeks.