The temptation with any migration is to start building. A new theme is exciting, and moving to Shopify feels like progress. But the work that actually determines whether your migration succeeds happens before the build - in the documentation, mapping, and planning that most merchants rush through.
This checklist covers everything that needs to be captured and decided before migration begins. Treat it as a gate: do not start the build until every item is complete.
1. Document your current SEO baseline
You cannot protect what you have not measured. Before anything changes, capture the current state of your search performance so you can verify the migration preserved it.
- Export your current organic traffic by page from Google Analytics or GA4
- Record your top 50 to 100 ranking keywords and their positions
- List every URL that currently receives organic traffic or has backlinks
- Export your current Google Search Console performance data
- Note your current Core Web Vitals scores as a performance baseline
This baseline is what you will measure against after launch. Without it, you cannot tell whether a ranking change was caused by the migration or by normal fluctuation - and you cannot prove the migration was safe.
2. Build the complete URL inventory
Every URL on your current site needs to be catalogued, because every one that ranks or receives traffic must be redirected. This is the foundation of the redirect map that protects your SEO.
- Crawl your entire current site with a tool like Screaming Frog
- Export every product, collection, page, and blog URL
- Identify which URLs receive traffic, rank, or have backlinks - these are the priority redirects
- Flag any URL patterns that will need bulk redirect rules
A common mistake is to redirect only the obvious pages - the homepage and main categories - and miss the long tail of product and content URLs that collectively drive significant traffic. The full inventory prevents this.
3. Catalogue your data completely
Know exactly what data you have before you try to move it. Data you have not catalogued is data you cannot validate after migration.
- Total product count, including variants and their attributes
- Custom fields, metafields, and attributes attached to products
- Customer records, including tags, segments, and account data
- Order history volume and the data fields it contains
- Any product relationships - bundles, related products, cross-sells
4. Inventory every integration and app
Every system your store connects to needs a plan for how it will work on Shopify. Apps do not transfer between platforms, so each one needs a Shopify equivalent identified before you start.
- List every app and integration currently active on your store
- For each, note what business function it performs
- Identify the Shopify equivalent - an App Store app, a native feature, or custom development
- Flag any integration with no clear Shopify equivalent - these need early attention
- Document your ERP, PIM, WMS, and accounting connections specifically - these are the highest-risk
The integration inventory is where migrations most often hide their biggest risks. An ERP connection with no ready Shopify equivalent, discovered mid-build, can derail a timeline. Discovered during planning, it becomes a manageable custom development task.
5. Decide what to migrate and what to leave behind
A migration is an opportunity to shed accumulated cruft - but only if the decisions are deliberate.
- Identify discontinued products that do not need to migrate
- Decide whether to migrate old, low-value blog content or let it go
- Identify legacy integrations that are no longer needed
- Decide on your order history migration scope - all history, or a recent window
Leaving things behind is fine, as long as it is a decision rather than an accident. Anything you choose not to migrate that has ranking URLs still needs a redirect plan - either to a relevant alternative or, where appropriate, a deliberate removal.
6. Plan the redirect map
This is the single most important pre-migration deliverable. Every old URL that matters needs a defined new destination.
- Map every priority URL from the old site to its new Shopify URL
- Define bulk redirect rules for predictable URL patterns
- Plan redirects for any URLs whose content is being retired to the most relevant alternative
- Confirm the redirect implementation method for launch
7. Establish the launch and rollback plan
Know how you will go live, and what you will do if something goes wrong.
- Choose a low-traffic launch window
- Define who monitors what immediately after cutover
- Establish a rollback plan in case of a critical failure at launch
- Prepare customer communication about password resets if migrating customer accounts
The complete pre-migration checklist is exactly what the Zinzo Store Audit produces for you - a documented baseline, URL inventory, data catalogue, and integration map that becomes the foundation of a safe migration.