Moving your online shop to a new platform is a bit like moving a physical shop to a new high street. You get a fresh start, a better building, and maybe even more foot traffic. But there is one big fear that every shop owner has: “Will my regular customers be able to find me?”
In the online world, those “regular customers” are often people finding you through Google. If you have spent years building up your presence on search engines, the last thing you want to do is lose it all just because you switched software. This is the biggest worry when it comes to an EKM migration. The good news is that if you plan carefully, you don’t have to lose your hard-earned rankings. In fact, moving to Shopify can eventually help you rank even higher.
This guide will walk you through the essential steps to migrate your store safely without destroying your SEO.
Why SEO Suffers Without Proper Migration Planning
Imagine you have a popular product page that ranks number one on Google for “red leather handbags”. Google has stored the address (URL) of that page. If you move to Shopify and that address changes—but you don’t tell Google—anyone clicking that link will hit a “404 Error: Page Not Found”.
When Google sees that your pages are broken, it assumes your site is no longer reliable. It will quickly drop your rankings, and your traffic will plummet. This is why SEO is often the first casualty of a rushed migration.
Different platforms structure their links differently. EKM might look like yourshop.com/red-handbag, while Shopify might look like yourshop.com/products/red-handbag. Because the addresses are different, you need a map to connect the old to the new. Without this map, search engines get lost, and your visibility disappears.
Step 1: Audit Old URLs & Structure
Before you move a single product, you need to know exactly what you currently have. You cannot redirect pages if you don’t know they exist.
Start by creating a complete list of every page on your EKM site. This includes:
- Product pages
- Category (collection) pages
- Blog posts
- Information pages (About Us, Contact, Delivery)
You can use tools like “Screaming Frog” or even your Google Analytics data to find a list of your most visited pages. This list is your master inventory. Prioritise the pages that get the most traffic or have the most links from other websites pointing to them. These are your “VIP pages”, and they need the most care during your EKM migration.
Step 2: Map Redirects in Shopify
This is the most critical technical step. Once you have your list of old EKM URLs, you need to match them up with their new locations on Shopify. This process is called “301 redirect mapping”.
A 301 redirect is a permanent signpost. It tells Google: “This page has moved permanently to this new address.” When a customer or search engine tries to visit the old EKM link, the 301 redirect automatically sends them to the correct Shopify page.
How to do it:
- Create a spreadsheet with two columns: “Old EKM URL” and “New Shopify URL”.
- For every row, match the old product to the new product link.
- Upload these redirects into Shopify’s “URL Redirects” section in the navigation menu.
If you skip this step, or do it incorrectly, you will lose traffic. It is that simple. When we handle a Sellerdeck Migration or EKM project, we spend a significant amount of time double-checking this map to ensure zero traffic leakage.
Step 3: Preserve Meta Titles & Descriptions
SEO isn’t just about the URL; it’s also about the content that search engines read. The “Meta Title” and “Meta Description” are the bits of text that show up in Google search results.
If your EKM store ranks well, it is likely because your keywords in these titles are working. When you move to Shopify, try to keep these the same, at least initially.
- Meta Title: The blue clickable headline in search results.
- Meta Description: The short paragraph of grey text underneath.
Copy these over to your new Shopify products and pages. Shopify makes it easy to edit the “Search engine listing preview” at the bottom of every product page. Keeping these consistent helps reassure Google that the content on the new page is the same relevant content it liked before.
Step 4: Test Before Launch
Never launch your new store without testing your redirects first. Once you have imported your data and set up your redirects, test them.
Click on a sample of your old EKM links. Do they take you to the correct page on your new Shopify site? If you click on an old link for “Blue T-Shirt” and land on the “Homepage” or an “Error” page, something is wrong.
You should also check your internal links. If a blog post on your site links to a product, make sure that link still works. Broken links frustrate users and hurt your SEO score. A thorough testing phase is the safety net that prevents disaster.
Shopify SEO Advantages Over EKM
While the migration process requires care, the destination is worth the journey. Shopify offers several SEO advantages over EKM that can help you grow in the long run.
- Site Speed: Shopify uses a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) to load your images and scripts incredibly fast. Google loves fast websites and often ranks them higher.
- Mobile Optimisation: All Shopify themes are fully responsive, meaning they work perfectly on mobile phones. Since most searches now happen on mobile, this is a huge ranking factor.
- Clean Code: Shopify’s themes are generally coded very cleanly, making it easy for search engine bots to “crawl” and understand your site structure.
- Apps: The Shopify App Store has powerful SEO apps that can automate things like image optimisation, structured data (rich snippets), and checking for broken links.
How Media Mole Handles SEO During Migration
At Media Mole, we understand that for many businesses, their search ranking is their livelihood. We don’t treat SEO as an afterthought; it is central to our EKM migration process.
We follow a strict protocol:
- Comprehensive Audit: We crawl your existing site to find every single URL.
- Intelligent Mapping: We carefully map old links to the most relevant new page. If a product is discontinued, we redirect it to its parent category so you don’t lose the traffic.
- Technical Setup: We handle all the settings in Shopify to ensure search engines can read your new site correctly.
- Post-Launch Monitoring: After the switch, we watch your Google Search Console data closely to catch and fix any issues immediately.
Whether it is a Sellerdeck Migration or moving from EKM, our goal is to protect your history while building your future.
Summary
Migrating from EKM to Shopify doesn’t have to be a nightmare for your SEO. It requires patience, organization, and a clear plan. By auditing your current site, setting up 301 redirects correctly, and testing thoroughly, you can switch platforms safely.
Once you are on Shopify, you will have a faster, more mobile-friendly site that gives you the tools to rank even higher than before. If the technical side feels overwhelming, remember that experts are available to help guide you through the process. Your SEO is an asset—protect it, and it will keep paying dividends for years to come.