We hired Relish to rebuild a fairly complicated website migrating an old database with a lot of data that needed to be organized and cleaned up. We had some specific principle and goals we wanted to archive. Relish was able to work with our requests and through the next two months we were able to migrate our old site with a large membership to move pretty much seamlessly to our new platform. When issues came up or we needed to make a change, Relish made quick work of the unexpected.
Website Migration – A Fresh Start Without Starting Over in Search
You’ve outgrown your website platform, your domain, or even your name. We’ll move you somewhere better – without losing the search rankings, links, and traffic you spent years earning.
Moving Your Website Shouldn't Feel Like Moving Your House in the Dark
Here’s the conversation we have more often than you’d think. Someone tells us their Squarespace site has hit a wall, or their WordPress install is held together with duct tape and a plugin nobody’s updated since 2019, or the organization just rebranded and needs a new domain. They know they need to move.
And then they get quiet.
“But what happens to our Google rankings?”
It’s the correct question. A website migration done carelessly can wipe out years of search visibility overnight – broken links, missing pages, and a Google that suddenly has no idea where you went. That’s why so many organizations stay on a platform they’ve outgrown. The devil you know, and all that.
The good news: a migration done carefully doesn’t just protect what you’ve built. It’s often the moment your site finally gets better in search. (We have receipts. Keep scrolling.)
You Might Be Ready for a Website Migration If…
- Your website builder made launch easy, and everything since then difficult
- You’ve hit the ceiling on what your platform can do – forms, donations, integrations, SEO controls, accessibility
- You’re rebranding, merging, or changing your name, and your site needs a new domain and URLs to match – even if it’s staying on the same platform
- Your URLs are a mess (/?page_id=4471, anyone?) and nobody remembers why
- Your site has sprawled into hundreds of pages nobody visits (or can find)
- Your current platform’s monthly fees keep climbing while your control keeps shrinking
- Your old site is slow, insecure, or built on software that’s no longer supported
What a Bad Migration Breaks
We’re not trying to scare you. (Okay, a little.) But these are the things that quietly go sideways when a site moves without a plan:
- Rankings. Every URL that changes without a redirect is a page Google has to rediscover – or forget.
- Links. Years of links from partners, press, and funders suddenly point to error pages.
- Forms and donations. The contact form that "worked on the old site" stops sending anywhere.
- Analytics. Tracking falls off during the move, and you lose the before-and-after picture you need.
- Email. A careless DNS change on a domain move can take your inbox down with your website.
That sounds like a lot (and it is), but keeping track of all that is our job.
Our SEO-Safe Website Migration Process
1. Inventory and benchmark.
We crawl every page on your current site and capture where you stand today in Google Search Console and GA4 – which pages bring in traffic, which keywords you rank for, and which pages other sites link to and AI references. That baseline is how we prove the move worked.
2. Map and trim
Every old URL gets a destination. Pages that earn their keep move over. Thin, outdated, and duplicate pages get consolidated or retired – with redirects, so nothing becomes a dead end. A leaner site can often be a stronger one.
3. Build and move the content.
If you are switching platforms (moving from Squarespace to WordPress, for example), we rebuild your site on its new CMS and carry over the details search engines care about – page titles, meta descriptions, headings, image alt text, and structured data – while fixing what was broken along the way.
4. Launch day.
301 redirects go live, DNS moves carefully (your email stays put), sitemaps get submitted, and if you’re changing domains, we tell Google about the move in Search Console and give Bing and Yahoo! a heads up over in their systems.
5. Watch and tune.
For the weeks after launch, we monitor for crawl errors, missing pages, and ranking shifts, and fix items that slipped through before they become problems.
Migrations That Moved Results, Too
Calibre Engineering – Squarespace to WordPress, Plus S2O
Calibre Engineering had outgrown Squarespace. As part of a Strategy FIRST engagement, we moved them to WordPress with an SEO-safe migration. When Calibre and S2O Design came together in a business union, we united the two online too, giving S2O’s whitewater and river engineering work a real home on Calibre’s site. Then we kept going. Their “whitewater engineering” page climbed from page four of Google to page one. Searches showing Calibre on page one rose 65% (383 vs. 232), and whitewater impressions grew 6.6x year over year.
Source: Google Search Console, Jun 6–Oct 4, 2026 vs. same period 2025.
Seniors Resource Center – New Domain, New Platform, Nearly Double the Traffic
Seniors Resource Center, a Denver nonprofit, needed two moves at once: a new domain and a new home on WordPress. We trimmed their site down to far fewer, stronger pages and moved it without losing their search footing. The result? Traffic nearly doubled year over year.
Marillac to PrimeHealth+ – New Name, New Brand, New URL
Prime Health Plus (formerly Marillac), a Grand Junction healthcare nonprofit serving Colorado’s Western Slope, came to us mid-transformation: new name, new brand, and a new URL to go with them. We built the new site, moved everything over to primehealthplus.org, and protected as much of their hard-earned search performance as possible along the way. In the first year after launch, new users grew by more than 150%
Three Ways to Make the Move
The Straight Move. You like your site. You just need it somewhere better. We move your content, design, and SEO to a new platform or domain as faithfully as possible, with the full redirect and monitoring process above.
The Rename. Sometimes the site doesn’t need to go anywhere – your organization does. New name, new domain, cleaner URLs, same site you already like. PrimeHealth+ (formerly Marillac), Seniors Resource Center, and OSI (formerly Stepping UP) all moved to a new name or a new URL with us. And when Calibre Engineering and S2O Design united, we brought both firms together under one site. We handle the domain change, the redirects, the change of address in Google Search Console, and the dozens of places your old name hides – page copy, metadata, image file names, structured data, and that one PDF from 2017. Your visitors and Google follow you to the new address, and your old name quietly retires.
Move and Improve. If you’re moving anyway, it’s the perfect time to fix what’s been bugging you – tighten the content, refresh the design, and rebuild the paths that turn visitors into supporters, clients, and donors. This is where most of our migrations land, and where the biggest gains are usually unveiled.
Start with a Migration Assessment ($399 nonprofit / $699 standard): It starts with a conversation: tell us about your move, and we’ll set up a quick call to get to know each other and make sure we’re a good fit. From there, we inventory your current site, benchmark where you stand in Google, and hand you a written plan: what moves, what retires, how your URLs and redirects will be handled, which of the three options fits, and what the move will cost. If you hire us for the migration within 30 days, the assessment fee is credited toward the project. If you’d rather take the plan and run with it, it’s yours to keep. Assessment pricing covers sites up to 200 pages. Bigger site? We’ll scope a custom assessment with you, so let’s talk. Most move-and-improve projects fall within our standard website range of $5,000–$30,000, with special pricing for nonprofits.
Where We Move You From (and To)
Most of our migrations land on WordPress – it’s flexible, it’s yours, and your team can manage it without calling us every time you need to change a sentence. We regularly move sites from:
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Weebly and GoDaddy
- Website Builder
- Older or abandoned
- WordPress installs
- Drupal, Joomla, and custom or static HTML sites
Not on WordPress, and not planning to be? We work across many platforms, including Duda. Tell us where you are and where you want to go.
Moving In? Set Up the Alarm System.
A brand-new site is the easiest site to keep healthy – so a migration is the natural moment to start a care plan. Our Health & Security plans (Basecamp, Ascend, and Apex) keep WordPress updated, backed up, monitored, and secure behind the scenes, so your shiny new site stays that way. Chores still suck. We’ll do them.
Website Migration FAQs
Will we lose our Google rankings when we migrate?
Some movement in the first few weeks is normal while Google re-crawls your site. With a complete redirect map and careful monitoring, rankings typically settle back – and a cleaner, faster site often ends up ranking better than the old one did.
How long does a website migration take?
It depends on the size of the site and whether you’re moving as-is or improving along the way. A straight move of a small site can take a few weeks; a move-and-improve project runs on a typical website timeline. We’ll give you a real schedule after we see your site.
Can we keep our domain name?
Yes. Most migrations keep the same domain, which makes the move simpler. If you’re changing domains, we handle the redirects and tell Google about the move so you keep your search history.
Can you change our name, domain, or URLs without rebuilding our site?
Yes. Some of our migrations never leave the platform at all. An organization rebrands, changes its domain, or cleans up years of messy URLs on the site it already has. The process is the same: every old URL gets a redirect, Google gets told about the move, and your old name gets swept out of the corners where it likes to hide.
Will our email be affected?
It shouldn’t be. Email and websites share DNS settings, so we plan DNS changes carefully to keep your inbox running while your site moves.
Can you move our blog posts, forms, and donation pages?
Yes. Blog posts, images, forms, and donation integrations all come with you – and if any of them need rebuilding on the new platform, we’ll tell you up front.
Do we have to redesign our site to migrate it?
No. A straight move is a perfectly good option. That said, if your site has been frustrating you, a migration is the cheapest moment you’ll ever have to fix it.
Who will host our new site?
We’ll recommend reliable hosting that fits your size and budget, and help you set it up. You own your site and your accounts.
The Kudos
We love our clients. Hear from people like you about their experience working with Relish
Kevin A. Kerndt
President | Colorado Film and Video Association
Our agency has partnered with Stu and his team at Relish for several years now, and they’ve consistently been outstanding to work with for our more complex website projects. We value Relish for their thoughtful, strategic approach to web design and development that always keeps in mind each client’s audience and goals – something your run-of-the-mill web developer often loses sight of. Stu’s team excels at distilling complex projects into a logical approach, delivering clean, user-friendly builds for both back-end editing and visitor-facing UX/UI, and offering clear, meaningful guidance to us and our clients throughout the process.
Relish works with us in an open, transparent way so that clients know they have a combined team of experts behind them, and Stu and his crew are excellent at asking the right questions that are important to the build and responding in real-time to client questions, which makes collaboration seamless. Their expertise and insight have been invaluable, and together we’ve been able to deliver meaningful value to every project. Highly recommend!
Julie Hober
Principal | Ryan/Sawyer Marketing
Working with Relish Studio has been a great experience for Seniors Resource Center. Their team took the time to understand our mission and audience, helping us create a website and marketing strategy that truly reflect our work and values. The process was smooth, collaborative, and efficient from start to finish.
Relish Studio’s technical skill, design expertise, and strategic insight made a real difference. Our site is user-friendly, visually engaging, and effectively communicates the services we offer to seniors and families. The positive feedback we’ve received speaks to the quality of their work and we couldn’t be happier with the results.
Teresa Devine
Development Director, Seniors Resource Center
Ready to Move?
Tell us where your site lives now, where you’d like it to go, and what’s keeping you up at night about the move. We’ll tell you honestly what it’ll take. Ready to start? Tell us about your move. Rather just talk? That’s what the other button is for.