Moving off the platform you started on: what a careful migration looks like

Businesses rarely leave a platform because it is broken. They leave because they have outgrown it. The site builder charges more each year for less. The store or booking platform handles the standard case and nothing else. The website has collected so many add-ons that nobody wants to touch it. Or the business's records are spread across three products, none of which it really controls.

The platform changes from one business to the next: Square, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, or a mix. The way we move a business off one doesn't. Here is how we would do it, using a typical example: a service business with a dozen staff, around forty pages, a few forms, a booking page and a small online shop.

1. Inventory before anything moves

The first week is reading, not building. We list every page and its address, every product, every form and where its submissions go, every add-on or app and what it actually does, and every outside service the platform talks to: payments, email lists, booking, analytics, accounting.

This list always finds surprises. An app installed for one promotion years ago and still billing. A form that has been sending enquiries to an inbox nobody checks. A page that still gets search traffic and isn't linked from anywhere. Each one gets a decision: keep, replace, or retire.

2. Get your records out, complete

Your clients, orders, bookings, products and form submissions are the part of the platform that matters most. Every platform can export them; few make it obvious what the export leaves out. We export everything, check it against what the platform shows, and give you a copy in ordinary formats before anything else changes.

3. Decide what the new setup needs to do

A migration is the cheapest moment to fix things, because everything is being touched anyway. We agree, in writing, what the new setup will do that the old one didn't: perhaps the booking form asks the intake questions the front desk currently asks by phone, or enquiries land in one list with a status instead of three inboxes.

We also agree what it will not do, and what stays where it is. Your payment provider, for example, often stays exactly as it is; we move what sits around it. Scope written down at this stage is what keeps the project on its price.

4. Move the content, and check it one by one

Text, images, products and records are moved across and checked against the original, one at a time. Old formatting quirks are fixed rather than copied. Images are resized for phones, which is where most visitors now arrive.

5. Redirects, so nothing you earned is lost

Every old address gets a permanent redirect to its new home. This is the step most often skipped, and it is the one that protects years of search ranking and every link anyone has ever shared. We test each redirect before launch, and again after.

6. Your domain and your data stay yours

The domain stays registered in your name, with your account, not ours. Your content and records are exported to you in formats you can open without us. If you ever want to leave, you can.

7. Launch, then a walkthrough

We launch at a quiet time, watch the first days closely, and then walk the people who update things through how to do it. The aim is that whoever adds a product or writes a post can do it without calling anyone.

8. Then the part most agencies skip

Launch day is the start of support. Each month we check in, look at what is being used, fix what needs fixing, and build what is next: a new service page, a better intake form, a page for a new location. The setup keeps up with the business instead of falling behind it again.

If you have outgrown the platform you started on, whichever one it is, book an intro call. We will tell you honestly whether a migration is worth it, or whether what you have just needs tidying.

Service: Migrations.