Catastrophic traffic drop the DAY we moved to Shopify

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

A site owner experienced a catastrophic traffic drop immediately after migrating from Adobe Muse & BigCommerce to Shopify. The migration was complicated after a developer took $10K and disappeared, leaving only a basic theme setup.

Key Issues:

  • Traffic plummeted to zero despite implementing 301 redirects
  • URL structure changes were forced by Shopify’s requirements (/pages, /products, /collections)
  • Multiple pages had to be renamed, requiring redirect updates
  • Two analytics screenshots show the dramatic traffic decline

Proposed Solutions:
A responder provided a technical checklist including:

  • Verify old URL redirects are working
  • Ensure proper Google Analytics setup from previous site
  • Check site indexing and Search Console submission
  • Audit meta titles, descriptions, and schema migration
  • Review internal/external links for errors
  • Run SEO audit tools (SEMrush/Ahrefs) to check for penalties

Status: The discussion remains open. A later commenter (years after the original post) is facing a similar BigCommerce-to-Shopify migration and seeks advice on recovery timeline and effective solutions.

Summarized with AI on November 2. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

We hired a guy to move our site from Adobe Muse & BigCommerce to one site in Shopify. After paying him $10K, he disappeared (with the money of course). And didn’t do jack squat for the Shopify site but get the Theme running. So - I’m trying to do this migration myself, but something is not working correctly.

I did all the 301 / redirects… but several pages were not able to keep the same URL’s (Shopify requires “pages” “products” “collections”), so I had to rename several pages… and update the 301.

But our website shot straight DOWN to zero - this should not happen!

If anyone is able to give me any suggestions - it would be GREATLY appreciated!

www.BrickWoodOvens.com

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2

Hello There

Sorry to hear that,

To solve these traffic issues all we have to do is go with below checklist

  • URLs check-up [Old URL redirect]

  • Site is indexed on Shopify

  • I can see google analytics is not set up so old Google analytics we have to pick up and Set

  • 301, 303 redirections

  • Pages mapping with Same URL Structure

  • Checking the Meta Title & Description

  • Checking the internal and external site links and errors

  • If old Site have Schema we have to move those also

  • Once everything is done we should submit the site to the search console

  • Run the Audit again in Sem rush or Ahref

  • Do all the possible optimization & Check is there any penalty or all normal.

We can do those steps to make sure everything is aligned.

Can we talk more?

We can schedule a call for that.

Thank you

3

Hi Brickwood,

I know your post was a few years ago. Can you give me any pointers or suggestions? I am migrating from BigCommerce to Shopify now, and I wonder how long it took you to regain traffic. Also - did you make any changes that helped? I have not moved yet - still in the migration stage. Thank you for your time!

Cathy