A migration in January. Two months of decline. Then record traffic.
How an online pharmacy with about 12,000 products and 120,000 visits a month replaced its site in the busiest season — and today has more traffic than ever.
OF PREPARATION BETWEEN THE FIRST CALL AND THE MIGRATION
−20%
TEMPORARY DIP IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY
Record
TRAFFIC TODAY — HIGHER THAN ANY YEAR BEFORE THE REDESIGN
THE STARTING POINT
A large site, peak season, one month
The task: get through the switch without a lasting loss of rankings — and use the new structure to grow.
About 12,000 products
Thousands of category, product and filter URLs — each with rankings that had to survive the switch.
120,000 visits a month
At that volume every percentage point of decline is real orders, not statistics.
January — the peak season
The migration was scheduled for the strongest month for pharmacies. A mistake then is the most expensive kind.
One month before launch
The client contacted me a month before the planned migration. Not much time — but enough to prepare.
THE APPROACH
How we got through the migration
After that — the same work as with any store: categories, filters, copy, authority. That is why the dip did not just recover, it turned into growth.
1
An inventory of the old site
Every URL with traffic and rankings: categories, products, filters. And where each one goes in the new structure.
2
1:1 redirects
Every old URL leads to the exact new one — not to the homepage. Headings and copy — carried over.
3
Checks before launch
The staging version crawled and verified: redirects, titles, indexing — before Google saw the new site.
4
The first weeks
Continuous monitoring after launch: errors, indexing, rankings for the key categories. Fixes made immediately.
TIMELINE
Traffic before and after the migration
First call in December, migration in January, a dip through January and February, then rankings returning and growth. The curve is schematic — it shows the direction, not exact values.
A short dip after a migration is normal. A lasting loss is not.
The difference lies in the preparation before launch and the response during the first weeks. Bring SEO in before the redesign, not after it.
FOR YOUR STORE
Planning a redesign or a new platform?
01
You are changing the store’s platform or design.
02
You have thousands of products and categories with rankings you do not want to lose.
03
The developers are ready, but nobody is accountable for the traffic from Google.
The best time to bring me in is while the new structure is still being designed. But a month before launch can be enough — as in this case. More on the process: SEO migration.
ABOUT ME
Who you will be working with
I am Boris Katsarov. I hand tasks to your developers in their own format and sign off the work once it is done.
The migration is only the beginning — afterwards the site needs the same work as any store: foundation, categories, authority. More in About me.
FOCUS
Online stores
categories, filters, product pages and the technical foundation
RETENTION
1.5+ years
that is how long most of my clients stay
EVERY MONTH
Report and a call
rankings, traffic and orders from Google — and a plan for the next month