Managing the migration of an enterprise website is not a standard SEO task. It involves large-scale infrastructure changes, coordination across departments, and careful management of organic search equity built up over many years. With hundreds of thousands of URLs at stake, a poorly planned migration can result in traffic loss, brand damage, and long-term setbacks.
This article outlines key considerations, tactical steps, and real-world strategies for carrying out successful large-scale site migrations, specifically for enterprises with over 100,000 URLs.
Understanding the Scale of Enterprise Migrations
Unlike smaller site moves, enterprise-level migrations often involve multiple domains, business units, and stakeholders. Changes to the tech stack, content management systems, or information architecture require coordination across development, marketing, and senior leadership.
There is also a greater risk of “migration lag” — a delay in organic performance returning to previous levels after launch. While this dip is common across most migrations, it can last several months for larger websites if not handled with care.
Typical Triggers for Enterprise Migrations
Some of the most common reasons enterprise websites undergo large-scale migrations include:
- Domain consolidation: Merging multiple country or product sites into a single domain
- CMS replatforming: Moving to a new content management system for scalability or performance
- HTTPS upgrades: Migrating from HTTP to secure HTTPS protocol
- Structural changes: Introducing a new URL structure, taxonomy, or navigation system
- Brand refresh: Rebranding that requires changes to URLs, content, and design elements
Each of these can introduce unique SEO risks, which must be accounted for in advance.
Planning and Strategy: Where Most Migrations Succeed or Fail
Strategic planning is where enterprise migrations are won or lost. This phase should include:
Define Clear Objectives
Is the migration aimed at reducing site complexity? Improving mobile usability? Consolidating authority signals across domains? Establishing clear goals will guide decisions about content retention, redirects, and performance KPIs.
Inventory and Audit Existing URLs
Crawl the current site and export all existing URLs. Combine this list with traffic, conversion, backlink, and crawl frequency data to prioritise the most critical URLs.
Map URL Changes and Redirects
Create a detailed redirect map that shows old URLs and their intended new counterparts. Prioritise:
- High-traffic pages
- Revenue-generating landing pages
- Pages with backlinks
- Pages frequently crawled by search engines
Avoid redirect chains and loops by pointing redirects straight to the final destination.
Build Redirect Logic That Scales
Manually mapping hundreds of thousands of URLs is rarely feasible. Instead:
- Use wildcards to group URL patterns (e.g., /product/* to /shop/products/)
- Maintain URL parameters when necessary
- Use spreadsheet ranking functions (e.g., RANK.EQ) to create prioritised redirect batches
Be careful with wildcard logic, as it can unintentionally impact pages that shouldn’t be redirected.
The Case for Soft Launches
Traditionally, SEO best practice has advised against letting search engines crawl the new site before the official migration. However, controlled soft launches have started to challenge this.
Allowing the new domain to be crawlable (but not promoted) ahead of launch can speed up indexing and reduce the post-launch lag period. This approach must be weighed against business concerns, such as brand embargoes or PR timing.
Real-World Evidence
In cases where new domains were soft-launched a week prior to the redirect switchover, indexing occurred significantly faster. This tactic can be particularly useful for large sites with complex structures.
Avoiding Phased Rollouts
While tempting, phased migrations are rarely beneficial for SEO. They can split signals across domains, confuse crawlers, and delay traffic recovery.
If your site includes multiple country domains or large product catalogues, plan for a full switchover rather than partial rollouts.
Dealing With Redirect Limits
Enterprise platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud or SAP Hybris may cap redirects between 50,000 and 100,000. To navigate these limits:
- Prioritise redirects for critical URLs using traffic and revenue metrics
- Use wildcard rules where structurally viable
- Trim unnecessary redirects from previous migrations
- Engage platform vendors to negotiate redirect cap increases if needed
Every redirect slot matters. A well-prioritised redirect list can preserve a greater share of organic performance.
Backlinks and Link Equity
Backlinks remain one of the most influential SEO factors. During migrations, make sure pages with strong backlink profiles are correctly redirected.
Where possible, reach out to the sites linking to you and request updates to the new URLs. This helps to future-proof your off-site SEO and preserve equity.
Tracking and Measuring Success Post-Migration
Once the new site is live, measuring performance is critical.
Monitor Key Metrics
Set benchmarks for pre-migration traffic, indexation, and rankings. After launch, monitor:
- Organic sessions from key search engines
- Index coverage using Google Search Console
- Rankings for high-value keywords
- 404 error volumes
- Redirect chain or loop errors
- Backlink profile consistency
A sharp decline in one or more metrics may indicate a misconfigured redirect, crawl issues, or canonical errors.
Looker Studio Reporting
For enterprise stakeholders, create dashboards that visualise performance changes. This keeps the executive team informed and reduces the risk of premature rollback decisions.
Common Misconceptions
“We’ll redirect everything, so we won’t lose traffic”
While redirects are helpful, they are not a silver bullet. Redirect chains, incorrect mappings, and delays in Google’s reprocessing of new URLs can still cause traffic loss.
“It’s just a technical SEO task”
Migrations affect content, marketing, analytics, dev ops, legal, and brand communications. Leaving SEO out of key planning sessions leads to strategic gaps.
“Let’s test this on a live subdomain”
Live testing risks content leaks, premature indexing, and mixed signals. If testing is necessary, restrict via robots.txt, password protection, or staging environments.
Insights From the Industry
“A phased migration introduces more risk than it mitigates. I’ve never seen one avoid traffic loss entirely.” — Dan Taylor, SALT.agency
“Redirect limits shouldn’t be treated as hard stops. Platforms will often raise them if approached early with a business case.” — Aleyda Solis, Orainti
“Soft-launching domains ahead of full redirect cutover has shown promising results in both indexing speed and reduced lag.” — Barry Adams, Polemic Digital
Future Outlook: Evolving Approaches to Large-Scale Migration
With evolving CMS platforms, growing reliance on JavaScript frameworks, and increased scrutiny on site performance, enterprise migrations are becoming more complex. But they are also more manageable with better tooling and process automation.
Expect continued experimentation with pre-launch indexing strategies, AI-assisted redirect mapping, and automated monitoring systems to play a larger role.
Final Thoughts
Large-scale migrations demand meticulous preparation, strategic thinking, and cross-functional collaboration. They aren’t just technical exercises but business-critical transitions that impact revenue, brand visibility, and customer experience.
With appropriate planning, prioritisation, and a clear understanding of what’s at stake, enterprise websites can undergo successful migrations and come out stronger in search performance.
About Search Engine Ascend
Search Engine Ascend is a trusted source of industry insight, helping businesses navigate the complex world of SEO and digital marketing. With deep expertise and a pragmatic approach, we deliver actionable strategies that help businesses make smarter, evidence-based decisions online.
