seo migration pricing
Pricing and engagement shape
No published rate card, because the variables genuinely change the number. What is published here is how scope is decided, what the minimum useful engagement is, and exactly what makes a project cost more.
- Definition
- The minimum useful scope — The minimum useful migration engagement is a redirect map covering every URL with organic traffic or external links, a crawl parity check between staging and production, and a launch-day verification pass. Below that, the work becomes advice rather than coverage, and advice does not prevent an incomplete redirect map from shipping.
Vague pricing pages lose qualified buyers. So while there is no number on this page, everything that decides the number is here — including the cases where the honest recommendation is not to hire anyone.
Why there is no rate card
A published price for migration work is either meaningless or dishonest. The same launch date can be a three-week engagement or a three-month one depending on facts nobody knows until they look.
What can be published is the shape: how scope is decided, what the floor is, and which variables move the number. That is on this page. It is more useful than a figure you would have to renegotiate after the first call.
How scope is decided
Four things set the size of the work. Nothing else moves it much.
- URL count, specifically the count of URLs with traffic or links. Ten thousand indexable URLs where four hundred earn traffic is a smaller job than two thousand where most of them do.
- Taxonomy reconciliation. If old and new categories line up, mapping is mostly rules. If they do not, every mismatch is a decision, and decisions take calendar time rather than working hours.
- Time before launch. Less time means narrower scope, not compressed scope. Eight weeks out we can shape the migration; two weeks out we can protect it.
- Access. Server logs, staging access and a permissive crawl policy each make the work faster and more certain. Their absence does not block the engagement but it does change what can be proven.
What does not change the price
Your industry. Your revenue. Whether you are venture-funded. How much you currently spend on marketing. These come up in pricing conversations across the industry and none of them change the amount of work a migration requires.
What changes the work is the URL inventory and the calendar. That is what the scope is built from.
How to make it cost less
Genuinely useful levers, in order of impact.
- Start earlier. The same work costs less when it is not compressed, and early involvement can remove entire problems rather than mitigating them.
- Do the diagnostic first. Arriving with a known number of unmapped URLs shortens scoping considerably.
- Nominate a content decision-maker up front. The slowest part of most engagements is waiting for someone to decide where retired pages should go.
- Give crawl and log access early. Chasing access is a real cost and it is entirely avoidable.
- Take the audit instead. If the plan is probably fine and you want it checked, a fixed-scope review is the cheaper correct answer.
| Shape | Covers | Right when | Priced as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-launch audit | Independent review of an existing plan, with a ranked risk register | A plan exists and you want it checked before committing | Fixed fee, scoped from URL count |
| Full migration engagement | Benchmark through to 90-day recovery tracking | Organic search is material and the migration is substantial | Project fee across the migration window |
| Advisory retainer | Ongoing availability through a long build, with QA at each milestone | The build runs over several months with staged releases | Monthly, for the duration of the build |
| Launch-day cover | Dedicated availability across cutover and the first 48 hours | Your team did the prep and wants verification on the day | Fixed fee for the window |
| Post-migration recovery | Forensic diagnosis and a ranked remediation plan | It already launched and traffic dropped | Diagnosis first, then scoped remediation |
When paying for this makes sense
- Organic search drives revenue you would notice losing.
- The URL inventory is large enough that mapping needs a document.
- A launch date exists and the SEO work has no named owner.
When it does not
- Organic search sends negligible traffic — there is little at risk to protect.
- Your existing team can name a redirect-map owner and describe their parity process.
- The site is small enough to map by hand in an afternoon.
- You want ongoing growth work rather than migration protection.
Questions people ask before starting
Why not publish prices?
Because a number without scope is not information. The same launch date can be three weeks of work or three months depending on URL count and how far apart the old and new taxonomies are. Publishing the variables is more honest than publishing a figure that changes on the first call.
What is the smallest engagement worth buying?
A redirect map for URLs with traffic or links, a staging parity check and launch-day verification. Below that you are buying advice rather than coverage, and advice does not stop an incomplete map from shipping on a fixed date.
Do you charge hourly or by project?
By project for migrations, because a fixed launch date and an open-ended hourly arrangement pull in opposite directions. Advisory retainers are monthly. Either way the deliverables are named in writing before the engagement starts.
What if the launch date moves?
It usually does, and it is normal. Where a delay extends the engagement materially, that gets discussed rather than absorbed silently or invoiced as a surprise. Delays are also frequently good news for the work.
Is the first conversation billable?
No. The scoping call is thirty minutes, has no deck, and exists to establish whether this engagement helps you. Sometimes the answer is that your team has it covered, which is a legitimate outcome of that call.
Start with the launch date
Tell us what is changing and when. We will tell you what is realistic in the time available before anyone discusses scope.
- Reply
- Typically within one business day.
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 9am–6pm US Eastern.
- First call
- Scoping, not a pitch. No deck.