The challenge

A mid-sized e-commerce brand had migrated to a new platform. Within weeks, organic traffic dropped by 60%. Rankings for core category and product terms disappeared. The client needed a fast diagnosis and clear action plan.

Approach

A technical audit revealed:

Large chunks of product URLs were not indexed after migration
Redirect chains from legacy URLs were broken or inefficient
Core Web Vitals had regressed, particularly LCP
Several key category pages had been consolidated without proper redirects

We prioritised fixes using a RICE-style framework: indexing first, then redirects, then performance. A content gap analysis identified where competitors had gained ground during the disruption.

Results

Traffic recovered to pre-migration levels within 4 months
Revenue from organic search up 35% year-on-year
Key category terms back in top 5
Core Web Vitals passing across key landing pages

Key learnings

Migration audits need to run in parallel with the build, not after. Indexing monitoring from day one would have caught the gap earlier.