Most “Wix to Shopify migration” guides online are written by people who have never actually done one. They read like a copy-paste of Shopify's own help docs, minus the bits that go wrong at 11pm the night before a domain cutover.
We recently ran a full Wix-to-Shopify migration for a boutique Pilates studio client — new store build, domain DNS switch, URL redirects, and Google Search Console resubmission, all done without losing a single day of bookings or a single ranking position. This is the checklist we actually used, not the theoretical one.
If you're weighing up a move off Wix and want it handled properly, this is what the process really looks like — and where most businesses lose traffic without realising it.
Why Wix-to-Shopify migrations go wrong
Wix and Shopify structure URLs, redirects, and metadata differently under the hood. If you simply rebuild your site on Shopify and flip the domain over without a migration plan, you'll typically see:
● Broken URLs — Wix and Shopify generate different URL patterns by default, so every page you don't manually redirect becomes a 404.
● Lost rankings — Google has indexed your old URLs. Without 301 redirects mapping old to new, that authority doesn't transfer — it just disappears.
● Booking or checkout downtime — DNS changes that aren't sequenced properly can take a site offline for hours, which is especially costly for a service business taking live bookings.
● Search Console blind spots — Google Search Console is tied to a verified property. Migrate the domain without resubmitting, and you're flying blind on indexing issues for weeks.
None of this is unusual. It's also all avoidable with a proper pre-migration audit, which is where we start every project — see how we approach marketing strategy and growth planning for a client before any technical work begins.
Step 1: Audit the existing Wix site before touching anything
Before a single page gets rebuilt, map what already exists:
1. Full URL export — every live page, product, and blog post URL on the current Wix site.
2. Organic performance by URL — pull your top-performing pages from Search Console so you know which pages are carrying the most SEO weight and need the most careful handling.
3. Existing metadata — titles, meta descriptions, and any schema markup already in place.
4. Domain and DNS records — document current DNS settings, MX records (critical if email runs through the same domain), and SSL configuration.
Skipping this step is the single biggest reason migrations lose traffic. You can't redirect what you haven't mapped.
Step 2: Build the new Shopify store in parallel
Build and QA the new store on a Shopify .myshopify.com staging URL — never on the live domain. This is also the point where conversion-focused design decisions get made: navigation structure, booking or product page layout, mobile checkout flow. If you're rebuilding a service-based site (studio bookings, appointments, enquiries), this is worth treating as a proper conversion-focused website design project rather than a like-for-like copy of the old site — a migration is a genuine opportunity to fix whatever wasn't converting on Wix in the first place.
Step 3: Build the redirect map
This is the step most DIY migrations skip entirely, and it's non-negotiable.
For every URL identified in Step 1, map it to its new Shopify equivalent:
● Old Wix product/service page → new Shopify page or product URL
● Old blog post → new blog post URL
● Old category/collection pages → new Shopify collection URL
301 redirects need to be live before DNS cuts over, not after. Search engines and any visitor clicking an old bookmarked link or a link from another website should land on the correct new page from the moment the new domain goes live.
Step 4: Sequence the DNS cutover
This is the part that causes the most anxiety, and rightly so — get it wrong and your site (and email, if it's on the same domain) can go dark.
● Lower your DNS TTL (time to live) 24–48 hours in advance so changes propagate faster when you make them.
● Confirm MX records separately if email is hosted independently of the website — these often get overwritten by mistake during a DNS switch.
● Point the domain to Shopify's servers and add the domain in Shopify's admin.
● Monitor propagation and test the live site and email in parallel before considering the migration complete.
Doing this outside business hours, with a rollback plan ready, is standard practice — not overkill.
Step 5: Resubmit to Google Search Console
Once the new domain is live and redirects are confirmed working:
1. Verify the new property in Search Console (or confirm the existing verification carried over correctly).
2. Submit a fresh XML sitemap from the new Shopify store.
3. Use the URL Inspection tool to spot-check that key pages are indexing correctly.
4. Monitor the Coverage report over the following two to three weeks for any spike in 404s or “not found” errors — this is your early warning system if something in the redirect map was missed.
Step 6: Post-migration QA checklist
Before calling the migration done, we run through:
● Every redirect in the map tested manually (not just spot-checked)
● Booking/checkout flow tested end-to-end on desktop and mobile
● Site speed benchmarked against the old Wix site
● Meta titles and descriptions transferred or improved, not left blank
● Google Analytics and any tracking pixels reinstalled and firing correctly
● Email deliverability tested if MX records were touched
● Old Wix site fully decommissioned once the new site is confirmed stable — a live legacy site running alongside a new store is one of the most common (and most damaging) migration mistakes we see
The mistake that costs businesses the most
If there's one thing worth repeating: the redirect map is not optional. We've audited migrations from other providers where this step was skipped entirely, and the business lost months of organic rankings they'd built up over years — rankings that don't come back quickly once lost.
A migration should be invisible to your customers and, ideally, invisible to Google too — no ranking dips, no broken links, no downtime. That only happens with a proper plan before the domain cutover, not damage control after it.
Thinking about moving off Wix? We've done this end-to-end for service and e-commerce businesses across Melbourne and beyond. Have a look at our case studies or book a free 45-minute strategy session to talk through what a migration would look like for your site.