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A website migration consultant is a specialist who plans and manages major changes to a website's platform, hosting, domain, or URL structure. Their main job is to make sure the move happens without lost content, broken pages, or a drop in search traffic.

Website migrations look simple from the outside, but small mistakes can be costly. A missing redirect, a blocked page, or a forgotten tracking script can quietly erase rankings and sales that took years to build.

A website migration consultant prevents that by creating redirect maps, launch checklists, and post-launch checks. They work on sites of every size, from brochure websites to online stores with thousands of products, and many also carry out the technical migration themselves.

Website migrations usually fall into one or more of these categories:

1. Platform migrations: moving from one CMS or ecommerce platform to another, such as WordPress to Shopify or Wix to Webflow.
2. Hosting migrations: moving the same site to a new server or hosting provider.
3. Domain changes: rebranding to a new domain name or consolidating several domains into one.
4. Protocol changes: moving from HTTP to HTTPS.
5. URL structure changes: reorganizing categories, folders, or page slugs.
6. Redesigns with content changes: launching a new design while removing, merging, or rewriting pages.

The more of these changes happen at once, the higher the risk. A consultant helps you decide whether to combine them or stage them separately.

A website migration can temporarily affect search rankings, but careful planning keeps any dip small and short. The biggest risks come from URLs that change without 301 redirects, missing metadata, lost internal links, and pages accidentally blocked from search engines.

A website migration consultant protects your traffic by mapping every old URL to its new equivalent, preserving titles and descriptions, and checking that search engines can crawl the new site from day one.

Google's own guidance on site moves and migrations recommends the same approach. If your site depends heavily on organic traffic, involving SEO specialists before and after launch adds another layer of protection.

A developer focuses on the technical move itself. They transfer files, databases, products, and customer data, then rebuild or configure the new site.

A website migration consultant focuses on risk. They plan what should move, how URLs will change, which redirects are needed, how to test the new site, and what to monitor after launch. Their deliverables include redirect maps, launch checklists, and post-launch reports.

On Fiverr, many sellers offer both. For a simple hosting move, a developer offering website backup and migration services may be all you need. For platform changes, domain changes, or large stores, a consultant-led approach is usually worth the extra planning.

Based on Fiverr marketplace data, starting prices for website migration gigs on this page range from about $100 for simple cloning or hosting moves to $3,000 or more for full platform migrations such as WordPress or WooCommerce to Shopify. Migration specialists who bill hourly commonly charge between $35 and $90 per hour.

Basic packages usually cover a small site or a single task, such as moving hosting. Standard and Premium tiers can include product and customer data transfer, design rebuilds, redirect mapping, and SEO checks.

Price depends on:

• Site size, including pages, products, and blog posts
• Type of migration, since platform changes take more work than hosting moves
• Data complexity, such as customer accounts, orders, and reviews
• Design work, if the site is being rebuilt at the same time

A well-run website migration usually follows these steps:

1. Crawl and inventory: every URL, page, and asset on the current site is recorded.
2. Benchmarking: traffic, rankings, and conversions are captured so changes can be measured.
3. Redirect mapping: each old URL is matched to its new destination.
4. Staging build: the new site is built or copied to a private test environment.
5. Pre-launch checklist: redirects, metadata, tracking, forms, and checkout are tested.
6. Launch: DNS is updated, redirects go live, and sitemaps are submitted.
7. Post-launch monitoring: crawl errors, rankings, and traffic are tracked for several weeks.

.Small sites may move within a few days. Large stores usually take several weeks.

Website migration consultants rely on several types of tools:

• Site crawlers: Screaming Frog and Sitebulb to capture every URL before and after the move
• Search tools: Google Search Console for indexing, coverage, and crawl errors
• Analytics: Google Analytics 4 to compare traffic and conversions before and after launch
• Migration plugins and apps: Duplicator or All-in-One WP Migration for WordPress, and Matrixify or Cart2Cart for store data
• SEO platforms: tools like Semrush for tracking rankings through the move

Hosting choices matter too. If you're also switching providers, this guide to choosing and setting up web hosting is a useful reference before the planning call.

Popular add-ons for website migration gigs include:

• Redirect mapping for large sites with thousands of URLs
• Design rebuilds on the new platform
• Customer and order history transfer for ecommerce stores
• Extended post-launch monitoring beyond the standard window
• Tracking setup to reconnect analytics, pixels, and tag managers

New hosting plans, platform subscriptions, and paid migration apps are not included and are billed separately. Content rewriting and new product photography are usually outside scope as well.

If you're relaunching a store with a fresh look, these ecommerce website revamp tips help you plan design changes alongside the move. Reconnecting reporting is often handled by web analytics services.