What you’ll learn in this section

We work with Leftfield to prevent SEO degradation and ensuring your Shopify store goes live search-ready, AI-readable, and structured for long-term visibility.

• Why SEO and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) must be built into your migration plan
• How to prevent traffic loss when moving from legacy platforms to Shopify
• How to optimise your new Shopify site for Google and AI-driven search engines
• The technical and structural steps Leftfield uses to ensure a search-ready launch
• How to turn migration into an opportunity to amplify discoverability rather than risking it

The hidden risk of migration: SEO degradation

When brands migrate to Shopify, the focus is often on:

• design
• UX
• product data
• checkout
• integrations

SEO is usually treated as an afterthought.

But ignoring SEO during migration is one of the fastest ways to:

• lose rankings
• lose organic traffic
• break content discoverability
• weaken brand visibility across AI and search engines

Leftfield specialise in preventing this.

Their approach ensures your Shopify store goes live search-ready, AI-readable, and structured for long-term visibility.
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Why SEO & GEO cannot be “fixed Later”

Most sites that come to Leftfield haven’t been fully optimised — even before migration.

Pausing SEO during a rebuild is a common mistake. Instead, migration should be treated as the perfect moment to:

• rebuild technical foundations
• fix legacy issues
• clean up URL structures
• improve information architecture
• strengthen entity and topical signals
• adapt for AI-driven search results (SGE, Copilot, Anthropic, OpenAI)

This ensures the new site doesn’t just retain visibility, it gains visibility.
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Leftfield’s end-to-end SEO & GEO migration framework

Their structured approach reduces migration risk and boosts performance.

1. Audit & Benchmark Before the Move

Leftfield perform a full crawl of the existing site to identify:

• every URL
• performance metrics
• link equity
• SEO issues
• content gaps
• missing entity / brand signals (vital for SGE + AI engines)

This becomes the baseline for evaluating post-migration success.
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2. Strategic URL & Redirect Mapping

Every legacy URL gets a specific destination.

No catch-all redirects.

No lazy routing.

Accurate mapping preserves:

• link equity
• user journeys
• ranking stability

This step alone protects years of organic value.
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3. GEO Enhancement for AI Discovery

Leftfield build structures that make the site more understandable for:

• Google’s SGE
• Bing Copilot
• AI answer engines
• LLM-based retrieval systems

This includes:

• entity-based schema
• structured data frameworks
• improved internal linking
• semantic clarity
• topical reinforcement

It’s SEO, modernised for AI.
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Technical SEO Built Into the Shopify Build

Leftfield collaborate directly with development teams to ensure:

• correct canonicalisation
• schema markup
• metadata structure
• performance optimisation
• crawl-efficient site architecture
• mobile-first standards

This ensures the Shopify store:

• loads fast
• indexes correctly
• ranks confidently
• becomes AI-readable and context-rich
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Multi-crawl pre-launch testing

Leftfield run multiple crawls of the staging site before launch to validate:

• full redirect behaviour
• internal linking
• metadata
• structured data
• canonical tags
• missing pages
• crawl traps

Simultaneously, they optimise:

• speed
• image compression
• code efficiency
• mobile UX

The goal: eliminate risk before the public ever sees the site.
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Launch, monitoring & post-migration optimisation

After going live, Leftfield:

• monitor redirects
• review indexing in Google Search Console + Bing Webmaster Tools
• submit XML sitemaps
• validate structured data
• track crawl activity
• react to any early ranking volatility
• optimise based on live data signals

This ensures the new site not only avoids SEO damage, it outperforms the old one.
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Why This Approach Works

• SEO & GEO are embedded from day one
• Traffic is protected through accurate, tested redirects
• AI-driven search visibility increases through entity structuring
• Technical quality is validated before launch
• The new Shopify store has stronger search identity than the legacy platform

Migration becomes an upgrade, not a risk to manage.
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About Leftfield Agency

Leftfield are specialists in SEO and Generative Engine Optimisation for modern eCommerce brands.

Their work ensures Shopify migrations:

• retain visibility
• grow discoverability
• strengthen brand entity
• perform across both Google search and AI-driven results

They collaborate tightly with agencies like Inspira to deliver risk-free, search-ready Shopify builds.

Website: https://www.leftfield.agency