How Fixing a Website Migration Error Led to 9K AI Mentions and a HuffPost Feature
TL;DR: She migrated her own website from Wix to WordPress and half her content disappeared from Google without her knowing. She had been blogging every week for months with almost nothing to show for it. Here is what we found, what we fixed, and what happened after. |
She came to me in March 2024 blogging consistently every single week. Writing good blog content. Doing everything she had been told would build her organic presence over time.
And getting almost nothing from it.
Her impressions were at 794 per month. Her clicks were minimal. Nobody was finding her through search. She assumed the problem was that SEO just took time, that she needed to keep going and eventually it would kick in.
The real problem was something nobody had told her about. When she migrated her website from Wix to WordPress on her own, more than half her blogs and pages had not transferred over correctly. They existed on her site. But Google could not see them. She had been publishing new content into a website that was functionally invisible to search engines, and she had no idea.
That is where we started.
What Is SEO Website Migration and Why It Goes Wrong
A website migration is any move that changes your site's platform, URL structure, hosting, or domain. Wix to WordPress is one of the most common migrations service providers attempt on their own, and it is also one of the most likely to silently break your SEO in ways that are not immediately obvious.
When you move a website, Google does not automatically follow. Pages that existed on your old platform need to be properly redirected or re-indexed on the new one. If that process is not handled correctly, pages that were ranking and getting traffic simply disappear from Google results. They still exist on your new site. But from Google's perspective, they might as well not exist at all.
The frustrating part is that everything can look fine from the front end. The site loads. The pages are there. The content reads normally. But underneath, the indexing signals that tell Google to crawl and rank those pages are broken. And you can blog for months without knowing.
For service providers who are not technical SEO specialists, this happens constantly. Not because they did anything wrong. Because nobody told them what to check after a migration. If you want to see the most common reasons service provider websites stay invisible, read the 10 SEO mistakes I see on service provider websites.
Not sure if your site has hidden issues? Get a free website audit here and find out exactly what Google can and cannot see on your site right now.
The Website Migration SEO Audit: What We Found
When I ran her audit, the picture became clear immediately.
More Than Half Her Pages Were Not Indexed
A significant portion of her blogs and service pages were not appearing in Google's index at all. They had transferred over to WordPress visually, but the indexing signals, the canonical tags, the sitemap entries, the crawl directives, were either missing or pointing incorrectly. Google was not counting them. They had no chance of ranking.
She Had Been Blogging Into a Void
Every blog she had published since the migration had gone live on a site where Google was not fully crawling. She was creating content, spending time and energy every single week, and those posts were functionally invisible to search engines. Not because the content was bad. Because the infrastructure that should have told Google about that content was broken.
This is one of the most demoralizing situations I see service providers in. They are doing the work. They just cannot see why it is not producing anything.
Her Existing Content Had No SEO Structure
Even the pages that were indexed were not optimized for search. Headings were not aligned with search queries. There were no FAQ sections. Internal linking was minimal. The pages existed but they were not giving Google or AI tools enough structured information to understand what the content was about or who it was for.
The Website Migration Fix: What We Did
We did not start by creating new content. We started by fixing what was already there.
Fixed the Indexing Issues First
The first priority was getting Google to see the full site. We submitted her sitemap correctly, fixed the crawl directives, and requested indexing for the pages that had been invisible. This is the step most people skip or do not know to take after a migration. Getting your existing content indexed before creating anything new is the highest-leverage move available after a broken migration.
Within weeks of fixing the indexing, pages that had been invisible for months started appearing in Google results. Content she had already written and published started generating impressions for the first time.
Optimized Existing Content for Search
Once the pages were indexed, we went through her existing blogs and rewrote the structure. Updated headings to match real search queries. Added internal links connecting blogs to relevant service pages. Rewrote meta titles and descriptions. Added FAQ sections at the bottom of every major post.
This is where the compounding effect started. Content that already existed, that she had already spent time writing, started generating traffic it had never generated before. Not because the writing changed. Because the structure finally made sense to search engines.
Don't let your past hard work go to waste on pages nobody sees. Let me optimize your website copy so you can finally start getting the organic traffic your expertise deserves.
Structured Her Blogs for AI Visibility
FAQ sections are one of the primary structures AI tools pull from when generating answers to search queries. Adding them to her existing content did two things at once. It improved her Google rankings by giving search engines clear, structured answers to match against user queries. And it set up her content to be cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
She went on to earn over 7,000 AI mentions from her blogs and service pages. Those mentions did not come from new content. They came from existing content that was finally structured correctly. Learn how to structure your content for AI tools in the SEO for ChatGPT guide.
Built Off-Site Authority
With her on-site foundation in place, we started building her off-site presence. Guest features, directory listings, and consistent brand mentions across platforms that gave Google and AI tools more evidence that she was a credible, active expert in her niche.
This is where the HuffPost feature came from. A reporter found her organically through her content and reached out asking for her insight on a piece they were writing. She had not pitched HuffPost. She had not paid for a feature. Her content was structured clearly enough and her authority was strong enough that a journalist found her through search and came to her directly.
That feature became a backlink from one of the highest-authority domains on the internet and an additional signal that fed both her Google rankings and her AI visibility. To understand how AI brand mentions work and how to earn them, read the AI brand mentions guide.
Want to know what is actually holding your site back from earning this kind of visibility? Start with a free website audit and we will identify the gaps together.
Website Migration SEO Results: What Actually Happened
Impressions Went From 794 to 13,700
Monthly impressions grew from 794 to 13,700 after fixing the indexing issues and restructuring her existing content. That growth came from content she had already written. Not from starting over or building something new. From making what she had already created visible to search engines for the first time.
HuffPost Found Her Organically
A HuffPost reporter reached out asking for her insight on an industry piece. She had not pitched the story. The reporter found her through search. That feature gave her a backlink from a major publication, additional credibility signals across the web, and a visible proof point that elevated every other piece of content she had published.
7,000 AI Mentions From Blogs and Service Pages
Her blogs and service pages started earning AI mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Over 7,000 AI mentions came directly from the structured content we built from her existing posts. In a single month, she earned over 3,000 mentions. That visibility compounded over time and kept growing as more of her content got indexed and structured correctly.
66% Increase in Conversion Rate
Her conversion rate increased by 66% after the optimization work. The FAQ sections and clearer page structure were pre-qualifying visitors before they reached out, which meant better leads and more intentional inquiries. People who landed on her pages already understood her offer and her process before they ever sent a message.
Rankings Held During a Two-Month Break From Posting
She took a two-month break from publishing new content. Her rankings held. Her features kept coming in. Her lead magnet downloads kept growing. She got approved for an ad program because of her traffic growth. The SEO foundation we built kept working without her having to feed it constantly. That is the difference between a content hamster wheel and a properly structured SEO presence.
Website Migration SEO Checklist: What to Check After Every Migration
If you have recently moved your website to a new platform or are planning to, here is what to verify before you publish a single new post.
Check that your XML sitemap is correctly generated and submitted to Google Search Console. After a migration this is often the first thing that breaks and the last thing people check.
Verify that your pages are actually indexed by searching site:yourwebsite.com in Google. If you see significantly fewer pages than you have published, you have an indexing problem.
Check that your old URLs are properly redirecting to your new URLs. A 301 redirect tells Google that a page has permanently moved and passes ranking authority to the new location. Without it, any rankings your old pages had are lost.
Confirm that your canonical tags are pointing to the correct URLs. A canonical tag pointing to the wrong page tells Google to ignore the page you want to rank.
Submit your most important pages for indexing manually through Google Search Console. Do not wait for Google to find them on their own after a migration.
Check your robots.txt file to make sure it is not accidentally blocking Google from crawling parts of your site. This is a common post-migration error that is invisible from the front end.
Add FAQ sections to every major service page and blog post. This is not just a post-migration fix. It is the structure that gets your content pulled into AI answers and improves your Google rankings at the same time.
Not sure where to start with any of this? The page 8 to page 1 case study shows exactly what this kind of structural fix produces in a real timeline.
About the Author & SEO Consultant
Sonia Urquilla is an SEO consultant who helps service providers get found without chasing clients online. She works with female coaches, consultants, and local service-based businesses that are tired of relying on referrals and social media alone.
Her work focuses on bridging the gap between how people search and how service providers talk about their work, helping websites turn visibility into leads. You can learn more about her approach here or schedule a strategy call.
FAQ: SEO Website Migration for Service Providers
How do I know if my website migration broke my SEO?
Search site:yourwebsite.com in Google and count the results. If the number is significantly lower than the number of pages you have published, pages are missing from Google's index. Also check Google Search Console for crawl errors, coverage issues, and any pages marked as excluded or not indexed. If you migrated recently and your traffic dropped or flatlined, a broken migration is the most likely cause.
Can I do a website migration myself without breaking my SEO?
Yes, but you need to know what to check before, during, and after the migration. The checklist in this blog covers the most critical post-migration steps. The most common mistake DIY migrations make is not verifying indexing after the move and assuming everything transferred correctly because the site looks fine visually.
What is the difference between a page being live and a page being indexed?
A page being live means it exists on your website and can be accessed by someone who has the URL. A page being indexed means Google has crawled it and added it to its database of pages to show in search results. A page can be live and not indexed, which means it will never appear in Google search results no matter how good the content is. After a migration, always verify indexing, not just that the pages are live.
Key Takeaways
A website migration can silently break your SEO without any visible signs on the front end, and the most common symptom is publishing consistently with no results
Fixing indexing issues and restructuring existing content produces faster results than creating new content because you are making what you have already built work for the first time
A properly structured SEO foundation holds rankings during breaks from posting, earns organic features from publications like HuffPost, and builds AI visibility that compounds over time without requiring constant new content
Her situation was not unique. Service providers migrate their websites all the time and lose visibility they had already built without knowing it happened. The blogs keep going up. The effort keeps going in. And the results stay flat because the foundation broke during the move.
The fix is not more content. It is making sure what you have already created is visible, indexed, and structured in a way that Google and AI tools can actually use.
Get a free website audit and find out if your site has indexing issues or migration problems that are silently costing you visibility. Or book a strategy session and we will map out exactly what needs to be fixed first. You can also explore ongoing SEO services built specifically for service providers who want consistent support.
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