BrisTechTonic is a Bristol SEO agency that helps UK businesses get found on Google, the local map pack and the AI assistants they now ask, like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Website migration recovery is the work of getting back the search traffic a redesign, rebuild or platform move cost you. When traffic falls after a launch it is rarely the design that did it. It is usually changed URLs with no redirects, pages that were shortened during the rebuild, or a staging setting that reached the live site, and all three are fixable. BrisTechTonic diagnoses what actually changed at launch, fixes it in the order that recovers the most traffic first, and tells you up front how much of the drop we think is recoverable and roughly how long it will take. We have held rankings through a full rebrand and grown a site 73% without rebuilding at all, so we know the difference between a site that needs rescuing and one that needs leaving alone.
Almost every post-launch traffic drop we are called in for comes down to the same short list, and none of it is the design. The most common by a distance is changed URLs with no redirect map, so every link and every ranking the old pages held now points at a 404. Next is ranking pages quietly reworded during the rebuild to read better and say less, which loses the depth that was earning them. Then there is the staging setting that reaches production, where one line in one file tells search engines to ignore the whole site. Each of these is invisible on a quick look and obvious once you know to check for it.
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The reason the drop feels mysterious is that the new site looks finished. The homepage is nicer, the photography is better, everything loads and clicks, and nothing on the surface says anything is wrong. The damage is in the plumbing: the redirects that were never written, the content that was trimmed, the indexing rule copied across from staging. A client rarely has the tools to see any of it, which is how a redesign can lose a third of its traffic while everyone involved is pleased with how it turned out.
The good news, and we mean this, is that a migration problem is the most recoverable kind of problem there is. The ranking power usually still exists, it is just being pointed at the wrong place or buried under a thinner page. Fix the cause and a large share of it tends to come back, often within a few weeks of the fix being crawled, because you are restoring authority you already earned rather than building it from scratch. The honest caveat is that pages deleted outright, or authority lost for other reasons at the same time, are harder, and we will tell you which you are dealing with before you commit.
These are industry figures, not our own results, and we do not invent numbers. Technical work rarely shows on the page, but it is the ceiling everything else runs into. No outcome is ever guaranteed.
Website migration recovery, broken down.
Redirect and URL audit →
Every old URL mapped to its new home, so the links and rankings the old pages held flow to the new ones instead of dying at a 404. This is the first thing we check and the single most common cause of a post-launch drop.
Indexing and crawlability →
We check nothing from the staging build reached production, that the live site actually allows indexing, and that search engines can reach and read every page that matters. One stray rule can hide an entire site.
Content depth restored →
We compare your top pages before and after the rebuild and bring back the depth that was ranking them, because a page that reads more cleanly but says less usually ranks worse.
Rendering and speed →
If the new build assembles prices, services or copy with JavaScript that crawlers do not run, the page looks empty to the thing ranking it. We make the important content readable without it, and keep the new site fast.
Some of our recent work.
More on website migration recovery.
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“I've had the pleasure of working with Chris on several SEO projects for my websites in the health field. He was definitely been able to demystify things so that I felt able to make decisions with him and feel confident they were the right ones. For a non-techie, that is worth gold! I look forward to working with Chris again and warmly recommend him to anyone who - like me - is unsure about all things SEO.”
“I was recommended by my branding partner to use Chris and his team last year. I can’t recommend them highly enough. They are very responsive , easy to communicate with and great at translating techy stuff when needed. They are now an essential part of my business model”
“We've been working closely with Chris, Hannah and the team for over 12 months now. As a small company with ambitious growth plans, it was incredibly important that we made the right choice on who to trust with our SEO. 18 months later, we're totally thrilled with our experience so far and our growing online presence within our market. We'd happily recommend BTT and their services to other SMEs. Drop them an enquiry!”
You work directly with the senior people who do the work, a small Bristol team you will actually get to know, not a call centre or an account manager relaying messages.
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The way we run Website migration recovery.
Free discovery call and triage
We open your Search Console with you, find the step-down around launch, and tell you on the call whether it looks recoverable, before you commit to anything.
Full migration diagnosis
We map exactly what changed at launch and name what broke: redirects, indexing, content, rendering and speed, in priority order of what is costing the most traffic.
Fix in recovery order
Crawlability and redirects first, then the earning pages, then rendering and speed. We work the order that returns the most traffic soonest, not the order that is nicest to look at.
Measure the pages back
We repair or set up conversion tracking and report on the pages that were earning before, by name, so you watch them recover rather than taking it on trust.
How do we approach Website migration recovery?
Diagnose before touching anything
We find the exact date the new site went live and read what changed around it: URLs, content, indexing and speed. You get a named list of what broke, not a guess, because fixing the wrong thing wastes the quarter you cannot get back.
Fix what a crawler meets first
Redirects, indexing and anything hidden behind JavaScript come first. If a search engine cannot reach or read a page, nothing else you do to it matters, so this is where recovery starts whether it is the satisfying work or not.
Bring back the pages that earned
The pages that had traffic, and the ones your sales team sends people to, restored to the depth that was ranking them. Rebuilds routinely tidy a ranking page shorter and lose the words that were doing the work.
Turn the recovery into a gain
Once you are back to where you were, the rebuild becomes the moment to fix the journey and the tracking, so you end up ahead of the old site rather than level with it.
You deal with our small, experienced Bristol team directly, from the first call to every monthly report.
Meet the team →What Website migration recovery puts on your desk.
Are we the right fit for you?
Thinking of switching from another agency?
Moving your Website migration recovery to us is more straightforward than staying somewhere that is not working. You keep everything you already own, we pick up without a gap, and we can run the whole thing for you or work alongside your team and your developers, whatever suits.
A free look first
We review what your current agency has done, tell you straight what is worth keeping and where the quick wins are. No obligation to move.
You keep what's yours
Your site, content, Google Business Profile and analytics stay in your name. We work with what you already have; nothing is held hostage.
A clean handover
We map the work across, set a plain-English baseline in the first few weeks, and carry on from there. No starting from zero, no quiet ranking gap.
Three-month minimum, then rolling monthly on 30 days’ notice. No long lock-in, no exit fees.
Who does the recovery, and how?
Recovery is judgement, not a checklist, so it is done by people who have watched migrations go wrong before. BrisTechTonic is the trading name of Bryley Ltd, based in Bristol, and your work is run by a small, experienced team, the same people who scope it rather than a cheaper pair of hands. We would rather tell you on the first call that your drop is recoverable, or that it is not a migration problem at all, than sell you a project you do not need, which is why we open by reading your Search Console with you for free.
We have held rankings through a rebrand
DeskLodge relaunched with a complete rebrand and a new site in under five weeks, and search visibility held through the switch, which is exactly where most redesigns come apart.
We will talk you out of the wrong job
A South West accountant came to us expecting a rebuild. We lifted their impressions 73% by tightening what was there and told them not to rebuild. We published that case because it is the least flattering kind to publish.
We broke our own tracking, in public
We relaunched our own site and broke our conversion tracking doing it, then wrote the whole thing up rather than the flattering half. A recovery agency that pretends migrations are easy is not one to trust.
How much does Website migration recovery cost?
All + VAT · 3-month minimum, then 30-day rolling| What's included | Lite £299 + VAT / month | Max Most chosen £449 + VAT / month | XL £849 + VAT / month | Custom Contact us |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical & on-page SEO | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AEO / AI-search layer (found in ChatGPT, AI Overviews) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Local map-pack optimisation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Page creation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blog posts / month | Add-on | Add-on | 2 | Tailored |
| AI Authority building | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plain-English monthly report | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Best for | Getting the foundations right | Competing on your key terms | Going after it hard, incl. AI authority | Shaped around your goals |
Website migration recovery: common questions.
How do I know the redesign caused my traffic drop?
Open Search Console, look at clicks over the last six months and find the date the new site launched. If the line steps down within a week or two of that date, the launch is the cause. Two quick checks confirm it: type the old addresses of a few pages that used to rank and see if they 404 instead of redirecting, and compare the word count of your top pages before and after to see if they were trimmed. If any of that is true, it is a migration problem, which is the recoverable kind.
Can you always get the rankings back?
Usually a large share of them when the cause is technical, like missing redirects or an indexing rule, because the ranking power still exists and is simply pointed at the wrong place. It is harder when ranking pages were deleted outright or the site lost authority for other reasons at the same time. We tell you honestly what we think is recoverable before you commit, rather than after.
How long does recovery take?
If the cause is redirects or indexing, the first recovery often shows within a few weeks of the fix being crawled, because you are restoring authority you already had. Rebuilding lost content depth takes longer. We give you a realistic window once we have seen what broke, not before, because anyone quoting a fixed date without looking is guessing.
Do we need to rebuild the site again to fix this?
Almost never, and we would push back hard if someone suggested it. Rebuilding again is the most expensive answer and rarely the right one. Nearly every post-migration drop is fixed on the site you already have, by repairing what the last build broke.
We are about to redesign. Can you stop this happening?
Yes, and it is the cheaper version of this work. Getting the redirect map written before the build and the earning pages carried across intact is a fraction of the cost of recovering from a bad launch. We are happy to work alongside your developer, or to review the plan before anyone starts.
How much does migration recovery cost?
It depends entirely on what broke and how much. A redirect-and-indexing fix on an otherwise sound migration is a short, defined piece of work. A recovery that has to rebuild content across dozens of pages is larger. Pricing starts at £299 per month, and after the free discovery call we size it to your real situation and tell you how much of the drop we think is recoverable first.
Book the call, or see the evidence first