Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration: Data, Themes, and SEO Transfer

You are still running Magento 1, but its support ended — every day on this platform increases risks of hacks, data loss, and PCI DSS fines. Moving to Magento 2 is not an update but a complete rebuild of the store: different architectures (Zend Framework 1 vs Symfony), different data formats, different extension systems. Unlike the outdated platform, Magento 2 is based on Symfony components and modern PHP, directly affecting performance and security (see Magento). Without a deep audit and phased plan, you risk losing up to 30% of functionality. Our team handles full-cycle migration while preserving all business processes, SEO positions, and customer base.

What Is Transferred and What Is Not

The official Data Migration Tool transfers standard entities, but custom tables and all code require manual work.

Why Can't You Just Upgrade Magento 1?

Magento 1 and 2 are different platforms. Upgrade is impossible; migration is necessary. M1 has an old architecture based on Zend Framework 1, while M2 is built on Symfony and modern PHP. Because of this, any extension or customization must be rewritten. We've seen projects where after a "quick" migration, 30% of functionality was lost — this can be avoided with the right approach.

How to Transfer Custom Extensions?

The Data Migration Tool knows nothing about your modules. For each extension, you need to find an M2 analogue or order porting. For example, a popular backup extension in M1 (AheadWorks) has a direct replacement Amasty in M2. But unique modules are rewritten from scratch under the Magento 2 architecture. On one project, we migrated 34 extensions, 25 of which required a complete rewrite. The timeline increased by 1.5 months, but all functions were preserved.

How to Transfer Customer Passwords?

Magento 1 uses MD5, Magento 2 uses bcrypt. Passwords are not directly convertible. We apply lazy migration: on first login, we check the old MD5 hash and re-encrypt to bcrypt. Customers don't notice the change, but passwords become secure.

// Plugin for CustomerAuthenticationService
public function aroundAuthenticate($subject, callable $proceed, $username, $password)
{
    try {
        return $proceed($username, $password);
    } catch (AuthenticationException $e) {
        $customer = $this->customerRepository->get($username);
        $legacyHash = md5($password);
        if (hash_equals($customer->getLegacyPasswordHash(), $legacyHash)) {
            $this->customerRepository->save(
                $customer->setPasswordHash($this->encryptor->getHash($password, true))
            );
            return $customer;
        }
        throw $e;
    }
}

Migration Steps

1. Magento 1 audit — inventory of extensions, compatibility assessment.
2. Install Magento 2 and Data Migration Tool — deploy clean platform.
3. Configure mapping and migrate data — phased transfer via migrate:settings, migrate:data, migrate:delta.
4. Transfer custom tables — write PHP scripts for manual synchronization.
5. Solve password issue — lazy migration via authentication plugin.
6. Set up SEO redirects — generate 301 redirects for old URL structure.

Migration Approach Comparison

Magento 2 is 2–3 times faster than Magento 1 in TTFB and LCP due to the modern framework and built-in caching. Costs for self-migration can be significant considering downtime and errors, while our migration cost is calculated individually depending on the scope of work.

What Is Included

• Full audit of the current store
• Data migration (catalog, orders, customers)
• Porting or replacing extensions
• Custom theme development for M2
• Setting up 301 redirects
• Documentation for the new system
• Training your team
• 30 days of post-release support

This project is not about installing a plugin; it's about moving an entire store. Our experience includes over 50 successful migrations. We guarantee data integrity and functionality. Request a free assessment of your project — we'll provide a plan and timeline. Contact us for a consultation.

Website Redesign and Migration: CMS Change, SEO Preservation

A client came to us 6 weeks after a self-attempted redesign: 'We moved from WordPress to Tilda, traffic dropped by 70%.' I opened Google Search Console — 847 pages returned 404, the URL structure had completely changed, not a single 301 redirect was in place. Yandex hadn't reindexed the new site yet, positions collapsed. Recovery took 4 months and resulted in significant revenue loss for the quarter. Our experience — over 7 years and 80+ successful migrations, we guarantee position retention with the right approach.

Why Do Migrations Break SEO?

Search engines have indexed specific URLs. If /catalog/shoes/nike-air-max-270 turned into /products/nike-air-max-270 without a 301 redirect — all the link equity, traffic, and rankings go nowhere. Google says 301 passes ~99% of PageRank, but in practice positions recover over 2–8 weeks, not instantly.

Commonly, SEO gets broken not out of malice, but because a developer doesn't view the URL structure as a public API. Here are typical breakages:

How to Recover Traffic After a Failed Migration?

If traffic dropped, act immediately:

1. Crawl the new site for 404s and compare with the pre-migration URL list.
2. Create redirects for all lost pages with traffic >0.
3. Check structured data and meta tags on a test sample.
4. Daily monitor Coverage in Search Console and positions for top 50 queries.
5. If after 2 weeks traffic does not recover — deep audit of redirects (transitivity, chains, loops).

In our practice, a large e-commerce site lost 50% of traffic when moving from Bitrix to React + Strapi. We restored 95% of redirects in three days, and within 3 weeks traffic returned to 90% of original.

What Does a Pre-Migration Audit Include?

Before starting development on the new site:

1. Full crawl of current site via Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. Get list of all indexable URLs with traffic from Google Search Console.
2. Export all pages with organic traffic >0 over the last 6 months — these are priority for redirects.
3. Record all external backlinks to specific pages — Ahrefs, Semrush.
4. Snapshot current positions for key queries — baseline for post-migration comparison.
5. Save Core Web Vitals from Search Console for the previous 90 days.

Table for recording:

Contact us for a detailed pre-migration audit — we will help identify all risks and create an action plan.

URL Mapping and Redirects

For projects with 200+ pages, we create a mapping table: old URL → new URL → status (301, merged with another page, deleted). Each row is verified: does the content actually migrate here?

In Laravel, redirects are handled via configuration file and middleware, not .htaccess — faster and more manageable. For WordPress → Next.js: redirects are set in next.config.js (static) and at the Nginx/CDN level for dynamic ones. Old .htaccess on shared hosting with 500+ lines of redirects is a special hell. Each redirect is checked sequentially, performance suffers. We move to Nginx map directive or Redis cache for dynamic lookup. More at Wikipedia: HTTP 301.

How to Migrate Content from Different CMSs?

WordPress → Headless CMS (Contentful, Strapi, Sanity): WordPress REST API or WP All Export to export posts, meta fields, media files. Migration script in Node.js: parse export, transform structure, upload via CMS API. Media files are reuploaded to new storage, links updated in content. Typical problem — shortcodes in WordPress content ([gallery id="123"]): need parser and transformation to new format.

1C-Bitrix → modern stack: Bitrix stores content in non-standard tables with IBLOCK_ELEMENT_PROPERTY. Direct SQL export via phpMyAdmin or Bitrix API. Transformation is the longest part due to specific Bitrix data structure.

Heavy WYSIWYG → structured content: Years of editing in FCKEditor/TinyMCE leave inline styles, non-standard tags, broken attributes. HTML sanitize + transformation to Markdown or Portable Text (Sanity) with manual check of problematic pages.

How to Preserve Technical SEO Elements During Migration?

Structured data (Schema.org) — if the old site had Product, Article, BreadcrumbList markup, they must be on the new site too. Google Search Console → Enhancement reports will show loss of rich snippets.

Sitemap XML: generated automatically, submitted to GSC a day after launch. Old sitemap remains until full reindexing.

hreflang for multilingual sites: if tags are lost during migration, conflicts between language versions in search results will start within weeks.

Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags — often forgotten when changing template, pages stop displaying correctly when shared on social networks.

Launch and First Weeks Monitoring

DNS propagation: DNS switching takes up to 48 hours, plan launch with buffer. Cloudflare as DNS provider — propagation takes minutes, not hours.

After launch, monitor daily: Search Console → Coverage (indexing errors), Analytics → organic traffic, year-over-year comparison, crawl site for 404 errors.

First 2 weeks are critical. If traffic drops more than 30% — immediate audit of redirects and comparison with pre-migration crawl.

What the Service Includes

Results you receive:

1. Migration plan with URL mapping and redirects in Excel/Google Sheets format.
2. Configured 301 redirects at server level (Nginx/Cloudflare/Vercel).
3. Migrated content with integrity check: images, meta fields, links.
4. Structured data (Schema.org) on the new site, identical to old or improved.
5. SEO report: position trend at 1, 3, and 6 weeks after launch.
6. Coverage monitoring in Search Console with error notifications.
7. Guaranteed position retention: if traffic drops more than 15% within the first month — free audit and correction.

Timelines and Estimates

• Redesign with migration for a small site (up to 100 pages): 4–8 weeks.
• E-commerce migration with 500+ product pages: 8–16 weeks.
• Only technical migration part (redirects, metadata) without redesign: 1–3 weeks.

Cost is calculated individually based on scope.

Get a consultation for your project — we will respond within a day. Order a pre-migration audit of your site and receive a detailed proposal with a redirect plan. Contact us to discuss details.