Most businesses that move off WordPress aren't scared of Shopify. They're scared of waking up the morning after launch and finding their Google traffic gone. That fear is reasonable. It's also avoidable, because almost every ranking drop after a migration comes from the same few mistakes.
1. Make a list of every page you have today
Before anything moves, export a full list of your current URLs. Your WordPress sitemap (usually at /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml) is a good start. Then open Google Search Console and note which pages actually get clicks. Those are the ones you protect at all costs.
2. Map old URLs to new ones
Shopify has its own URL structure: products live under /products/, categories under /collections/, regular pages under /pages/ and blog posts under /blogs/. Your old URLs won't match, and that's fine. What matters is that every old URL points somewhere sensible on the new site. Build a simple two-column sheet: old URL, new URL.
3. Set up 301 redirects before launch day
Shopify has a built-in URL redirects tool. Load your sheet into it so that anyone (or any search engine) visiting an old link lands on the right new page. A 301 redirect tells Google the page moved permanently, so most of the ranking power comes along with it. Skip this step and every old link becomes a "page not found."
4. Bring your titles, descriptions and content with you
If a page ranks well, keep its page title, meta description, headings and most of its copy when it moves. A migration is a great time for a fresh design, but rewriting every word at the same time makes it hard to tell what helped and what hurt.
5. Move products, customers and orders
For WooCommerce stores, Shopify's Store Importer app can bring over products, customers and order history. Check the results by hand afterward. Variants, images and product descriptions are where things tend to get scrambled.
6. After launch, watch for broken links
Submit your new sitemap in Google Search Console (Shopify creates one automatically at /sitemap.xml). For the next few weeks, check the Pages report for anything Google can't find, and add redirects as stragglers show up. A small dip for a week or two is normal. A cliff is not.
The short version
List everything, map everything, redirect everything, and keep what's working. Do that and the move to Shopify is mostly upside: fewer plugins, fewer security warnings and a store you can actually run yourself.
WordPress migrations are my specialty. If you're thinking about making the move, send me your site for a free checkup and I'll tell you what the migration would involve.