# Zero-Downtime Website Migration | RedactLabs > Source: https://redactlabs.ca/services/migration/ > Machine-readable Markdown of this page (also served at this URL under `Accept: text/markdown`). WEBSITE MIGRATION · ZERO-DOWNTIME # Change the platform. Not the website. Move off WordPress, Wix or Squarespace onto the RedactLabs stack with no visible change on launch day. We freeze a snapshot of your live site, check every page against it on desktop and mobile, roll the new site out in stages with a tested way back, and carry every URL across. WHY IT MATTERS ## Launch day should be boring. A platform move often arrives with a redesign attached, so when something breaks, nobody can tell whether it was the move or the new design. Rankings can dip, a form can stop sending, a page your customers bookmarked can disappear, and the post-mortem starts with guesswork. We separate the two. The first release is the same website on a new stack, proven page by page against the one you have today. Improvements come after, as their own releases, each one easy to check and easy to reverse. FROZEN SNAPSHOT ### Freeze The live site becomes the reference, and the reference doesn’t move. Before any build work, we capture what your visitors see today and serve it locally as the thing the new site must match. - Route inventory · Every page from your sitemap and navigation, plus an address that shouldn’t exist, so the not-found behaviour is checked too. - Rendered capture · Each page as a visitor’s browser renders it, stored and served offline, so the comparison never depends on the old host staying up. - Reference rule · The snapshot is never edited to make a check pass. If the current site needs a change, it ships first, on its own, and the snapshot moves with it. PARITY GATE ### Match Every page, on desktop and mobile, checked against the snapshot before anything ships. An automated gate loads each page on both versions at a desktop and a mobile width and compares what a visitor would see and use. - Pixels · Full-page screenshots compared pixel by pixel. The gate fails if more than 0.5% of the page differs, or if the page height changes by more than 2%. - Words & structure · Page text at least 99% identical; the same headings, with the main headings in the same order; the same title, description and canonical URL; the same links and image alt text; the same types of structured data. - Forms · The same forms with the same fields. Every form is then tested end to end on the new stack before launch. - Motion · Load and scroll animations captured at fixed moments and compared frame by frame, so a site that moved before moves the same way after. STAGED ROLLOUT ### Stage The new site earns its traffic in steps. Your current site stays live and untouched until the new one has passed every gate. - Old site untouched · Your current site keeps running, unchanged, until you sign off on the new one. Going back is one switch at our edge or in DNS, not a rebuild. - Pinned at 0% · On our stack, a new version is first tested on your real domain while customers still get the current version: the full smoke suite, plus a performance check against the live site. - Canary at 10% · Then one request in ten goes to the new version under a soak test. Any server error rolls everything back automatically. - Promote to 100% · Only after every gate passes. The previous version stays on record, so returning to it later is one command. SEO URL PARITY ### Keep Every address that works today still works tomorrow. Search engines and customers remember your URLs. We carry each one across or redirect it in a single hop. - URL map · Every URL from your sitemap, your navigation and the pages search engines have indexed, mapped to its new home before launch. - 301 redirects · Anything that moves gets a permanent (301) redirect straight to its new address: one hop, no chains. - Post-launch check · After cutover, every old URL is requested again and must land where the map says it should. - Metadata carried over · Titles, descriptions, canonical tags and structured data move with the pages, and the parity gate checks them. ## THE PROOF Done on a paying client’s live site. - The site · A paying client’s production website, rebuilt on a new framework in 2026 under a zero-visible-change rule. The source was a hand-built static site, not a hosted builder; the gate, the rollout and the rules are the same ones this offer uses. - Parity · The gate passed 20 of 20 static checks and 20 of 20 motion checks: ten routes, each at desktop and mobile width. - Rollout · It shipped through the staged rollout: pinned at 0% for smoke tests and a Lighthouse comparison against the live site, a 10% canary, then 100%. Old URLs that changed shape answer with a single 301. - Rollback, exercised · Automatic rollback fired on several real releases during the project. Each time the trigger was a flaw in one of our own gates (a probe on the wrong URL form, a timeout, an out-of-date test), fixed afterwards, and each time production stayed on the working version. Proof client: [Blackoaks Executive](https://blackoaksexecutive.com). ## WHAT WE DON’T PROMISE Plain limits. - Platform features · Some platform features don’t move as-is. Plugin-driven shops, member areas and booking widgets are scoped on the call and rebuilt or replaced, and the parity report shows exactly where pages differ. - No redesign on day one · The first release matches the old site, including the parts you want to change. Changes come next, as separate releases. - Third-party embeds · Maps, videos and chat widgets are carried over or replaced. Anything that can’t meet our security policy is flagged before launch, not discovered after. Fixed-fee: $2,500 CAD for sites up to 15 pages, plus $150 CAD per page beyond 15. ## Plan the move. [contact@redactlabs.ca](mailto:contact@redactlabs.ca) Fixed-fee · scoped on the discovery call CLARITY BEFORE COMPROMISE. Built and managed by RedactLabs. Toronto, ON