The verdict in three sentences
A site migration without SEO breakage is planned and priced between EUR 1,500 and 5,000 in Berlin in 2026, depending on URL volume and technical complexity. The core of the work is the 301 redirect map from old URL to new URL, without which a rebuild can lose 30 to 60% of organic traffic within weeks. Three months of post-launch monitoring is essential to fix indexing errors before they cost hard-won rankings.
What an SEO migration plan contains
A successful migration is not a simple content "copy-paste". It chains an audit of the existing site (full crawl, Search Console export), a URL mapping plan, preservation of tags and internal linking, pre-production QA and close monitoring after switchover.
| Migration item | Timeline | Order-of-magnitude cost |
|---|---|---|
| Audit + crawl of existing site | 2-4 days | EUR 400-900 |
| 301 redirect mapping | 3-6 days | EUR 500-1,800 |
| Tag/metadata preservation | 2-3 days | EUR 300-700 |
| Pre-launch SEO QA | 1-2 days | EUR 300-600 |
| Post-launch monitoring (3 months) | recurring | EUR 400-1,200 |
| Total | 2-4 weeks | EUR 1,500-5,000 |
A 50-page site sits at the low end; an e-commerce or media site with several thousand URLs pushes the budget upward.
Cost per URL tier and loss risk
The volume of URLs to redirect is the main driver of both price and risk. Here is a 2026 order of magnitude.
| URL tier | 301 mapping cost | Loss risk without a plan |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 50 URLs | EUR 500-900 | Low to moderate |
| 50 to 200 URLs | EUR 900-1,800 | Moderate |
| 200 to 1,000 URLs | EUR 1,800-3,500 | High |
| 1,000 to 5,000 URLs | EUR 3,500-6,000 | Very high |
| Over 5,000 URLs | Custom quote | Critical |
The minimum SEO QA checklist includes: 301 redirects tested at scale (no chains or loops), title/meta tags preserved or improved, XML sitemap updated, robots.txt verified, structured data preserved, Search Console reconfigured and a control crawl after go-live.
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Mini case study
Lukas is marketing manager at an industrial SME in Berlin whose site (180 pages) generates 12,000 organic visits/month, the source of 40% of quote requests. He commissions a migration plan at EUR 3,200 for his rebuild. Without a plan, a conservative 40% traffic loss would have meant 4,800 fewer visits/month; at a 2% conversion rate and an average quote of EUR 6,000, that equals tens of thousands of euros of pipeline at risk per year. The EUR 3,200 plan protects an asset whose annual value far exceeds its cost: traffic is stable at day 90, even +8% thanks to technical improvements.
FAQ
Will I inevitably lose traffic when rebuilding my site? Not if the migration is planned. Without a redirect plan, typical loss is 30 to 60%; with a full 301 map and rigorous QA, the goal is stability or even a traffic gain.
How long does a migration take? The plan and QA take 2 to 4 weeks depending on URL volume, plus 3 months of post-launch monitoring to fix indexing anomalies.
Why are 301 redirects so important? They tell Google each old URL has a new permanent address, transferring accumulated SEO authority. A missing 301 produces a 404 error that destroys the page's ranking.
Can you migrate and change CMS at the same time? Yes, it is common (WordPress to Next.js for example). It raises technical complexity, hence budget, but the principle is the same: keep URLs, content and tags, or redirect cleanly.
Is post-launch monitoring really necessary? Yes. The 30 to 90 days after switchover reveal errors invisible in QA (orphan pages, ranking drops). This monitoring is the difference between a successful migration and a silent disaster.
Let's scope your project. Rebuild or CMS change in Berlin: share your URL volume and current organic traffic, and we will scope a secure migration plan (EUR 1,500-5,000). Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
