Service · Website migration
Is your website sound in content but technically out of date? Then it does not need a relaunch, it needs a new foundation. We move it across: content, design and addresses stay. Underneath runs a setup that AI crawlers can read in full, that loads in under one second and that needs no plugin updates.
Four situations in which owners and heads of marketing come to us
Texts, structure and design are fine, but AI systems can read almost none of it: content loads via script, crawlers are blocked, company data is missing as data. This is not a content problem but a foundation problem. It can be solved without changing a word.
Website builders depend on extensions, and each one needs maintaining. Security warnings, incompatibilities, maintenance contracts. A static setup has none of this: no database, no login that can be attacked, nothing that has to be updated every month.
A relaunch pays for concept, copy, design and technology. If three of those are right, you pay three quarters for things you already have. A migration pays only for the part that is missing, and is therefore finished in weeks rather than months.
Justified, if addresses change and nobody measures. In a migration the addresses stay, every change is redirected, every page is checked after the switchover, and forms go to the same recipients as before. The handover is a date, not a risk.
When migration, when relaunch
A relaunch makes sense when positioning or design no longer fit. A migration is enough when both are right and only the technology is in the way. The honesty in this table can save you five-figure sums in case of doubt.
| Question | Website migration | Website relaunch | New website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is your positioning still right?Target group, services and region are described correctly on the website | Yes | No or unclear | Not yet formulated |
| Is your design still right?You would approve the website in its current form today | Yes | No | There is none |
| Is the technology holding you back?Loading time, crawler access, plugin dependency, security updates, costs | Yes | Yes, mostly | No website exists |
| What you get | Same website on a new foundation, in weeks rather than months | New structure and content from the existing material | Concept, sales funnel, design, build |
What stays, what changes
Typical values from our migrations, no guarantee. We measure your values during the stocktake.
AI crawlers have a time budget per page. What does not arrive within that time is not read. A page that shows its content only after four seconds and a script is often an empty page for ChatGPT or Copilot. The same page delivered statically is there in full in a fraction of the time. The AI visibility check measures exactly this under “Content readable without JavaScript” and “Mobile load time”.
What we build with
Our recommendation is Astro: if we look after the website or if there is someone on your side who works with AI tools. WordPress remains the choice for portals and large editorial teams. We no longer recommend Framer, unless your team has a Framer expert or works with AI and MCP in its own system. Choose below and the matching column lights up. We make the decision together during the stocktake.
| Astrostatic | Astro + GitCMSstatic, with editorial workflow | WordPressCMS, on Kinsta | Frameronly with Framer expertise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How the site is delivered | Finished pages from the edge network, no server calculates | Finished pages, the editorial team writes to a repository | Server builds every page from the database | Finished pages from Framer hosting |
| Readability for AI crawlers | Complete, content in the HTML | Complete, content in the HTML | Good, if theme and plugins allow it | Good with clean implementation, to be checked |
| Mobile load time, typical | under 1 s | under 1 s | 1.5 to 4 s | 1 to 2 s |
| Who maintains content | Us or your developers | Your team in an editorial interface with approval | Your team in the familiar backend | Your Framer expert in the editor or via AI MCP |
| Ongoing maintenance | No updates, no database, no login | No updates, editorial included | Updates, security, plugins, hosting | Subscription, provider dependency |
| Login, shop, customer portal | Via integration, not built in | Via integration, not built in | Extensible, proven | Hardly |
| Fits if | Content is changed selectively rather than daily | The marketing team maintains blog and pages itself | Many editors, portal or shop, WordPress is familiar | A Framer expert is on your team, or you yourselves work with AI and MCP in the system |
| We use it for | lilox.io | Standard for marketing teams | Hosted on Kinsta | Only on request, no longer a recommendation |
What gets migrated
The most common disappointment in technical moves is the things nobody had on the list. That is why the full list is here.
Every page, every magazine article, every landing page. Inventory from sitemap, menu and internal links, not just from the export.
Images, PDFs, videos in optimised size, with the alt texts of the live page, not the empty ones from the export.
Every old URL is checked. If it stays, it stays. If it changes, there is a redirect. No address leads nowhere.
Contact, download and check forms with the same recipients, GDPR-compliant, without a new data processor where none is needed.
Imprint and privacy policy are taken over and adjusted to the measured behaviour of the new site: which hosts, which cookies, which storage.
Analytics, goals and events continue on switchover day. Plus the AI visibility check before and after as evidence.
Process
The new website is built alongside the old one. You review it at a test address, and the old one keeps running until you approve. Your effort: one stocktake, one review round, one switchover date.
What it costs
Migration pays off for large websites. The more pages, products and media, the bigger the difference between “building new” and “taking over”. For a small website with few pages, a separate migration project is rarely worthwhile; there, ongoing care with optimisations brings more.
The price of a website project consists of four parts: concept, copy, design, technology. A relaunch saves the part that comes from the existing site. A migration saves three of the four parts, because concept, copy and design stay as they are. What you pay for is the stocktake, the transfer of all content and addresses, the rebuild of the design in the new setup, the check of every address and the switchover.
The fixed price is set after the stocktake and depends on the number of pages, media and special functions (forms, calculators, configurators). After that you pay only for what is to change, not for updates nobody asked for.
your website is large, right in content and look, but scores below 60 points in the AI visibility check, takes longer than two seconds to load on mobile, or is tied to a legacy system with plugin upkeep and a maintenance contract.
Positioning or design are outdated, then the relaunch is the right way. Or if the website is small: then migration is part of ongoing care, not a project of its own.
WordPress alternative, explained
Most B2B websites run on WordPress. That is no mistake, but a website builder assembles every page again on every request. A static setup delivers the finished page. For visitors this is faster; for AI crawlers it is often the difference between “read” and “empty”.
Every request passes through server, plugins and database, and the actual content often only arrives afterwards via scripts. AI crawlers do not wait for that: they read what is in the HTML after the first load. On many website-builder pages that is little.
The site is built once, when something changes, and then delivered as a finished file. No server calculates, no database responds, no plugin can break. All content sits in the HTML, and that is exactly what AI crawlers read.
For context: Google assesses loading time through the Core Web Vitals; a Largest Contentful Paint of up to 2.5 seconds counts as good. Source: Google, web.dev, Core Web Vitals. OpenAI, Google and Microsoft publicly document their crawlers and their robots.txt rules; whether your website admits them is checked by the AI visibility check.
Moving without losing rankings
The fear of moving is justified when nobody counts the addresses. In a migration the rule is: every address stays or is redirected, every piece of content stays, and both are re-measured after the switchover.
The migration takes over the address structure one to one. What is indexed by Google stays reachable. Only addresses that no longer exist technically in the new setup (archives, feeds, parameters) receive a permanent redirect to the matching page.
Before the switchover a list of all old addresses is created from sitemap, menu, internal linking and Search Console. Every line gets a status: stays, is redirected, deliberately dropped. This list is part of the handover, not an intention.
After the switchover every address is fetched live: status code, redirect target, canonical, sitemap. Four weeks later we compare rankings and visibility of the most important pages with the baseline and disclose both.
Basis: Google’s documentation on website moves with URL changes (Search Central, “Site moves”), which provides for permanent redirects and a complete list of addresses.
Frequently asked questions
A migration takes your existing website over one to one into a new technical setup: same content, same design, same addresses. A relaunch rebuilds structure, content and usually also the design, starting from the existing material. A migration makes sense when positioning and design are right and only the technology holds you back. A relaunch when one of the two is outdated.
No, provided content and addresses stay and every changed address is redirected. That is exactly work package 3. Loading time improves noticeably, which Google rates positively. We check the rankings of the most important pages before and four weeks after the switchover and disclose both.
Yes. A WordPress migration is the most common case: pages, posts, media and addresses are exported, checked and taken over into a static setup. The design is rebuilt, not redesigned. Plugins fall away; their functions are replaced by lean building blocks or, if nobody uses them, dropped.
Less, because concept, copy and design fall away. The fixed price depends on the number of pages and media and is set after the stocktake. For comparison: a new website or a website relaunch costs from €4,900 at a fixed price.
A static website is built once and delivered as finished pages, without a server that calculates on every request, and without a database. Advantages: loading time, security, no updates, complete readability for AI crawlers. Disadvantage: if you need to change content daily or need login areas, you need an editorial interface such as GitCMS or a CMS such as WordPress. That is exactly what the stack selection clarifies.
Yes. With Astro and GitCMS your team maintains texts, posts and images in an editorial interface with approval, without developers. With WordPress the familiar interface remains. With pure Astro we take changes on request, or your developers do it themselves.
No. The new website is built in parallel at a test address. The switchover takes minutes and happens on a date of your choice. Forms, tracking and redirects are checked beforehand.
That works to a degree: compress images, caching, fewer plugins. The limit is set by the system itself: content that loads only via script, and a website builder that calculates on every request, cannot be optimised away. The AI visibility check shows which blockers can be fixed in the existing site and which cannot.
All posts are taken over, including categories, date and author. Archive, tag and feed addresses that have no equivalent in the new setup are redirected to the matching pages. No address from the old site leads nowhere.
Static websites run on an edge network with locations in Europe, WordPress with a European managed host. The privacy policy is adjusted to the measured behaviour of the new site, not copied. We check what cookies and third-party hosts the new site has before the switchover.
It creates the prerequisite: the website becomes readable. Whether AI systems then name you depends additionally on positioning, content and external perception. How these fit together is set out on Building AI visibility.
Building AI visibilityYes. We work for technical B2B companies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, remotely, with on-site appointments where it helps. Legal texts are verified for the respective country, not translated.
In the website check we go through your website in 30 minutes: what is technically blocking, what can be fixed in the existing site, and whether migration or relaunch is the right way. Free of charge, with a clear recommendation at the end.
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