Technical Diagnostic
A focused review of affected routes, templates, deployment behaviour, crawl signals, CMS behaviour, performance bottlenecks, or code paths, followed by a prioritised fix plan the team can take into delivery.
Planning a Move to Next.js
If the first question is how to move a legacy platform or older front end to Next.js safely, start with the architecture, route, content, and release decisions that decide whether the move holds up.
Plan a Next.js migration from React, WordPress, Gatsby, Drupal, Shopify, or another legacy front end without putting routes, content, or search visibility at risk.
Short Answer
A Next.js migration can become risky when the visible front end changes before the unglamorous details are protected: URL inventory, redirect mapping, canonical mapping, metadata and content parity, internal links, analytics, preview workflows, and search visibility. The right plan depends on what you are leaving, why it became hard to maintain, and how much launch risk the business can tolerate.
Why It Matters
During a Next.js migration, I help commercial and delivery teams keep search visibility, editorial continuity, and release confidence intact while routes, templates, metadata, and publishing workflows change underneath.
Common Situations
- Replacing a legacy SPA, CMS front end, or hard‑to‑maintain site with Next.js.
- Modernising an existing Next.js codebase to newer routing patterns.
- Preserving URLs, content operations, and search visibility during migration.
- At Nando’s, that meant treating migration planning as URL, release‑risk, and technical SEO work as much as framework work, so content operations stayed stable through cutover.
Choose the source platform or migration shape that is closest to the current estate.
What I Look at First
- The Website Replatforming Risk Register covers current routes, target routes, URL inventory, redirects, canonicals, metadata, content parity, rendered HTML, internal links, sitemap and robots setup, structured data, analytics, Search Console baselines, CMS dependencies, release sequencing, and the routes carrying the most launch risk.
- The Rendered HTML Migration Comparison Worksheet is useful when the migration risk sits in template output, crawler‑visible content, metadata, schema, links, or CMS‑driven page data rather than only in route mapping.
What Usually Changes
- URL, route, template, content, and publishing dependencies are mapped before the platform changes.
- Redirect, canonical, metadata, schema, sitemap, and crawl risks are identified before launch.
- CMS, preview, build, and deployment behaviour are compared across the old and new stack.
- Launch actions are prioritised by visibility, revenue exposure, and delivery risk.
- The team has a migration plan that reduces avoidable search and release damage.
How This Usually Works
Embedded Delivery Support
Senior hands‑on support inside an existing team where architecture, implementation, review, and delivery judgement all matter, especially when the work cannot be handed over as isolated tickets.
Fractional Technical Leadership
Ongoing senior technical cover for architecture, roadmap, supplier review, delivery risk, hiring shape, and platform‑ownership decisions when the team is not ready to hire permanently.
This May Not Be the Right Fit If
- You already have a tested route, redirect, content, and release plan and only need extra hands to execute it without challenge. If the plan still needs senior delivery judgement inside the team, Embedded Technical Leadership may be a better fit.
- The migration is expected to ignore search visibility, preview trust, content operations, or release risk until after launch. If search visibility is already the main problem, Technical SEO Recovery and Debugging is the better route.
Related Case Studies and Project Work
More Specific Service Pages
React SPA to Next.js Migration
Move a React SPA to Next.js before client‑rendered routes keep important pages out of search and start capping performance or delivery speed.
WordPress to Next.js Migration
Move a WordPress‑led front end to Next.js when speed, scale, and maintainability all need to improve without losing URLs, preview trust, or editorial continuity.
Gatsby to Next.js Migration
Move off Gatsby before slow builds, brittle plugins, awkward content updates, and preview constraints start blocking delivery and platform maintenance.
Contentful to Sanity Migration
Move a Contentful‑backed Gatsby or Next.js site to Sanity while preserving entry relationships, rich text, preview, metadata, redirects, and editorial workflow.
Shopify to Next.js Headless Commerce
Move beyond a Shopify theme when storefront performance, design flexibility, or content control are now holding commerce back across key product journeys.
Drupal to Next.js Migration
Move a Drupal‑led estate to Next.js without losing aliases, preview behaviour, SEO continuity, or operational confidence on content‑heavy routes during migration.
Pages Router to App Router Migration
Move a mature Next.js codebase to the App Router without turning caching, rendering, middleware, or rollout changes into launch risk.
Related Services
Next.js Platform Consulting
Senior Next.js architecture work for legacy platforms, difficult migrations, and live stacks that need clearer delivery direction before more work piles on.
Headless Architecture Consulting
Headless CMS architecture advice for decisions around preview trust, SEO controls, revalidation, and editorial workflow before they become operational pain.
Technical SEO for JavaScript Applications
Engineering‑led SEO work for JavaScript sites where rendering, crawlability, metadata, or migration changes are keeping important pages out of search.
Performance Optimisation and Core Web Vitals
Performance work for modern front ends where page loads feel slow, Core Web Vitals are slipping, or scripting cost is hurting key user journeys.
Related Technical Articles
Technical SEO Launch Criteria for a Next.js Migration. Technical SEO Launch Criteria for a Next.js Migration
Technical SEO launch criteria for Next.js migrations, covering URLs, redirects, canonicals, metadata, rendered HTML, schema, sitemaps, and recovery.
How to Compare Rendered HTML Before and After a Migration. How to Compare Rendered HTML Before and After a Migration
Compare rendered HTML before and after a migration, checking headings, metadata, links, schema, body copy, media, crawl signals, and launch risk.
React SPA to Next.js Migration Checklist for SEO and Indexing. React SPA to Next.js Migration Checklist for SEO and Indexing
A React SPA to Next.js SEO migration checklist for preserving indexing, redirects, metadata, rendered HTML, internal links, crawl paths, and launch confidence.
WordPress to Next.js Migration Checklist for Content, Preview and SEO. WordPress to Next.js Migration Checklist for Content, Preview and SEO
A WordPress to Next.js migration checklist for URLs, content models, media, preview, redirects, metadata, schema, sitemaps, SEO, and launch checks.
Should You Move a Shopify Storefront to Next.js? Should You Move a Shopify Storefront to Next.js?
Decide whether Shopify to Next.js is worth it by weighing storefront control, SEO, performance, checkout, apps, content workflow, cost, and risk.
Pages Router to App Router Migration Risk Checklist. Pages Router to App Router Migration Risk Checklist
A Pages Router to App Router migration checklist for Next.js teams, covering routing, data fetching, caching, metadata, server components, and rollout.