The right website migration company has a migration method it can show you in writing, shipped work on the platform it is recommending, a named senior team that stays after launch, and the willingness to start with a paid audit before asking for a big commitment. This guide from Bejamas, a senior web development and CMS migration agency, explains how to evaluate a shortlist against those criteria, and which warning signs should end a conversation early.
A website migration is one of the few projects where a bad vendor choice is measured in lost organic traffic rather than a disappointing deliverable. The rankings, URLs and content you have built over years are on the table. So the question is not “which agency has the best portfolio?” but “which team will still be here, and still accountable, six months after launch?”
Start with your migration, not their portfolio
Before you look at a single agency website, write one page that describes your migration. Most shortlists go wrong because the buyer starts comparing vendors before they have described the problem.
Your page should cover:
- The type of migration. CMS replatforming, consolidation of several sites or brands, a framework or hosting move, a domain change, a redesign with a platform change underneath. Often it is two or three of these at once. The Website Migration Guide explains each type.
- The complexity. How many markets, languages, brands, sites and integrations are involved. How many editors publish today, and how they do it.
- What is at stake. Organic traffic and the revenue it drives. Campaign deadlines. A licence renewal or end-of-life framework that fixes the timeline.
- How your organisation works. UAT, security testing, procurement, steering committees, local market teams with their own opinions.
- What you need after launch. A team that runs and improves the estate, or a clean handover to people you already have. If that is still open, weigh a migration company against an in-house team before you brief anyone.
Two things happen when you do this. Agencies that specialise in your problem shape recognise it immediately. Agencies that do not will try to reframe it into the project they usually sell.
Seven criteria that predict a safe migration
1. A migration method they can show you before you sign
Ask to see how they migrated the last site, with client details removed. You are looking for a runbook, not a slide: a redirect mapping process, a content inventory template, an analytics continuity plan, a staging test plan, a staged go-live approach and a post-launch monitoring schedule.
An agency that migrates websites regularly has this on file. An agency that will “put a plan together once we’re engaged” does not.
For a worked example, Bejamas publishes its own migration method as three phases and six steps, from fixed-price discovery to post-launch operation.
2. Shipped work on your target platform, and honest advice about whether it is the right one
Partner status with the CMS and framework vendors you are considering is a useful filter. Sanity, Storyblok, Contentful and Astro all maintain partner directories, and buyers increasingly treat absence from them as disqualifying.
But watch for the opposite problem. An agency that is exclusive to one platform will recommend that platform for every problem. Look for a company with partnerships across the ecosystem and exclusivity with none, so no margin steers the recommendation. Bejamas calls this advisory neutrality: the recommendation follows your editorial workflows, markets, integrations and budget, and sometimes the honest verdict is to stay where you are.
3. Experience with your problem shape, not just your industry
Sector experience is overrated in agency selection. A team that has migrated three insurance websites has learned about insurance. A team that has consolidated 20 country sites into one platform has learned how to consolidate 20 country sites into one platform, and that transfers whether you sell coffee, cranes or software.
Ask for references by problem shape: multi-market consolidation, multi-brand design systems, integration-heavy rebuilds, SEO-critical replatforming. Then call those references.
4. A named senior team that stays
The team that pitches is often not the team that delivers. Ask who will work on your migration by name and role, how long they have been with the company, and whether they will still be on your account a year after launch.
Continuity matters more in migrations than in most projects, because the people who built the redirect map are the people who can fix it fast when something moves. Bejamas works on a named-team model for exactly this reason: the seniors you meet in discovery are the seniors who run the estate afterwards.
5. A small first step
The best migration companies want to start with a paid audit or discovery before proposing the full programme. It protects you: you get a written inventory, an SEO benchmark and a phased plan you can take to your management before committing six figures. It protects them: they scope what they can see, not what they guess.
Treat “skip discovery, here’s the full proposal” as a risk flag. The largest migration failures tend to be big formal pursuits that were never tested on a small door first.
6. Numbers and trade-offs in writing
You should be able to answer “what is happening, what does it cost and why” to your own boss without scheduling a call. That requires an agency that produces written estimates, budget options and trade-offs proactively, reports hours and progress on a schedule, and is willing to put performance, accessibility and URL continuity targets into acceptance criteria.
If a company will not commit to anything measurable in the contract, it is telling you how confident it is in its own method.
7. Fluency in how your organisation works
Complex estates come with governance: user acceptance testing, security reviews, procurement questionnaires, steering committees, brand teams in markets who need a say. An agency that has never worked inside these processes will treat them as friction. One that has will build them into the plan and the timeline.
Ask how they ran UAT on their last migration, and how they handled a procurement or security review.
Red flags that should end the conversation
Any one of these is reason enough to take a migration company off the shortlist.
- Redirects are “handled at the end” or everything old points to the homepage.
- SEO joins the project after the design is signed off.
- One platform is the answer before they have seen your requirements.
- No staging crawl, no redirect testing, no analytics parity check in the plan.
- The only launch option is a single big-bang cutover.
- The hourly rate is the headline of the proposal.
- Nobody can tell you who will be on the team, or the seniors leave after the pitch.
- There is no answer to “what happens after launch?” beyond a support ticket queue.
For the positive version of the same list, read what makes a great website migration agency.
Types of website migration company: which fits your estate
Five kinds of supplier sell website migrations, and each one is the right answer for a different estate.
| Type | Strengths | Watch out for | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Specialist senior web team (e.g. Bejamas) | Documented migration method, multi-CMS depth, named seniors who stay to run the estate, discovery-first | Not the cheapest hourly rate; will push back on your brief | Multi-brand, multi-market, integration-heavy estates without a senior in-house web function |
| Generalist digital agency | Brand and campaign creativity, broad services | Migration handled as a sub-task of a redesign; SEO outsourced; team churn | Single-site rebrands where the platform barely changes |
| Dev shop / body shop | Capacity, low rates | Code without strategy or design; a vendor you have to manage; risk falls into the gaps | Well-specified builds where you own architecture and SEO in-house |
| Platform vendor professional services | Deep knowledge of one product | One platform for every problem; limited frontend and design scope | You have already chosen the platform and only need implementation |
| Large consultancy / systems integrator | Enterprise process, scale | Long discovery, opaque burn, rotating consultants, offshore delivery | Website migration is one line in a wider transformation programme |
A shortlist process that works
- Write the one-page brief described above. Share it with every candidate.
- Longlist from the right places. Partner directories (Sanity, Storyblok, Contentful, Astro, Vercel), referrals from peers who have migrated similar estates, and review platforms such as Clutch as a secondary check.
- Shortlist three against the seven criteria. Score each, and write down why.
- Interview them using the 10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Website Migration Agency.
- Call references by problem shape, not by industry.
- Use a paid audit as the tiebreaker. If two finalists are close, commission a small discovery from each, or from your preferred one, and compare how they think rather than how they pitch.
- Decide on the method and the people. Not on the deck.
Website migration company selection checklist
- One-page migration brief written and shared
- Migration method reviewed in writing (redirect map, content mapping, analytics continuity, staging, staged go-live, monitoring)
- Partner status verified on the platforms under consideration
- Recommendation not tied to a single platform
- References called, matched by problem shape
- Named team confirmed, with tenure and post-launch role
- Paid discovery or audit offered as the first step
- Written estimates, budget options and reporting cadence confirmed
- Performance, accessibility and URL continuity accepted as contractual criteria
- UAT, security and procurement process discussed and planned
- Post-launch model agreed (retainer, hypercare, handover)
Partner with Bejamas
Bejamas is the senior web team behind complex websites: multi-brand, multi-market, multi-instance. Every migration starts with a fixed-price audit, follows a documented SEO-safe method, and is delivered by named senior people who stay to run the estate. Budgets, trade-offs and performance targets go into the contract, not just the pitch.
Choosing a website migration company? Start with a Bejamas migration audit and see how we think before you commit to anything larger.
Read more about Bejamas website migration services.
Frequently asked questions
What should I look for in a website migration company?
A documented migration method, shipped work on your target platform with honest advice about whether it is the right one, experience with your problem shape, a named senior team that stays after launch, a paid discovery as the first step, written estimates and reporting, and fluency in your governance processes.
Should I choose an agency that specialises in one CMS?
Only if you have already made the platform decision with independent advice. Otherwise, choose a company with partnerships across several platforms and exclusivity with none, so the recommendation follows your requirements rather than the agency’s margin.
How many agencies should I shortlist for a website migration?
Three is usually enough. More than that and the evaluation becomes a procurement exercise rather than a judgement of method and people.
Is it worth paying for a discovery before choosing?
Yes. A fixed-price audit or discovery gives you a written inventory, an SEO benchmark and a phased plan you can use whichever partner you choose, and it shows you how the agency thinks under real conditions.
Does industry experience matter when choosing a migration company?
Less than problem-shape experience. A team that has consolidated many markets onto one platform, or migrated an SEO-critical estate without traffic loss, brings the skills that matter regardless of sector.
