PRESERVE BEFORE YOU IMPROVE
A working website is an asset. We treat it like one.
A website can look dated and still be doing important work. Individual pages may rank for valuable searches, other sites may link to old URLs, and search engines may have years of history tied to pages nobody on your team thinks about anymore.
Before anything changes, we establish what is there and what needs to survive the move.
Keep what already works.Your tools stay. Your domain and data stay yours.
MIGRATION INVENTORY
What comes with you
A migration starts with the website you have today. We use it as the reference point for the replacement, then account for the parts that affect customers, search engines, and continuity.
URLs
We inventory the existing site and preserve established URLs where that makes sense. When a URL needs to change, its old location and new destination are mapped deliberately.
Content
Existing page copy is preserved by default during migration. If content is already doing a useful job, we do not casually rewrite it because a new site is being built.
Page structure
Headings, lists, links, images, and other important elements are captured as part of the source site before deciding what should change.
Search titles and descriptions
Titles, meta descriptions, canonicals, and indexation instructions are accounted for as website state, not disposable settings.
Internal links
We check the relationships between pages rather than assuming a new navigation has handled them.
Redirects and sitemaps
Existing redirects, required new redirects, and sitemap coverage are checked before launch and again against the live site.
KEEP THE JOBS SEPARATE
First preserve. Then improve.
Migration and optimization are different jobs. When URLs, copy, navigation, metadata, and technical behavior all change at once, it becomes harder to tell which changes were intentional and which introduced a problem.
Our first objective is parity where parity matters. Once the new site is safely in place, Rule & Form can improve it deliberately.
EXPLICIT COMPARISON
We do not call two websites “close enough.”
A replacement can look correct in a browser while still containing meaningful differences underneath. Each comparison resolves into a known state.
Matched
The existing site and replacement agree where they are expected to agree. Nothing further is required.
Approved change
Something is intentionally different, and the reason is understood.
Review required
The sites differ in a way that needs a decision before proceeding.
Blocked
Something important cannot yet be accounted for safely.
A CONTROLLED MOVE
How switching works
- 01
Capture the existing site
We collect pages, content, structure, links, images, metadata, and search-sensitive instructions. That captured state becomes the reference for the migration.
- 02
Build the migration inventory
We determine which pages need to survive, which URLs need mapping, and which parts require closer review.
- 03
Build the Rule & Form site
The new website is built against the source we captured. Intentional changes remain distinguishable from migration changes.
- 04
Compare the two sites
We look for missing pages, changed content, broken links, metadata changes, redirect problems, and other unexplained differences.
- 05
Cut over deliberately
The new site goes live only after the migration state is understood.
- 06
Verify the live site
We check the live destination again after cutover. A migration is complete when customers and search engines can reach it as expected.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The most valuable parts of a website are often the least obvious.
A plain service page may bring in qualified traffic every month, an old URL may have years of search history behind it, and a page buried deep in the site may have links pointing to it.
Those things are easy to lose when a rebuild is treated primarily as a design project. We do not decide what matters based on how modern a page looks.
STANDARD MIGRATION
Most businesses should not need a separate migration project.
If a site falls outside standard scope, we identify that before anything moves. The migration should not become a surprise project after you have committed.
$299/mo $0 setup Standard migration included
Build my site freeSTRAIGHT ANSWERS
Questions about switching
Will switching websites hurt my SEO?
A website change can affect search performance when URLs, content, links, redirects, metadata, or indexation behavior change unexpectedly. We identify and control those changes while preserving the parts that should survive.
Will my existing URLs stay the same?
Where appropriate, yes. Established URLs are preserved when there is no good reason to change them, and required changes are mapped deliberately before launch.
Are you going to rewrite all of my existing content?
Not as part of migration by default. Existing content is treated as something to understand and preserve before deciding whether it should be improved.
What happens to pages that are not part of the new navigation?
They still need to be accounted for. If an existing URL should no longer remain as its own page, we determine what should happen to it before launch.
What if you find something you cannot safely reproduce?
We stop and review it. An unexplained difference is not treated as approved simply because the rest of the site is ready.
Is migration really included?
Standard migrations are included with Rule & Form at no additional cost. Work outside that scope is identified before migration begins.
MOVE WITH CONFIDENCE
Bring the website you have. Keep what it has earned.
Move onto Rule & Form without treating years of content, search history, and existing performance as disposable. We preserve what should survive, account for what changes, and verify the new site before calling the move complete.
$299/mo $0 setup Standard migration included
Build my site free