Senior WordPress Migration, Technical SEO and Website Performance Specialist

We are an established Canadian local-service company looking for a senior website specialist to safely migrate and improve an important lead-generating WordPress website. Our website generates a significant portion of our customer leads. Protecting its organic rankings, indexed pages, content, forms, tracking and existing functionality is the highest priority. The business name and website address will be shared privately with shortlisted candidates. PROJECT OBJECTIVES - Determine the best long-term, non-proprietary platform and hosting setup for the website. - Safely migrate the existing website to a hosting account owned by us. - Preserve existing SEO value, content and important URLs. - Improve website speed, mobile performance and Core Web Vitals. - Improve the website’s ability to generate qualified leads. - Provide 30 days of migration-related support after launch. - Potentially assist with occasional website maintenance and changes afterward. WordPress currently appears to be the preferred platform, but we are open to a well-supported recommendation. Any recommended alternative must provide strong SEO, performance, ownership, portability and ease of future maintenance. This is not automatically a complete redesign. The initial audit must determine whether the existing website should be migrated as-is, optimized or gradually rebuilt. No redesign, rebuild or platform change may begin without approval. PHASE 1 — AUDIT AND RECOMMENDATION - Crawl and document the existing website. - Inventory existing URLs, page titles, metadata, canonical tags, redirects, schema, forms, media and tracking. - Review the current WordPress theme, plugins and technical setup. - Identify SEO, migration, performance and lead-conversion risks. - Recommend the best platform and managed-hosting arrangement. - Explain whether the website should be migrated, optimized or rebuilt. - Provide a written migration, testing and rollback plan. - Provide a fixed-price estimate and estimated number of hours. PHASE 2 — STAGING MIGRATION - Create a complete backup of the existing website. - Migrate the website to a private staging environment. - Keep the staging website password-protected and blocked from search engines. - Preserve the existing content and URL structure wherever possible. - Configure hosting, caching, backups and security. - Do not change or interrupt the live website during development. PHASE 3 — TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION - Compare the staged website against the existing live website. - Verify every important URL, page title, metadata field, canonical tag, redirect and schema item. - Test all forms, phone links, email links and calls to action. - Verify Google Analytics, Search Console and conversion tracking. - Test desktop, tablet and mobile functionality. - Optimize images, caching and performance. - Provide before-and-after performance results. - Recommend practical improvements to increase qualified leads. PHASE 4 — LAUNCH - Create a complete pre-launch backup and rollback point. - Complete the DNS cutover with minimal downtime. - Test the live website immediately after launch. - Confirm all forms, tracking and lead notifications are working. - Verify the sitemap, robots settings and Search Console configuration. - Retain the ability to restore the previous website if a serious problem occurs. PHASE 5 — POST-LAUNCH SUPPORT - Monitor indexing, crawl errors, traffic and website leads for 30 days. - Correct problems directly related to the migration. - Provide final documentation, backups and access information. - Complete a clean handoff with all accounts and assets owned by the client. OCCASIONAL FUTURE MAINTENANCE After a successful migration, we may continue working with the selected specialist for occasional maintenance, updates, troubleshooting, performance improvements and website changes. We are not necessarily looking for a monthly maintenance contract. Please provide: - Your hourly rate for occasional work - Your normal response time - Your availability for urgent website problems - Whether you offer prepaid support-hour packages - An optional monthly maintenance price, if available REQUIRED EXPERIENCE - WordPress and managed WordPress hosting - Migrations of established websites with existing organic traffic - Technical SEO and Google Search Console - URL inventories and redirect mapping - Google Analytics and conversion tracking - Core Web Vitals and mobile-performance optimization - Forms and lead-generation websites - Staging environments, backups, DNS and rollback procedures - Website security and ongoing maintenance - Local-service business experience is strongly preferred IMPORTANT REQUIREMENTS - Existing important URLs must be preserved wherever possible. - Any necessary URL changes require an approved redirect map. - The domain, hosting and all accounts will remain owned by the client. - Do not register services under your own account. - Do not make unapproved changes to the live website. - Do not rebuild the website on a proprietary platform. - Do not subcontract or outsource the work without approval. - All data, backups, customer information and credentials must remain confidential. - The person submitting the proposal should personally oversee the project. - The current website must remain live until the replacement has been fully tested and approved. BUDGET The posted budget is $2,000 USD as an initial estimate for a careful migration, performance optimization, launch and 30 days of migration-related support. We welcome clearly explained fixed-price proposals above or below this amount. Please separate your estimated hours and costs for: 1. Audit and migration plan 2. Staging migration 3. SEO and functional testing 4. Performance optimization 5. Launch 6. Post-launch monitoring A full redesign or rebuild is not automatically included. If you recommend one, present it as a separate option with its cost, risks and expected benefits. The first contract milestone will be a smaller paid audit. The remaining work will be approved only after the audit and migration plan have been reviewed. PLEASE INCLUDE WITH YOUR PROPOSAL - Three comparable migrations you personally completed - Your specific role in each project - Live website examples - Examples involving local-service or lead-generating businesses - Available before-and-after traffic or Search Console results - Your approach to protecting existing rankings and leads - The tools you use to crawl and compare websites - Your backup and rollback procedure - Your fixed-price estimate and estimated hours - Your availability for some Eastern Time communication - Your hourly rate for occasional future maintenance Please begin your proposal with the words “SEO-safe migration” to confirm that you read the complete posting.