Migrating your website to Astro as-is to edit it with AI
Partner · Web development, SEO and GEO
A business website can change its architecture without changing its look. An as-is migration rebuilds the same design and the same text as a pre-built site in code (Astro, for example), stored in a versioned repository and edited with Claude Code (Anthropic's coding tool) or ChatGPT Codex (OpenAI's coding agent). Your visitors find the same pages at the same addresses: the difference shows mostly in loading speed. For the business, the gain lies elsewhere: a change is written in one sentence, then approved before it goes live. SEO is preserved if every address stays the same or gets its 301 redirect.
- An as-is migration keeps the site's design, text and addresses: only the technical architecture changes.
- An address that cannot stay the same gets a 301 redirect. Google recommends keeping redirects for at least one year.
- Forms, GA4, Tag Manager and the link to your CRM are reconnected one by one, then tested before the switchover.
- Features that need a database (online store, member area, client portal) do not carry over as they are. An online store stays on Shopify.
- The site does not depend on AI to run: Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex are only used to change it.
On this page
As-is migration
An as-is migration moves a site from one platform to another without changing what the visitor sees: same design, same text, same images and, in most cases, the same addresses. Only the technical architecture changes. It differs from a redesign, which revisits the site's structure, content or look. Here, the new architecture is a pre-built site in code, which you change by writing instructions to an AI.
Why change the architecture without changing the site
Most businesses thinking about AI for their website do not have a look problem. They like their site, it represents the brand well and it brings in leads. What slows them down is the way it gets changed: a request, a queue, then a technical intervention. Our article on what Claude Code and ChatGPT Codex change in website development describes that delay.
A website redesign would answer the question, but it reopens everything: the design, the text and the organization of the pages. An as-is migration separates the two decisions. You change how the site gets edited now. The design question waits its turn, if it ever comes up.
The move brings three things.
- Speed of change. An instruction written in your own words becomes a change prepared on a working copy, checked, then approved. A price shown on thirty pages is changed in a single request.
- Control over every change. The code lives in a versioned repository: every change is dated, you know who asked for it and you can go back to the previous version.
- Fewer parts to maintain. A pre-built site (also commonly called a static site) serves pages that are already ready. The visitor reaches no database and no plugin, which shrinks the attack surface (the possible entry points for an attacker).
This choice says nothing against the original platform. A WordPress site changed a few times a year can very well stay on WordPress, which is opening up to AI too: our article on AI in WordPress 7 covers it. The migration makes sense when the site has to keep pace with the business.
What changes and what stays the same for your visitors
| Site element | After an as-is migration |
|---|---|
| Design, colours, typography | The same: each template is rebuilt from its actual appearance |
| Text, images, videos | The same, carried over page by page |
| Page addresses | The same wherever possible. Otherwise, a 301 redirect leads to the new address |
| Forms | The same fields and the same path. The sending mechanism changes, without the visitor seeing it |
| Loading speed | Often faster: the page arrives ready instead of being assembled on each visit |
| Cookie consent banner | Rebuilt in the new site, with the same choices for the visitor |
Speed matters to Google. Its documentation says its ranking systems seek to reward a good page experience, including Core Web Vitals. Google adds, however, that good results do not guarantee top positions and that it always shows the most relevant content. An as-is migration therefore protects what the site has earned more than it promises a ranking gain.
For your team, the change is bigger. The dashboard goes away: you no longer edit a page by clicking in an editor, you describe the change to Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex, which work in the site's files. Claude Code reads a rules file stored in the project at the start of every session. That file, written during the migration, holds your brand guide, the words to avoid and how to display a price: it is what makes the AI write in your voice.
Keeping your SEO: same addresses, or else 301 redirects
A page's ranking is tied to its address. An as-is migration therefore has an advantage over a redesign: if the addresses do not change, Google sees the same pages in the same place. Google treats this case as a hosting change. Its documentation recommends testing the new site on a temporary address closed to search engines, then switching the domain. Its crawler may crawl the site more slowly right after the change, then speed up over the following days.
Keeping every address is not always possible. WordPress sometimes adds a date or a category to a post's address and duplicate pages pile up over the years. Each address that changes gets a 301 redirect, which sends the visitor and Google to the new page. Google writes that 301 redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank (the measure of importance it gives each page). It asks that they be kept as long as possible, generally at least one year. For a small or medium-sized site, expect a few weeks before most pages have moved in its results.
SEO is not only about visible text. These elements are carried over one by one:
- Title tags and meta descriptions, often stored in the SEO plugin rather than in the page itself.
- Structured data, canonical tags and image alt text.
- The sitemap and the robots.txt file.
- Downloadable files (PDFs, spec sheets) and their addresses.
- Internal links, which should point to final addresses rather than to redirects.
The method for building the URL mapping table and avoiding redirect chains is detailed in our article on website migration without losing your rankings.
Forms, GA4, Tag Manager and CRM
This part deserves as much care as the design, because an error does not show on screen: a form can display perfectly and send nothing.
Forms
On WordPress, a plugin receives the form and sends the email. A pre-built site has no server waiting for submissions: the form goes through a small function at the host or through your CRM's form service. The fields and the thank-you page stay the same.
GA4 and Tag Manager
The Tag Manager container is reinstalled as is, with the two blocks of code Google asks you to place at the top of every page. Tags, triggers and conversions stay in your account. What changes are the elements the triggers watch: a rebuilt button may carry a different name in the code. Every conversion is therefore tested before the switchover. We also load measurement only on the real domain, so the test copy does not write into your reports.
The CRM
If your form comes from your CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive or ActiveCampaign, for example) as embed code, it generally copies over as is. If it went through a WordPress plugin that made the connection, that connection is rebuilt: the same fields must land in the same places, with the lead's source.
Consent and Search Console
The cookie consent banner often comes from a plugin. It is rebuilt in the new site with the same choices for the visitor. The privacy policy is reread to describe the tools actually in place (Law 25). Search Console verification carries over too: Google asks you to keep the file, tag or Analytics code that proves you own the site.
What does not carry over as is
A pre-built site suits business sites, content sites and catalogues. Features that need a database or a server do not copy over: they are replaced, connected to an outside service or left where they are.
| Feature | What happens during the migration |
|---|---|
| Online store (cart, payment, inventory) | It stays on a commerce platform. For a store, we work on Shopify rather than on this architecture. |
| Member area, client portal, dashboard | These are full applications, which stay outside the business site |
| Appointment booking, calendar | The outside service you use is embedded in the page, as before |
| Site search | An index built at each release allows fast search without a server, as on our blog. |
| Content edited by several people in a dashboard | Instructions to the AI replace the dashboard. Astro can also display content from a WordPress site kept as the writing tool. |
Online commerce is described on our eCommerce agency page.
How an as-is migration unfolds
The inventory
We list every address of the current site (sitemap, Search Console, links from other sites), the forms, the measurement tools and the integrations.
The written rules
The brand guide, the words to use and avoid, how to display a price: these rules become the file the AI reads with every change. The most important ones become automatic checks that block the release when a rule is broken.
The rebuild
Pages are recreated from their actual appearance, with shared components (header, footer, forms) defined in one place. AI does the bulk of the coding. A person compares each template to the original site.
Checking on a copy
On a temporary address closed to search engines, we check every redirect, every form, every conversion and the display on phones.
The switchover
The domain is pointed to the new site. The old one stays intact for a while, ready to take over again if a serious problem appears.
The follow-up
Over the following weeks, we track the pages crawled in Search Console, 404 errors and the leads received. The old hosting is shut down once no visitor reaches it anymore.
Well prepared, the switchover should not interrupt incoming leads: the old site receives them until the domain change, then the new one takes over.
Our own move from WordPress to Astro
The falia.co migration was not as-is: we revised the design and merged some of the old articles. The address mechanics, however, are the same. Work began on August 20, 2026. The new site, built with Claude Code on Astro, has been live since September 22, 2026.
- 587 addresses listed in the old site's sitemap, each matched to its new page in a URL mapping table.
- An old article merged into a new article leads to that article, not to a category list. We fixed this after launch, by checking the redirects one by one.
- A host limit showed up once live. Beyond a certain size, the end of our redirects file was ignored, without any error message. We saw it by testing real addresses a week after the switchover. Since then, an automatic check blocks any release that would exceed that size.
The lesson applies to any migration: a redirect is checked on the live site, address by address, not only in the file that declares it.
The risks and how to reduce them
| The risk | What reduces it |
|---|---|
| A forgotten address that leads to an error page | A complete URL mapping table, then a check of the addresses on the live site |
| A form that displays but sends nothing | A test submission of each form, all the way to the CRM, before and after the switchover |
| Conversions that no longer show up in GA4 | A test of each Tag Manager trigger on the working copy |
| A site that depends on a single provider | A repository in your name, standard code and a site that runs without AI |
A migration is judged on the live site, not on the working copy. A redirect or a form can work in testing and then fail after the switchover because of a host setting. Plan a full check on the day itself, then another one the following week.
The choice of framework matters too. Astro is open source software. In January 2026, Cloudflare announced it was acquiring the team that develops it. The announcement said Astro would remain open source, including for sites hosted elsewhere. The site remains a set of standard files that any developer or coding agent can take over.
As-is or evolved: making the decision
As-is, the structure is carried over unchanged: it is the shortest path and the brand image stays intact. Evolved, the move is also used to revisit the structure and the conversion path. The second takes more decisions, but it avoids reworking the same pages twice.
The evolved path makes sense when the data shows a path problem: traffic that arrives without converting, pages that no longer match the offer. Our CRO guide explains how to spot these signals.
Six questions before migrating
- Do the design and text of our site still suit us?
- How long does it take today for a change request to go live?
- Does our site have a store, a member area or features that need a database?
- Do we have the list of all our addresses and all our forms?
- Who on our side will write the instructions and who will approve releases?
- Are the code and the domain name in our name?
The site your customers know stays the same. What changes is how it evolves.
We recreate your site as is, or with a revised structure, as a website managed with AI, part of our web design expertise. We first look at your current site with you to tell you whether the migration is worth it.
Would you rather keep your platform and hand the changes to someone? Our website maintenance service takes care of it, always with the same contact.
Frequently asked questions about migrating a site to Astro
Will my site look different?
No. An as-is migration keeps the same design, the same text and the same images. The difference shows mostly in loading speed.
Will I lose my Google rankings?
Not if every address stays the same or gets its 301 redirect. Google states that these redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank. Rankings may fluctuate for a few weeks while Google crawls the new site.
Do I keep my domain name?
Yes. The domain does not change: it is pointed to the new hosting at the switchover. Google treats this case as a hosting change.
Will my forms and my CRM keep working?
Yes, if they are reconnected and tested before the switchover. The fields stay the same and only the sending mechanism changes.
Will I be able to change my site myself?
Yes, by writing your requests to Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex rather than clicking in a dashboard. Every change goes through automatic checks, then waits for approval before it goes live.
Will my site depend on Claude or ChatGPT?
No. The site served to your visitors is made of standard files that display without AI. AI is only used to change it. If a tool changes its price or disappears, the site stays online.
Can my online store be migrated the same way?
Not to this architecture. A cart, payments and inventory need a commerce platform. For a store, we work on Shopify.
- Google Search Central, Changing your hosting, updated December 10, 2025, accessed in 2026.
- Google Search Central, Site moves with URL changes, updated August 20, 2026, accessed in 2026.
- Google Search Central, Understanding page experience in Google Search results (updated September 22, 2026) and Core Web Vitals, accessed in 2026.
- Tag Manager Help, Install a web container, accessed in 2026.
- Cloudflare, Cloudflare Acquires Astro, press release, January 16, 2026.
- Astro, Migrating from WordPress, official documentation, accessed in 2026.
- Anthropic, Claude Code overview, official documentation, accessed in 2026.
- OpenAI, ChatGPT Codex documentation, accessed in 2026.
Geneviève puts the strategy for your engagement into action. She leads all our web development projects: Shopify, WordPress and the new ways of building a site with AI. She manages our team of developers and translates your business needs into technical language. She runs your organic search (SEO), your visibility in AI answers (GEO) and your site's conversion rate optimization (CRO). Her work is at the heart of three goals: Attract customers with SEO and AI, Improve your site's conversion, and Strengthen your visibility in AI answers. With Gabriel, she also builds the landing pages for your advertising campaigns. She writes mainly about SEO, AI visibility and web design.
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