Migrating from Weglot to StoreLingo without losing rankings

Switching translation tools on a working ecommerce store is the kind of project that gets delayed for months because nobody wants to be the person who tanked German organic traffic over a tooling decision.

Reasonable instinct. This post is the playbook we wrote for customers migrating from Weglot to StoreLingo, with the steps that matter for keeping rankings, the steps that matter for keeping customers in cart, and the diagnostics that help you sleep through the first week post-cutover.

The migration in five phases

1. Pre-flight. Audit your current Weglot setup, export translations, document URLs.
2. StoreLingo setup in parallel. Connect Webflow, import translations, publish to staging slug.
3. Cutover. Switch hreflang authority, update DNS or routing, retire Weglot.
4. Stabilization. Submit sitemaps, monitor GSC, fix discovered drift.
5. Decommission. Cancel Weglot, archive translations, remove its script.

The whole project usually takes 1-3 weeks of calendar time, of which roughly 4-8 hours is hands-on work. The rest is monitoring.

Phase 1: Pre-flight

Audit your current Weglot URL structure

Three common patterns:

• Subdirectory on your own domain: yoursite.com/de/product/blue-mug. Cleanest for SEO; migration is harder because URLs change.
• Subdomain on your own domain: de.yoursite.com/product/blue-mug. Less common.
• Weglot-hosted subdomain: de-yoursite.weglot.com. Your SEO situation needs careful conversation.

StoreLingo's Strategy A creates duplicates with slug prefixes inside your existing Webflow site. Post-migration URLs become yoursite.com/product/de-blue-mug. Different from yoursite.com/de/product/blue-mug.

Export your Weglot translations

From Weglot dashboard: Translations > Export > CSV. Pick "All translations" and select your target locales. Save the CSV; it's your fallback and historical record.

Critical detail: Weglot's CSV exports translations indexed by source phrase, not by Webflow product ID. StoreLingo's Import from Weglot button handles standard Weglot CSV format automatically.

Document your existing hreflang state

View source on five representative product URLs. Screenshot the existing <link rel="alternate"> tags. You'll compare against post-migration state.

Inventory your current rankings

Google Search Console > Performance > Filter by Country = your target. Export top-20 ranking pages by clicks. You'll compare against this 30 days after cutover.

Phase 2: StoreLingo setup in parallel

Connect Webflow + initial sync

Install StoreLingo from the Webflow Marketplace. OAuth flow grants standard scopes plus custom_code:read/write if you want automatic hreflang. Sync usually takes 10–60 seconds.

Import translations from Weglot CSV

On the Products tab, click Import from Weglot. Drop in the CSV. StoreLingo matches CSV rows to Webflow products by source name. Items that don't match cleanly are flagged in the import report.

Add Glossary terms

If you have brand terms Weglot was protecting, add them to StoreLingo's Glossary in the sidebar before any AI-translate runs.

Publish to your first target locale

Click Publish DE (substitute your locale). StoreLingo creates per-locale duplicate products with de- slugs, writes the imported translations, triggers a Webflow site publish.

Verify the new URLs work

Open at least three new URLs in incognito. Check:

• The page loads with translated content.
• The price renders correctly.
• The translated product can be added to cart and the cart line item shows German.
• Open the same product in Webflow Designer — should open cleanly with the SKU dropdown populated.

Phase 3: Cutover

Block out a couple of hours, ideally early in the week (so you have midweek to fix anything before traffic peaks Thursday–Friday).

Configure hreflang authority

Order of operations on cutover day:

1. In StoreLingo Hreflang dialog, confirm Automatic mode.
2. Click Publish DE in StoreLingo (and other locales).
3. In Weglot, disable translation delivery.
4. Verify view-source on a translated page: only StoreLingo's tags. No Weglot script.

Set up 301 redirects from old URLs to new URLs

Webflow Designer > Site Settings > Publishing > 301 Redirects. Most customers generate the list with a small script: read the Weglot CSV, build the /de/SLUG → /product/de-SLUG mapping, paste into Webflow.

Trigger a Webflow site publish

Either from Webflow Designer or by clicking any Publish DE in StoreLingo. This activates the hreflang script, the duplicate-row pages, and the 301 redirects all at once.

Verify the cutover

Within 5 minutes of publish:

1. Hit an old Weglot URL. Should 301 to the new URL.
2. Hit a new StoreLingo URL. Should 200 with translated content.
3. View source: StoreLingo's <link rel="alternate"> tags, no Weglot script.
4. Visit your sitemap. Should list the new locale slugs.

Phase 4: Stabilization

The first 30 days post-cutover are about monitoring and catching drift.

Submit your sitemap to GSC

Force a resubmit even if GSC already had your sitemap. Nudges Google to re-crawl faster. Expect first re-indexing in 2–7 days.

Watch the hreflang report in GSC

GSC > Legacy tools > International Targeting. Common post-migration errors:

• "No return tag" — Page A says "Page B is my German alternate" but Page B doesn't reciprocate. Fix by confirming StoreLingo Automatic mode is active on all locales.
• "Hreflang references non-200 URL" — Some alternate URLs 404 or 301. Likely a locale you haven't published yet. Publish it or remove from StoreLingo's locale list.

Watch your top-20 ranking pages

Customers we've seen post-migration are net flat to slightly up at day 30, because StoreLingo's URLs are real Webflow CMS pages with full Webflow SEO infrastructure.

Phase 5: Decommission Weglot

Wait 30 days after cutover before cancelling. Two reasons:

• If you need to roll back, Weglot still has your translations.
• The 30-day window covers most cycle-to-cycle GSC anomalies.

After 30 days, if rankings are stable:

1. Remove any leftover Weglot script from your Webflow site head/footer.
2. Export Weglot translations one more time as a final archive.
3. Cancel Weglot subscription.
4. Remove Weglot DNS records.

Your translated catalog now lives entirely in your own Webflow CMS. Cancel StoreLingo in another twelve months if you want; the catalog stays. See Own your translations.

Common migration mistakes

If something goes badly: rollback

Rollback during the parallel period is trivial — both systems are running, you disable StoreLingo's hreflang and re-enable Weglot's. After cutover it's harder but feasible: re-enable Weglot, push StoreLingo's hreflang to Off, reverse the 301 redirects. The StoreLingo-created CMS rows sit unused; delete them or leave them.

The customer accounts we've supported through migration have not needed to roll back.