Next.js Migration SEO Recovery Audit

# Senior Next.js Developer & Technical SEO Expert Needed – Complete Website Migration Audit

## Project Overview

I recently migrated my entire website from WordPress to Next.js. The migration is complete, but I am currently experiencing a significant drop in website traffic, along with several technical issues.

I am looking for a **highly experienced Next.js developer with strong technical SEO expertise** who can perform a complete, in-depth audit of my entire website, infrastructure, and migration.

**I do not want a basic SEO audit or a quick website check. I need someone who will thoroughly investigate the entire system, identify potential migration mistakes, technical problems, performance issues, and SEO-related errors, and help ensure everything is properly configured and functioning as expected.**

## Problems I Have Already Identified

**1. Significant Traffic and Ranking Loss**

Since migrating from WordPress to Next.js, my website has experienced a noticeable decline in organic traffic.

One particularly concerning issue is that some pages are indexed by Google but no longer appear in search results, even for keywords with extremely low competition and very few competing websites.

Before the migration, these pages were visible in search results.

I need someone to investigate why this is happening and determine whether the migration introduced technical issues affecting crawling, indexing, rendering, or rankings.

**2. Handshake Timeout Errors**

According to my Sentry error logs, I am experiencing handshake timeout errors.

I need a detailed investigation into these errors, including their root causes and potential impact on website availability, performance, and Googlebot accessibility.

**3. Potential Migration and Configuration Issues**

I want to ensure that absolutely everything was migrated and configured correctly, without any hidden issues that could negatively affect SEO, functionality, or performance.

## Scope of Work – Complete Technical Audit

### 1. Next.js Architecture & Code Review
- Review the overall Next.js implementation and architecture.
- Verify correct server-side rendering (SSR), static generation (SSG), and rendering strategies where applicable.
- Check whether Googlebot can properly access and render all important content.
- Identify JavaScript errors, hydration issues, and rendering problems.
- Review routing, dynamic pages, middleware, and server configuration.
- Identify inefficient implementations, configuration mistakes, and potential bugs.

### 2. Comprehensive Technical SEO Audit
- Investigate the organic traffic and ranking decline following the migration.
- Analyze why indexed pages are no longer appearing in Google search results.
- Review Google Search Console data, indexing reports, and crawl statistics.
- Verify robots.txt, XML sitemaps, canonical tags, meta robots directives, and page metadata.
- Check HTTP status codes, redirects, 404 errors, soft 404s, and server errors.
- Verify that all old WordPress URLs are correctly redirected to their corresponding Next.js URLs.
- Check internal linking, page structure, and content accessibility.
- Investigate duplicate content and potentially conflicting canonical URLs.
- Review structured data and schema markup.
- Identify problems that could prevent Googlebot from crawling, rendering, indexing, or ranking pages correctly.

### 3. WordPress-to-Next.js Migration Verification
- Verify that all relevant content, URLs, metadata, and SEO elements were transferred correctly.
- Compare the previous WordPress URL structure with the new Next.js implementation.
- Identify missing pages, broken links, incorrect redirects, and lost SEO signals.
- Review potential differences in HTML output and content rendering.
- Check whether any migration mistakes could explain the decline in organic visibility.

### 4. Server, Infrastructure & Error Investigation
- Investigate the handshake timeout errors reported in Sentry.
- Review relevant server logs and application error logs.
- Check API requests, database connections, network communication, and timeout configurations.
- Identify potential connection, deployment, hosting, or infrastructure issues.
- Investigate whether Googlebot or regular visitors may experience intermittent failures.
- Verify server stability, response times, and error handling.

### 5. Performance & Core Web Vitals
- Analyze loading speed and server response times.
- Review Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS).
- Identify performance bottlenecks.
- Check caching, image optimization, JavaScript delivery, and resource loading.
- Verify that the website performs correctly on desktop and mobile devices.

### 6. Complete Website Functionality Testing
- Test all important website pages, templates, routes, and functionality.
- Identify broken features, unexpected behavior, and frontend/backend errors.
- Verify that everything works reliably across different devices and browsers.
- Check for any additional technical issues that may have been overlooked.

## Expected Deliverables

I expect:

1. **A comprehensive technical audit** covering the entire Next.js website and its migration from WordPress.
2. **A detailed list of all identified issues**, including their severity and potential impact.
3. **Root-cause analysis** of the organic traffic and ranking decline, including any findings that explain why indexed pages are no longer ranking.
4. **A detailed investigation of the Sentry handshake timeout errors.**
5. **Clear technical recommendations and concrete solutions** for all identified problems.
6. **Implementation of necessary fixes**, depending on the agreed project scope.
7. **Verification and testing after fixes** to confirm that the identified technical problems have been resolved.

Where possible, findings should be supported by actual technical evidence rather than assumptions.

## Who I Am Looking For

I am looking for someone with proven expertise in:

- Next.js, React, and modern web architecture
- WordPress-to-Next.js migrations
- Advanced technical SEO and Google crawling/indexing
- Server-side rendering and JavaScript SEO
- Google Search Console and organic traffic analysis
- Sentry debugging and error investigation
- Server infrastructure, APIs, and performance optimization
- Debugging complex technical problems in production environments

**Important:** This project requires more than standard SEO knowledge. I need someone who understands both the technical development side of Next.js and the SEO implications of migrating a large website from WordPress.

My goal is to ensure the entire system is technically sound, stable, optimized for search engines, and free of migration-related problems.

Please explain your experience with similar migrations and technical SEO investigations, how you would approach this audit, and what information or access you would need.

I am looking for a thorough, systematic investigation — not a superficial review or automated SEO report.