Founded in 2021, Munich-based startup buycycle has quickly become the go-to marketplace for road, gravel, and MTB bikes, helping cycling enthusiasts buy and sell with ease.
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With their website as the core of the business, the technical changes needed for a global rollout were the kind of project where one wrong redirect can ruin your week.
They connected with us through their investors, FAIR VC, and from there, our partnership began.
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Empact Challenge
With only a German site, they knew it would take more than just translating a few pages—they needed a new domain extension and a strategy to maintain their SEO value while positioning themselves for international growth.
Shifting from buycycle.de to buycycle.com came with a host of technical challenges, from preserving search rankings to setting up a scalable structure for multi-language content.
With our experience in internationalization and localization (including converting content into 21 languages for our own internal publication), we helped buycycle execute a clean migration and lay the groundwork for their multi-language expansion — 32 languages, to be exact. Yes, thirty-two.
Empact Roadmap
To address buycycle's need for a smooth domain migration and international expansion, we followed a detailed roadmap that ensured every technical and SEO aspect was carefully managed.
1. URL Mapping & Website Architecture Review
Every existing URL on buycycle.de was carefully mapped to its new counterpart on buycycle.com, and site architecture was refined to eliminate any inefficiencies.
Proper URL mapping prevents broken links and 404 errors — the silent killers of any domain migration — and helps search engines quickly recognize the new structure without losing traffic.
2. Comprehensive Website & Blog Audit
We completed a comprehensive audit of the landing pages and blog to identify areas for improvement and ensure that only high-quality, SEO-optimized content was migrated.
A thorough content audit improves the quality of the new site, reduces unnecessary pages, and enhances SEO rankings by ensuring that only strong, optimized content is transferred. This is something we like to do for all our new partners.
3. Hreflang Tag Implementation
Accurate hreflang tags were implemented across the new domain to support multi-language content and prevent duplicate content issues.
4. 301 Redirects
We helped buycycle's team configure 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones, ensuring a smooth transition and preserving link equity.
Think of 301 redirects as forwarding your mail after moving — except the mail is link equity, and losing it means dropping off page one.
5. Google Search Console Migration
The final step was configuring Google Search Console to ensure a smooth transition and maintain visibility. We verified both the old and new domains under the same Google Search Console account and used the Change of Address tool to inform Google of the domain migration officially.
Setting up both domains in Google Search Console is how you formally tell Google, "We've moved — please update your records." Skip this step and you're effectively invisible during the transition.
Empact Results
Since the migration, buycycle has expanded further into international markets and recently raised $3.2 million in additional funding to accelerate their expansion plans.
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