Enterprise SEO Case Study
Small Agency > BIG Migration
Simultaneously replatforming millions of URLs across multiple domains puts a lot at stake. We helped SB Nation mitigate SEO risks and modernize its tech stack with a solid game-day strategy.
Underdog overdelivers for the enterprise SEO win.
The SB Nation project was more than a small-but-mighty agency helping a major sports brand migrate 180 domains and 5.4 million URLs. It was a statement that enterprise SEO can deliver stability, agility, and growth under conditions that often cause performance crash-outs.
SB Nation hurdled past obsolete liabilities to score long-term advantages from a powerful new platform setup. Behind the scenes, our strategy helped launch without SEO losses and build a stronger foundation for the future.
Impact
Scoreboard
Simultaneously replatformed 5.4 million URLs across 180 domains
Improved crawl budget efficiency & reduced tech debt
Consistent organic traffic across domains post-launch
Assignment
Scouting Report
SB Nation is a Vox Media sports brand built for fans. In November 2024, it began work on one of the riskiest moves in enterprise SEO: simultaneously replatforming 5.4 million URLs across 180 domains.
Goals & Objectives
With years of tech debt and platform limitations standing in the way of growth, it was critical for SB Nation to optimize and scale visibility across dozens of high-profile properties.
Our objectives were to:
- Modernize and unify the tech stack.
- Preserve SEO equity, traffic, visibility, & revenue.
- Improve scalability by reducing crawl inefficiencies.
- Enable faster content iteration.
Risks & Challenges
Large-scale migrations have the potential to plunge organic traffic by 30% or more. With multiple high-value domains migrating on the same day, the risk was amplified.
Through detailed roll-out planning we created and executed a resilient strategy to:
- Preserve organic performance.
- Prevent redirect bloat.
- Eliminate existing technical debt.
- Ensure efficient crawl budget allocation.
- Respond rapidly to launch-day errors.
Client Feedback
Post-game analysis
Migrations at the scale of Eater and SB Nation aren’t just technical projects, they’re moments where years of earned search equity are on the line. Gray Dot brought deep JavaScript SEO expertise, strong planning discipline, and a steady, responsive partnership throughout some of the most complex launches we’ve done.
Their ability to anticipate risk, monitor performance in real time, and act quickly when conditions changed was critical to maintaining stability and setting these platforms up for long-term success.
Thomas Stang · Principal Software Engineer, Vox Media
Gray Dot was an invaluable resource across Vox Media brands. They are not only deeply knowledgeable about all aspects of SEO, from content strategy to data analysis to technical implementations and best practices, but they’re also thoughtful, collaborative, and simply good people.
Whenever Sam or Tory were supporting us on a project, we knew we were in brilliant, trusted hands. I can’t recommend Gray Dot enough!
Alexia LaFata · Senior Manager of SEO, Vox Media
Strategy & execution
Playbook
Protect
Prepare, then perform.
The SB Nation replatforming initiative began in November 2024 and launched on August 5, 2025, with many months of strategy culminating in a successful, safe implementation.
We focused on a “parity-first” approach, making content, UX, and performance consistency the crux of our playbook.
Long before the big day, our team undertook multiple rounds of audits, using selective template crawls and site crawls to ensure the right pieces would be there when it mattered most.
Optimize
Layer in new plays.
Replatforming is a lot of work. By folding in related optimizations, SB Nation could seize opportunities that would otherwise require separate initiatives - and more resources - in the future.
Notably, our team assisted with the implementation of structured data revisions, including improved author schema aligned with E-E-A-T best practices.
We also recommended performance enhancements through an SEO lens, reducing excessive CSS and removing legacy inefficiencies.
Monitor & Support
Focus on stability.
Immediately following deployment, we began monitoring and supporting a 60-day stabilization period.
On launch-day, we monitored for any issues and helped deploy rapid fixes to minimize any impact.
By preparing documentation and guidance for editorial and engineering teams, we equipped the team with best practices for the future — ensuring stable growth beyond our engagement.
