Riding the summer wave takes more than good timing — it takes a site that can keep up. We rebuilt the platform and the rankings held.
San Diego Surf School teaches that surfing isn't just a sport — it's a remedy for life. D&R has partnered with them for years, from the original site build to a full Shopify-to-WordPress migration and a summer-specific SEO campaign. The result: 113+ keywords ranking 1–3, a 17% increase in e-commerce conversion rate, and zero rankings lost through 600+ pages of migration.
Results at a glance
When summer traffic surges, the platform has to be ready for it.
San Diego Surf School’s peak season is five months long. Everything — rankings, bookings, revenue — has to be in place before April. That meant a platform migration and a summer SEO campaign had to run in parallel, land on time, and not cost a single ranking in the process.
We migrated 600+ pages from Shopify to WordPress without losing a position, launched a booking API integration that unlocked the flexibility Shopify never allowed, and ran a season-specific SEO campaign that put 113+ keywords in the top 3 positions during the window that matters. Conversion rate up 17%. Rankings intact. Season captured.
- A platform ceiling Shopify's limitations made it harder to add the booking functionality and page-level flexibility the business needed to keep growing — booking API control, archive structure, and granular content management all required WordPress.
- A short, high-stakes window nearly all of their organic demand lands in a five-month peak season from April through August. That leaves little room for a slow ramp-up or a shaky launch — every week of rankings matters.
- Aggressive competitor pressure rival surf schools were actively targeting the same rankings San Diego Surf School depended on for peak-season bookings, making keyword defense as important as new keyword growth.
- 600+ pages on the line a full re-platform meant migrating years of ranking content — lessons, camps, retreats, rentals, blog archives — without tripping and losing visibility mid-season. No safety net for a slow recovery.
A dual-track plan built around one deadline:
summer.
We ran a season-specific SEO campaign alongside a full platform migration, coordinating both tracks so neither put the other's timeline at risk. Migration precision and SEO momentum ran in parallel from day one.
Competitive and historical analysis
Built a comparison analysis against San Diego Surf School's top competitors and reviewed the previous year's peak-season performance to identify where they were exposed and where the opportunity was biggest. That research shaped everything — which keywords to defend, which to pursue, and where the migration risked the most equity.
Applied: Competitor gap analysis · Prior-year performance audit · Seasonal trend reviewSeason-specific SEO strategy
Using that research, we built an intensive optimization strategy focused on driving traffic and converting it once it arrived. Weekly check-ins tracked progress against quarterly revenue goals throughout the peak window — so rankings, traffic, and bookings all stayed connected to the business outcome, not just the search report.
Applied: Keyword optimization · Conversion-focused on-page SEO · Weekly revenue trackingPlatform rebuild on WordPress
Recreated San Diego Surf School's full archive structure and all 600+ pages on WordPress — lessons, camps, retreats, rentals, blog, and location archives — updating page designs and integrating a booking API that gave the business more functionality than Shopify allowed. Customers can now select lesson type, location, date, and time directly on the product page.
Applied: Full site rebuild · Booking API integration · Updated page design · Archive structureMigration and launch
Once the new site was ready, we migrated all content from Shopify to WordPress with full redirect mapping — protecting every ranking through the transition. Zero rankings were lost. The site launched clean, indexed fast, and held its positions through the peak season that followed.
Applied: Content migration · Redirect mapping · Rankings preservation · Launch sequencingThe platform, the booking flow, and the peak season results
Surf Lessons — product page with booking integration Select lesson type, location, and date — Book Now 
Adult Surf Retreat — booking calendar flow Real-time date availability built into the product page 
Service category grid Lessons, Camps, Retreats, Rentals — all with Book Now 
Peak season revenue growth — indexed 2024–2026 Year-over-year improvement across the April–August window 
TikTok & Instagram feeds — live social integration Social media embedded directly on the site Rankings defended.
Season captured.
600+ pages migrated from Shopify to WordPress without a single ranking lost. That's not luck — it's redirect mapping, migration sequencing, and a launch process built to protect what was already earned. A slow recovery from a bad migration during peak season would have cost real revenue.
Weekly check-ins tracked progress against quarterly revenue goals throughout the peak window. When search rankings are the primary demand channel for a five-month season, measuring keyword positions without tying them to bookings and revenue misses the point. We didn't.
WordPress replaced a Shopify setup that had hit its ceiling. Booking flexibility, archive control, page-level design — all of it now sits in a CMS the team can manage. The platform is built to accommodate whatever the next phase of growth requires.
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