buycycle: Winning At Global Expansion

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. 

After seeing major success in the German market, buycycle set its sights on international expansion.

With their website as the core of their business, complex technical changes to the site required expert support to ensure a smooth transition.

They connected with us through their investors, FAIR VC, and from there, our partnership began.

Vlad Shvets

Empact Partners Founder and CEO

“Domain migrations can be a major challenge when handling large sites. Combine that with the complexities of adding multiple languages, and it’s no small feat. We were excited to help them tackle these hurdles and prepare the brand for a successful global rollout.”

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.

Theo Golditchuk

buycycle Co-founder

“We knew that moving to a .com was a big step, but it wasn’t just about changing the URL. It was about making sure our new site could support growth into new markets without losing the SEO value we’d built up over time. Empact Partners made that transition smooth and gave us peace of mind through the whole process.”

With our experience in internationalization and localization (including converting content into 21 languages for our own internal publication), we helped buycycle execute a seamless migration and lay the groundwork for their multi-language expansion—setting them up to reach new audiences with confidence.

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. 

Here’s how we executed the project:

‍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, ensures smooth redirection for users, and helps search engines quickly recognize the new structure, ultimately maintaining traffic and SEO value.

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.

Vlad Shvets

Empact Partners Founder and CEO

“Correct hreflang implementation is essential for multi-language sites. It helps search engines understand which language versions to show in different regions, boosting local search visibility and improving user experience.”

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.

301 redirects ensure that 100% of link equity is retained, keeping your search rankings intact and directing visitors to the right pages.

Vlad Shvets

Empact Partners Founder and CEO

“Many people think you lose value during a domain migration, but that’s not true. In fact, a well-executed migration can actually boost traffic, as it’s the perfect chance to refine and optimize the site.”

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.

Properly setting up both domains in Google Search Console is crucial for Google to recognize the change, index the new site correctly, and avoid any dips in visibility or traffic during the transition.

Empact Results

Jonas Jaeger

buycycle Co-founder

“Working with Empact Partners has been amazing! Their systematic approach and attention to detail helped us navigate what could have been a very complicated process. The new site not only increased our traffic but also set us up for continued growth in new markets.”

Since the migration, buycycle has expanded further into international markets and recently raised $3.2 million in additional funding to accelerate their expansion plans.

Our journey with buycycle is far from over, and we’re excited to continue helping them scale their brand globally and achieve new milestones.

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