{"id":128,"slug":"migration-9-of-10-fail-numen-single-source","title":"\"9 of 10 web migrations fail\" — single-sourced (Numen Technology); use 523-day SEJ stat instead","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["measurement","migration-mechanics"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** \"**Only 1 in 10 website migrations result in improved search engine rankings. Nine out of ten fail.**\" — widely repeated industry statistic.\n\n**Source:** numentechnology.co.uk case study (2024-2025), citing unnamed analysis. The 50% traffic-loss figure used alongside this stat comes from the same source.\n\n**Confidence:** **Single-source.** Could not be located in any peer-reviewed or government-published source.\n\n**Recommendation:** Do **not** lead with this statistic in public-facing Candid writing. Use [[sej-892-migrations-523-day-recovery]] (multi-sample, primary) instead. If the 9-of-10 framing is referenced, attribute it explicitly to Numen and flag it as single-source — don't let it stand as consensus. This is exactly the kind of recycled stat [[rule-cite-with-named-source-and-url]] catches.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"sej-892-migrations-523-day-recovery","title":"Search Engine Journal (Jan 2025): 523-day average recovery from domain migration (n=892); 17% never recover by 1,000 days","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-cite-with-named-source-and-url","title":"RULE: Every non-trivial claim carries a named source with author/institution + date + URL. Confidence flag honest.","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-owning-your-stack","title":"Research brief: Owning your stack — why agency-managed platforms cost more than they save (piece 4 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"research-brief-wp-migration-playbook","title":"Research brief: The Candid Creative WordPress Migration Playbook (piece 19)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T19:17:26.857Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T19:17:26.857Z"}