If you are planning to migrate your website to a new CMS, you are on the right way to success. A new CMS can improve your site’s speed, security, and user experience. It can also help you to implement new features and enhance your website’s functionality. But there are a few important things you need to consider before getting started.
In this article, we will share eight valuable CMS migration lessons that can save you weeks of work.
1. Don’t assume a CMS migration will be easy
When the team at The Good was tasked with moving a website from Magento to BigCommerce, they thought it would be a straightforward project. But it wasn’t.
The website had more than 1,000 webpages, and the team quickly realized that the migration would be more complex than they initially thought.
“We were not expecting to have to manually recreate so many of the pages and page templates,” says The Good’s web designer, Liz.
The moral of the story? Don’t assume a CMS migration will be easy.
Before you commit to the project, you need to have a clear understanding of what’s involved. A website migration is a big project that can quickly become overwhelming if you’re not prepared.
The team at The Good learned this the hard way, but you don’t have to. By learning as much as you can about website migrations, you can avoid common pitfalls and set your project up for success.
2. Use a CMS migration as an opportunity to clean house
Websites are like gardens. They need regular pruning to keep them healthy and growing.
If you have a large website that has been around for a while, you likely have a lot of outdated content, duplicate content, and other content-related issues that you need to clean up.
A CMS migration is the perfect time to do a content audit and get rid of all the old, outdated, and irrelevant content that is weighing down your website.
By doing a content audit and cleaning up your content before you migrate to a new CMS, you can save yourself a lot of time and headache on the other side of the migration.
As you review old content, it can also help to study strong examples from other fields—like these top speaker secrets you can steal, which demonstrate how clear communication principles can elevate any page you choose to keep.
3. Don’t forget about SEO
SEO is one of the most important aspects of a website, and it can be easy to forget about during a migration. However, if you don’t take the time to properly optimize your new website, you could lose a lot of traffic.
Before you launch your new website, be sure to create a detailed SEO plan. This should include things like keyword research, on-page optimization, and a plan for any 301 redirects that need to be put in place.
You should also be sure to monitor your website’s traffic and performance after the migration is complete. This will help you identify any issues and make any necessary changes to your SEO plan.
4. Make sure all your images are properly sized
If you’re coming from a platform that automatically resizes your images, you may not realize how many of your images are too big.
This will slow down the speed of your website, which will affect your SEO.
Make sure you’re using an image optimization tool to quickly resize all of your images before you migrate.
This will save you a lot of time later on.
5. Don’t forget to redirect your old URLs
Once you’ve got your new CMS all set up, it can be easy to forget about the old one. But remember, your old URLs will still be indexed in search engines and linked to from other websites.
If you don’t set up redirects from your old URLs to your new ones, visitors will land on a 404 error page. Plus, you’ll lose all the SEO value you’ve built up on your old pages.
This is particularly important if you’ve changed your website structure and URLs. You’ll need to set up 301 redirects from your old URLs to your new ones. This tells search engines your old URL has moved and passes over the SEO value you’ve built up.
You can set up redirects in bulk with a redirect mapping tool. This is where you list all your old URLs and their corresponding new URLs. Then, the tool will automatically create the redirects for you.
6. Test
We’ve mentioned testing a few times already, but it’s important enough to warrant its own section.
Testing isn’t just about checking that your new website works. Just like organizations use pulse survey tools to regularly check team sentiment and catch issues early, testing your new CMS helps you identify problems before they impact users. It’s about checking that it works as it should for your different users and your business.
Testing is also a great way to make sure everyone in your team gets to know your new website. The more familiar they are with it, the more likely they are to suggest improvements and use it to its full potential.
“Testing is also a great way to make sure everyone in your team gets to know your new website.”
At a minimum, you should test:
• The website as a whole
• The new CMS
• Every page on your website
• Every template
• Every form
• Every call to action
• Every link
• Every image
• SEO, including metadata and URLs
7. Get your team trained on the new CMS
The final step in the CMS migration process is to get your team trained on the new platform. This includes training your content team on how to use the new CMS, as well as training your development team on how to work with the new platform.
If you don’t get your team trained on the new CMS, you could end up wasting a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to use it. This is especially true if you’re migrating to a more complex platform.
By getting your team trained on the new CMS, you can avoid costly mistakes and ensure that your team is able to hit the ground running.
8. Have a plan for the day of launch
The day of launch is a big day. It’s the day you finally get to switch over to your new CMS and see all your hard work come to fruition. But, it’s also the day you have to make sure everything goes smoothly.
In the days leading up to the launch, we had a plan in place to make sure everything was ready to go. This included things like making sure all the content was imported, the design looked good, and all the necessary integrations were set up.
We also made sure to have a plan for the day of launch. This included things like making sure the site was live, testing the new CMS, and making sure all the necessary redirects were in place.
Having a plan for the day of launch helped us make sure everything went smoothly, and we were able to avoid any last-minute issues.
In conclusion
Migrating a website is a complex and time-consuming project. But with careful planning and a good strategy, you can make the process as smooth and efficient as possible.
The eight lessons we’ve covered in this article come from years of experience helping businesses migrate their websites. They have helped us save hundreds of hours of work and have enabled our customers to start enjoying the benefits of their new website much sooner.
So, if you’re thinking about migrating your website, make sure to plan ahead, get your team involved, and invest in the right tools. This will help you to avoid common pitfalls and ensure your migration project is a success.
Conclusion
Migrating a website from one CMS to another is a big undertaking. But with the right approach and tools, you can make the process much easier.
