What are the main steps in moving to a new CMS?

Moving to a new CMS involves careful planning and execution across several critical phases. The process typically includes evaluating your current system, conducting a thorough content audit, developing a migration strategy, and ensuring a smooth transition that maintains content integrity and user experience.

Planning and Preparation

Before migrating, conduct a comprehensive content audit to understand the scope of your project. This involves cataloging all existing pages, blog posts, resources, and marketing materials. Many organizations underestimate their site’s size—pages accumulate over time, and content like blogs or product collateral each have dedicated pages that need consideration.

During this phase, evaluate which content truly serves your business goals. Outdated material can be archived or deleted, which not only streamlines your migration but can also lead to considerable cost savings by reducing the volume of content that needs to be migrated.

Selecting Your New Platform

Choosing the right CMS depends on your organization’s size, technical requirements, and growth trajectory. Startups may find platforms like WordPress provide the flexibility they need, while larger enterprise firms might benefit from the expanded features of Drupal or Adobe AEM. You can compare Drupal vs WordPress here. Consider factors like content migration capabilities, workflow requirements, extensibility, and total cost of ownership when making your decision.

Content Migration Strategy

We provide both programmatic and manual migration approaches to ensure content integrity and optimization for performance and user experience. The migration process should address:

• Source identification: Document all content sources including blogs, videos, case studies, and gated assets that need to transfer to the new platform
• Migration method: Determine whether content will be migrated manually or through automated scripts based on volume and complexity
• Localization needs: If your site serves multilingual audiences, plan for how translations and localized content will transfer

Different platforms offer varying migration capabilities. For example, Drupal’s robust Migrate API can handle content from almost any source including CSV, SQL, XML, and JSON files, with the ability to roll back and repeat migrations if needed.

Implementation and Testing

Work closely with IT teams throughout the migration to address hosting requirements, DNS management, and infrastructure needs. This collaboration ensures your new site’s technical foundation supports your data and analytics requirements.

Establish a realistic timeline that accounts for content inventory, data cleaning, staff training, and thorough testing. Two weeks prior to launch, institute a content freeze that prevents changes to your old site to manage inconsistencies between platforms.

Post-Migration Optimization

After launch, continue monitoring and optimizing your new CMS. Address features that fell out of the initial scope, respond to user testing feedback, and make UX adjustments based on post-launch analytics. This ongoing attention ensures your new platform delivers on its promise and supports your evolving business needs.

Throughout the entire process, maintaining clear communication between stakeholders, using structured content delivery templates, and following best practices for managing timelines are critical to a successful migration.