What is website content migration?
Website content migration involves transferring various elements such as text, images, videos, and the overall site layout from your previous website to a new one.
There are several other site changes which count as part of a general website migration:
Site location changes: This is the most common form of website migration. It typically involves a change in the protocol, domain name, or URL path.
Web host changes: If you decide to move from one content management system (CMS) or website host to another, this would be a web host change.
Structural changes: These involve making significant changes to your site’s hierarchy. This could be re-categorizing blog posts, changing certain prominent pages to posts and vice-versa, or changing your site’s navigation menu completely.
Content overhauls: This refers to blog post refreshes, pillar page creation, and the general refreshing of existing content — for example, adding a huge volume of new images to a section.
Overview of a typical website migration process
A typical website migration can essentially be broken down into three distinct phases:
Phase 1: Pre-launch
These are some of the typical steps usually taken (but this list is not comprehensive):
- Site migration objectives are set
- An overall plan for the migration is formulated; broken down by project phases
- Legacy performance data is analyzed and benchmarks are set
- Existing content is audited and updated (or marked for removal) as necessary
- New content is created to fill identified gaps
- Obsolete content is deleted from the CMS
- 301 redirects are set up as necessary
- An internal 'content freeze' is implemented — i.e. new content is not to be created until the migration process is completed
- A decision is taken on project timings, including the best time for the website relaunch
Phase 2: Launch day
On the actual site migration date, the focus is to ensure that everything goes smoothly. The migration can be monitored by performing live testing (on and off throughout the day) to see if things are working as they should.
Phase 3: Post-launch
During this period, the entire site should be double-checked using the content audit information gathered during Phase 1.
Posts, pages, images, and other site content need to be confirmed as having been imported successfully, and on any new site, the robots.txt file should always be checked to ensure that the website can be crawled and indexed effectively by search engines.