Content migration from one website to another can be a daunting prospect. Organisations undertaking exciting digital transformation projects are often spinning multiple plates at the same time, with business-as-usual content requests coming in at the same time as additional project work.   

Without proper planning, the process can result in content loss, a poor user experience, and potential damage to your brand’s reputation. To help you navigate this complex process, here are five essential steps to ensure a smooth and successful content migration.

1. Set your content goals

Take the time to ideate your content goals by asking the following questions:

• what types of content do you have on the website?
• what does your content need to do to help your organisation make money?
• how will you know when your content has succeeded?

2. Start with a content audit

I always say, understand the size of the problem first before anything else so you know what you’re up against. You may have 20 pages to high quality content or you may have 5,000 pages which have some blocks of content you’re thinking of bringing over onto the new website. 

Either way, you can’t realistically plan for a content migration until you know what you’re up against, the content audit process is an essential part of planning and delivery for this reason.

A thorough content audit will help you:

• identify valuable content: determine which pieces of content are performing well and should be migrated.
• find outdated or redundant content: pinpoint content that is outdated, redundant, or irrelevant, and decide whether it needs to be updated, consolidated, or deleted.
• classify content: organise your content by type, topic, and target audience, making it easier to manage during the migration.

Tip: Use Sitebulb and Google Analytics to gather as much evidence and data on user behaviour and SEO performance as you can.

3. Develop a content migration plan

Once you have a clear picture of your content, the next step is to create a detailed migration plan. This plan should include:

• timeline and milestones: set clear deadlines for each phase of the migration.
• people allocation: identify the team members responsible for different aspects of the migration, including IT, content creators, and SEO specialists.
• backup strategy: ensure that all content is backed up before the migration begins to prevent any data loss. There are different tools which can be used, 

Tip: Create a content migration checklist to ensure no detail is overlooked.

4. Communicate with stakeholders

Effective communication with all stakeholders is essential throughout the migration process. Keep the following in mind:

• regular updates: Provide regular progress updates to keep everyone informed about the migration status.
• training sessions: Offer training for content creators and managers on the new CMS to ensure they can manage content effectively post-migration.
• feedback loops: Establish a system for collecting and addressing feedback from stakeholders during and after the migration.

Tip: Schedule lunch and learn sessions on a fortnightly or monthly basis and ensure they get circulated to senior stakeholders so they can drop in and understand where the project is at.

So there you have, four tips which will help you to plan an upcoming content migration project.