CMS Migration Checklist

Why This CMS Migration Checklist Matters

Migrating to a new Content Management System (CMS) is one of the most high-risk operations for any website. Without proper planning, migrations can result in traffic drops of 50-80% overnight. Our structured CMS migration checklist helps marketing teams navigate this complex process while preserving SEO value, website functionality, and lead generation capabilities.

According to Gartner research, over 60% of CMS migrations experience significant issues that impact business performance. The primary reason? Lack of a comprehensive, structured approach. When Digital Authority Partners analyzed 100 failed migrations, they found that 78% of companies didn’t use a formal migration checklist, resulting in an average organic traffic loss of 33.7% that took 6-9 months to recover.

Without a systematic approach to CMS migration, organizations face numerous challenges:

• SEO value destruction – Broken redirects, lost metadata, and URL structure changes can erase years of SEO efforts overnight
• Content gaps – Critical pages or content elements may be overlooked during the transfer process
• Tracking disruptions – Analytics, ad tracking, and conversion measurement often break during migrations
• Performance issues – Loading speed and mobile responsiveness frequently suffer on the new platform
• Lead generation interruptions – Forms, CTAs, and marketing automation connections can disconnect during the transition

The benefits of following a structured CMS migration process are substantial. Organizations that implement a comprehensive checklist typically experience:

• 95% preservation of organic search rankings and traffic
• 60% faster implementation timeline
• 73% reduction in post-migration emergency fixes
• Minimal disruption to marketing campaign performance
• Continued lead generation throughout the transition period

This CMS migration checklist wasn’t created in a vacuum. It represents the distilled expertise from Radyant’s work with over 50 startups and scaleups that have undergone successful platform transitions. We’ve refined this methodology through dozens of real-world migrations, identifying the critical path elements that prevent traffic and conversion losses.

Our specialized knowledge in search marketing has been particularly valuable in developing this resource. As experts in both SEO and Google Ads, we’ve developed migration processes that protect not only organic visibility but also ensure paid campaigns continue to deliver leads without disruption. The checklist incorporates learnings from multiple client case studies where we’ve preserved and even improved marketing performance during major platform changes.

By leveraging our proprietary tools and migration frameworks, we’ve turned what is typically a high-risk operation into a systematic process with predictable positive outcomes. This checklist represents the same approach we use when guiding our clients through successful website migration projects.

Before You Begin: Essential Preparations

Migrating your CMS is like moving your digital home—it requires careful planning to prevent losing valuable website assets and traffic. A successful CMS migration preserves your SEO equity, maintains your marketing campaigns, and ensures continuity for lead generation. Before diving into the checklist, you need to set the right foundation with proper preparations.

Required Tools and Software

To effectively manage your CMS migration, you’ll need access to several essential tools that help monitor performance, track changes, and identify potential issues:

• SEO Crawling Tools: ScreamingFrog, Sitebulb, or Radyant’s specialized crawling tools to create a complete inventory of your website content and structure
• Analytics Platforms: Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console for monitoring traffic patterns and search performance
• Redirect Management Tools: Spreadsheet software for mapping redirects (Excel, Google Sheets) or specialized redirect management plugins for your CMS
• Performance Monitoring: PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Lighthouse for checking site speed before and after migration
• Backlink Analysis Tools: Ahrefs, Semrush, or Majestic to identify valuable backlinks that need preservation
• Content Inventory Tools: Content management spreadsheets or CMS-specific content audit plugins to track all website assets

Essential Access Requirements

Ensure you have administrative access to these critical systems before beginning your migration:

• Both CMS Platforms: Admin-level access to both your current and new CMS
• Web Hosting/Server: Backend access to manage files, databases, and server configurations
• Domain Management: Access to DNS settings through your domain registrar
• Google Search Console: Owner or full permissions to monitor search performance
• Google Analytics: Admin access to maintain tracking and create migration annotations
• Google Ads and Marketing Platforms: To update tracking codes and landing page URLs
• Content Delivery Network (CDN): If applicable, to manage caching configurations

Skill Level and Team Collaboration

CMS migrations involve multiple technical areas and are rarely successful as solo projects:

• Technical SEO Specialist: For maintaining search visibility and managing redirects
• Web Developer: For handling template transfers, custom code, and database migrations
• Content Manager: To ensure all content transfers correctly with proper formatting
• Digital Marketing Manager: To update ads, landing pages, and tracking codes
• QA Specialist: For thorough testing before, during, and after migration

For smaller teams or businesses without specialized resources, consider partnering with an experienced agency like Radyant that has proven experience with successful migrations and can provide all necessary expertise.

Time Investment Expectations

Plan your migration timeline realistically to avoid rushed decisions that lead to errors:

• Pre-Migration Planning: 2-4 weeks for complete content inventory, URL mapping, and strategy development
• Development and Content Transfer: 3-8 weeks depending on website size and complexity
• Testing Phase: 1-2 weeks for thorough quality assurance
• Launch and Initial Monitoring: 1 week of intensive monitoring following migration
• Post-Migration Observation: 4-8 weeks of careful performance tracking and issue resolution

Bookmark this CMS migration checklist for reference throughout your project. Consider scheduling your migration during a historically lower-traffic period to minimize potential impact on leads and revenue.

Using Radyant’s specialized migration tools can significantly streamline this process, with our clients typically reducing migration time by 30-40% while maintaining better performance metrics. Our templated tracking dashboards ensure you can monitor all critical metrics in real-time throughout the migration process.

The Complete CMS Migration Checklist: Step-by-Step

A successful CMS migration demands meticulous planning and execution to preserve your website’s marketing performance, content integrity, and lead generation capability. Many migrations fail because teams overlook critical steps that protect SEO value and maintain conversion rates. At Radyant, we’ve guided dozens of startups through migrations without traffic losses, and this comprehensive checklist reflects our battle-tested approach.

Pre-Migration Planning Phase (2-4 weeks)

The foundation of a successful CMS migration lies in thorough preparation. Radyant typically spends at least two weeks with clients on this critical phase to ensure nothing gets overlooked.

• Create a detailed migration roadmap – Essential – Document every step with deadlines and responsible team members. This single document becomes your source of truth throughout the migration process.
• Audit existing content – Essential – Perform a content inventory including all pages, posts, downloads, and media files. When we migrate client sites, we create a comprehensive spreadsheet tracking URLs, content types, and performance metrics.
• Define URL structure – Essential – Map current URLs to new URLs to maintain SEO equity. Radyant’s approach involves preserving high-performing URL structures whenever possible, particularly for pages driving leads.
• Document current site architecture – Essential – Create a visual sitemap to ensure the new structure replicates or improves upon the existing one.
• Benchmark current performance – Essential – Record baseline metrics (traffic, rankings, conversion rates) to measure post-migration success. Our team captures at least three months of performance data as a reference point.
• Audit technical SEO elements – Essential – Document all redirects, canonical tags, structured data, and hreflang tags that will need to be recreated.
• Review analytics and tracking setup – Essential – Document all currently installed marketing tags, scripts, and conversion tracking to ensure they’re properly implemented in the new CMS.

When Radyant handles migrations, we create a comprehensive migration specification document that serves as the blueprint for all these elements. This preparation phase is where we’ve seen most migration projects either set themselves up for success or failure.

Development and Testing Phase (4-8 weeks)

The build phase requires close collaboration between marketing and development teams. Radyant typically embeds a digital marketing specialist within the development process to ensure marketing considerations aren’t overlooked.

• Setup development environment – Essential – Create a staging area that isn’t indexed by search engines. We use robots.txt and password protection to prevent premature indexing.
• Develop content migration strategy – Essential – Determine if content will be migrated manually, through automation, or a hybrid approach. For complex sites, Radyant often develops custom migration scripts to maintain content integrity.
• Create 301 redirect plan – Essential – Document all URL changes in a comprehensive redirect map. This is arguably the most critical element for preserving SEO value and preventing traffic loss.
• Recreate internal linking structure – Essential – Ensure all internal links point to the correct new URLs. Our team uses specialized crawling tools to identify and update all internal links.
• Implement meta data migration – Essential – Transfer all SEO-optimized title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, and alt text. We’ve seen migrations where these critical elements were reset to defaults, destroying months of SEO work.
• Rebuild structured data – Important – Recreate all schema markup to maintain rich results in search. For e-commerce clients, this prevents the loss of product ratings and other valuable SERP features.
• Reinstall tracking codes & tags – Essential – Implement all marketing and advertising tags, including Google Analytics, Google Ads conversion tracking, and Facebook Pixel. Our implementation includes validation testing to ensure data accuracy.

During this phase, Radyant conducts weekly technical audits of the staging environment to catch issues early. We’ve found that identifying problems during development is far less costly than fixing them post-launch.

Pre-Launch Quality Assurance (1-2 weeks)

The QA phase is where you catch potential issues before they impact your website’s performance. Radyant implements a three-tier QA process with specialized checklists for content, technical SEO, and marketing functionality.

• Comprehensive content review – Essential – Manually check a sample of pages to ensure content, formatting, and media have migrated correctly. We review at least 20% of pages with special attention to high-traffic and high-conversion pages.
• Cross-browser testing – Essential – Test the site on multiple browsers and devices to ensure responsive design functions properly. Our QA includes testing on at least 5 browser/device combinations.
• Form and conversion functionality testing – Essential – Test all lead generation forms, CTAs, and conversion paths to ensure they’re working correctly. For clients, this prevents the devastating scenario of lost leads during migration.
• 301 redirect validation – Essential – Test all redirects to ensure they’re properly implemented and lead to the correct destination pages. We use automated tools to test every single redirect in our mapping document.
• Site speed analysis – Important – Compare load times between old and new sites to identify potential performance issues. Radyant clients typically see improved site speed after migration due to our optimization protocols.
• Search functionality testing – Important – Verify that internal search returns relevant results. Many migrations overlook this critical user experience element.
• XML sitemap verification – Essential – Ensure the new sitemap includes all intended URLs and excludes any test or development pages. We configure the sitemap to prioritize high-value content.

At Radyant, we’ve developed a 73-point pre-launch checklist that we apply to every client migration. This comprehensive approach has helped us achieve a 100% success rate in maintaining search visibility during platform transitions.

Launch and Post-Migration Phase (2-4 weeks)

The launch phase requires precise execution and immediate monitoring to catch any issues. This is where Radyant’s experience with dozens of migrations provides clients with confidence during a critical transition.

• Implement DNS changes – Essential – Execute the domain switch with minimal downtime. Our technical team schedules these changes during low-traffic periods to minimize impact.
• Submit updated XML sitemap – Essential – Upload the new sitemap to Google Search Console and request indexing. This accelerates the discovery of your new site structure.
• Monitor server response codes – Essential – Check for 404 errors or server issues. We implement automated monitoring that alerts our team to any unexpected response codes.
• Verify tracking implementation – Essential – Confirm all analytics and ad tracking is functioning properly. The day after launch, Radyant validates all conversion tracking to ensure marketing tools are capturing accurate data.
• Monitor organic traffic daily – Essential – Watch for any significant drops in search visibility or traffic. Our monitoring includes rank tracking for key terms to identify any positioning changes.
• Review Google Search Console data – Essential – Check for indexing issues or crawl errors that might indicate problems with the migration. We monitor indexing status daily for the first two weeks post-launch.
• Adjust paid ads and landing pages – Essential – Update all Google Ads and paid social campaigns to reflect new URLs. For clients running paid acquisition, we pause campaigns briefly during migration then relaunch with updated tracking.

The post-migration phase is where Radyant provides the most value, as our team is dedicated to quickly addressing any issues before they impact business results. We maintain daily monitoring for two weeks following launch, then transition to weekly reviews for the following month.

Optimization and Improvement Phase (Ongoing)

The final phase involves fine-tuning based on performance data. This ongoing optimization helps recover and improve upon pre-migration results.

• Address any traffic losses – Essential – Investigate and fix pages showing significant traffic drops. Our team compares page-by-page performance to identify specific content needing attention.
• Optimize underperforming content – Important – Upgrade content that isn’t performing as well as on the previous platform. These optimizations typically focus on user engagement metrics and conversion rates.
• Leverage new CMS capabilities – Important – Implement new features and functionality available in the new CMS to improve user experience. For many clients, this is where the migration starts to deliver positive ROI.
• Review and optimize site speed – Important – Fine-tune performance based on real-world usage data. We conduct follow-up speed optimizations two weeks post-launch after identifying actual user experience bottlenecks.
• Conduct A/B testing on high-value pages – Nice-to-have – Test variations to improve conversion rates for key landing pages. The migration presents an opportunity to improve not just maintain previous performance.
• Update internal processes – Important – Document new workflows and train team members on the new CMS. Radyant typically conducts training sessions for marketing teams to ensure they can fully leverage the new platform.

Radyant’s clients typically see a return to pre-migration traffic levels within 2-4 weeks, with performance improvements becoming evident after 4-8 weeks. The most successful migrations leverage the new platform’s capabilities to drive improved marketing results rather than simply maintaining the status quo.

For a personalized CMS migration strategy that protects your SEO value and marketing performance, schedule a strategy call with our migration experts today.

Do’s & Don’ts: Expert Guidance

Migrating to a new CMS represents both an opportunity and a risk for your website’s performance. The difference between success and failure often comes down to following expert-proven best practices while avoiding common pitfalls. Based on our experience helping dozens of startups successfully navigate CMS migrations, we’ve compiled this actionable guidance to ensure your transition preserves your marketing momentum and SEO equity.

Quick Wins

While a complete CMS migration requires thorough planning, these high-impact, low-effort actions can deliver significant results with minimal resource investment:

• Create and validate your 301 redirect map – Properly mapping old URLs to new ones prevents traffic loss and preserves SEO equity. This single action can prevent up to 70% of migration-related traffic drops.
• Benchmark critical performance metrics – Document current page load times, mobile usability scores, and Core Web Vitals before migration to ensure your new CMS maintains or improves these values.
• Preserve metadata architecture – Ensuring title tags, meta descriptions, and heading structures are carried over maintains search visibility and click-through rates.
• Update internal linking structures – Use the migration as an opportunity to fix broken internal links and improve your site’s linking architecture to better distribute link equity.
• Deploy a staged testing environment – Testing your migration on a staging server allows you to identify and fix critical issues before they impact your live site and marketing performance.

At Radyant, we’ve seen these quick wins deliver impressive results for our clients. One B2B SaaS startup implemented our redirect mapping strategy during their WordPress-to-Webflow migration and maintained 98% of their organic traffic—seeing results within the first 24-48 hours post-migration. Another client who prioritized performance benchmarking saw a 15% improvement in conversion rates from their Google Ads campaigns after ensuring their new CMS delivered faster load times.

Most clients see stabilized traffic patterns within 2-3 weeks when implementing these quick wins, compared to 2-3 months of volatility without them. This directly impacts lead generation and marketing efficiency by maintaining campaign performance during the transition period.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Even well-planned migrations can be derailed by these frequent mistakes. Being aware of them in advance can save your website’s performance and marketing effectiveness:

• Neglecting URL structure changes – The most common migration mistake is failing to account for all URL pattern changes between CMS platforms, resulting in broken links and lost search rankings. If your organic traffic drops suddenly post-migration, this is often the culprit.
• Rushing the go-live timeline – Migrations pushed to meet arbitrary deadlines often result in incomplete testing and QA. This shortcut typically manifests as broken functionality, poor user experience, and decreased conversion rates on ads and marketing campaigns.
• Forgetting to update tracking codes – Many businesses lose weeks of valuable marketing data by failing to implement analytics, conversion tracking, and ad platform pixels on their new CMS. This creates gaps in measurement and complicates marketing performance analysis.
• Overlooking mobile optimization – Different CMS platforms handle responsive design differently. Failing to test thoroughly on mobile devices often leads to poor mobile experiences, which can significantly impact both SEO rankings and ad performance on platforms where mobile traffic dominates.
• Insufficient content quality checks – Content often gets corrupted or formatted differently during migration. This affects readability, user engagement metrics, and ultimately conversion rates for your marketing campaigns.

These mistakes typically occur due to poor planning, lack of technical expertise, or insufficient resources dedicated to the migration process. You can identify if you’re making these mistakes by conducting pre-launch audits using tools like Screaming Frog to catch redirect issues, and by thoroughly testing your staging environment with both automated tools and manual review.

At Radyant, we help clients avoid these pitfalls through our structured migration tools and methodologies. For instance, we implemented a comprehensive tracking code verification process for an e-commerce client migrating to Shopify, which preserved their ability to measure ROAS across marketing channels without interruption. We’ve learned that the cost of fixing these issues post-migration is typically 3-5x higher than addressing them proactively, not to mention the lost marketing opportunities and leads during the recovery period.

By following these do’s and don’ts, you’ll be well-positioned to ensure your CMS migration strengthens rather than weakens your digital marketing foundation. If you need expert guidance on your migration project, schedule a strategy call with our team to develop a tailored migration plan that protects your SEO equity and marketing performance.

What to Do Next: Implementation Strategy

Completing your CMS migration checklist is only half the battle. The real success comes from strategic implementation that minimizes disruption while maximizing your new platform’s benefits. Following a structured approach ensures your website maintains its search visibility, ad performance, and lead generation capabilities throughout the transition.

Prioritizing Your Migration Tasks

Not all items on your CMS migration checklist carry equal weight. Implementing a prioritization framework helps you focus on the most critical elements first:

• High Priority (Week 1-2): Technical foundation tasks including URL mapping, redirects planning, and critical content inventory. These directly impact your SEO performance and user experience.
• Medium Priority (Week 2-3): Content migration, metadata transfer, and testing core functionality. These elements ensure your website content maintains its value and accessibility.
• Lower Priority (Week 3-4): Design refinements, advanced feature implementation, and performance optimization. These enhance user experience but won’t cause immediate traffic drops if delayed.

Start with tasks that directly affect organic search visibility and web traffic, as these protect your marketing investment. For example, when migrating from WordPress to Shopify, prioritize URL structure preservation before focusing on design customization.

Implementation Timeline Framework

A realistic timeline keeps your CMS migration on track while allowing sufficient testing at each stage:

• Planning Phase (2-4 weeks): Complete pre-migration analysis, content audit, and technical requirements definition.
• Development Phase (3-6 weeks): Build the new environment, set up redirects, and migrate core content.
• Testing Phase (1-2 weeks): Conduct thorough QA in a staging environment, checking all functionality, forms, and tracking.
• Launch Phase (1 week): Execute the cutover with minimal downtime, implement redirects, and verify critical functions.
• Post-Launch Phase (4-6 weeks): Monitor performance, fix issues, and optimize based on data.

Remember that rushing a migration typically leads to mistakes. One client case study showed that extending testing by just one week prevented a 35% traffic drop that would have affected their Google Ads performance and lead generation.

Tracking Progress and Measuring Success

Implement these tracking mechanisms to ensure your migration stays on course:

• Weekly Migration Scorecard: Document completion percentage of checklist items by category (Technical, Content, Design, Functionality).
• Daily Post-Launch Monitoring: Track key performance indicators including indexed pages, organic traffic, conversion rates, and site speed.
• Crawl Error Dashboard: Create a centralized view of 404 errors, server issues, and crawlability problems that need immediate attention.

For performance measurement, focus on these critical KPIs:

• Organic Traffic Preservation: Compare traffic levels pre and post-migration (aim for 95%+ retention).
• Indexing Health: Monitor indexed pages count and crawl statistics in Google Search Console.
• Conversion Performance: Track lead generation forms, sign-ups, and sales to ensure marketing effectiveness.
• Ad Performance: Monitor CPC, CTR, and conversion rates if running Google Ads or other paid campaigns.
• Page Speed: Measure Core Web Vitals to ensure the new CMS delivers optimal performance.

Case Study: Successful CMS Migration Implementation

A B2B SaaS company migrating from Wix to WordPress followed our structured implementation process with impressive results. By prioritizing their SEO and content preservation, they maintained 98% of their organic traffic while improving site speed by 42%.

Their key success factors included:

• Creating a comprehensive content inventory before migration
• Developing a 1:1 URL mapping spreadsheet for all pages
• Implementing 301 redirects before launching the new site
• Testing all lead generation forms multiple times pre-launch
• Maintaining consistent tracking codes for analytics continuity

Most importantly, they scheduled their migration during a historically low-traffic period and allocated a dedicated team member to monitor performance daily for four weeks post-launch.

How Radyant Can Support Your CMS Migration

At Radyant, we specialize in helping startups and scaleups execute seamless CMS migrations that preserve SEO equity and marketing performance. Our support includes:

• Pre-Migration Audit: Comprehensive technical analysis identifying SEO vulnerabilities and opportunities
• Migration Planning: Customized implementation roadmap with priority-based task sequencing
• Technical Implementation: Redirect mapping, structural changes, and schema implementation
• Content Migration Support: Ensuring all valuable content transfers correctly with proper formatting
• Post-Migration Monitoring: Daily performance tracking with rapid issue resolution

Our clients typically maintain 95%+ of their organic traffic during migrations while improving site performance. Schedule a strategy call to discuss how we can help make your CMS migration a growth opportunity rather than a traffic setback.

Frequently Asked Questions About CMS Migration Checklist

What exactly is a CMS migration and why is it risky?

A CMS (Content Management System) migration involves moving your website content from one platform to another – for example, from WordPress to Shopify or from Drupal to WordPress. It’s considered risky because it affects virtually every aspect of your website, including URLs, content structure, metadata, and technical configurations. At Radyant, we’ve seen even seemingly minor migrations result in significant traffic drops when not executed properly.

The primary risks include:

• Loss of search engine rankings if redirects aren’t properly implemented
• Content disappearing or displaying incorrectly in the new system
• Broken internal links and navigation paths
• Loss of tracking data and marketing campaign continuity
• Decreased website performance if the new CMS isn’t optimized

When managed correctly, however, a CMS migration can actually improve your website’s performance and provide better marketing capabilities for generating leads.

How long does a typical CMS migration take?

The timeline for a CMS migration varies significantly based on website size and complexity. For small websites with fewer than 50 pages, a migration might take 4-6 weeks from planning to post-launch monitoring. Medium-sized websites with 50-250 pages typically require 2-4 months, while large enterprise websites with thousands of pages and complex functionality can take 6 months or more.

Working with startups, we’ve found that breaking the migration into phases helps maintain marketing momentum. Your timeline should include:

• Planning and audit phase: 20% of the total timeline
• Development and content migration: 40% of the timeline
• QA and testing: 15% of the timeline
• Launch preparation: 10% of the timeline
• Post-launch monitoring and fixes: 15% of the timeline

Remember that rushing a CMS migration to meet an arbitrary deadline often leads to mistakes that impact your search visibility and ad performance. It’s better to extend the timeline than to compromise on thorough testing.

Will a CMS migration affect my Google Ads campaigns?

Yes, a CMS migration can significantly impact your Google Ads campaigns if not properly managed. Since Google Ads relies on landing page experience as a quality factor, any changes to URLs, page content, or loading speed can affect your Quality Score and consequently your ad costs and positions.

Key considerations for your ads during migration include:

• Update all destination URLs in your Google Ads campaigns immediately after launch
• Ensure conversion tracking codes are properly transferred to the new CMS
• Monitor Quality Score changes closely in the weeks following migration
• Check that all ad extensions (especially sitelinks) point to valid URLs
• Update your Google Ads account structure if the website navigation has changed

At Radyant, we’ve developed a specialized approach for maintaining ad performance during migrations, including creating temporary bridge pages when necessary to preserve conversion rates while the main website transitions. You might want to schedule a strategy call if you’re concerned about maintaining your paid marketing performance during migration.

How can I prevent SEO ranking losses during a CMS migration?

Preventing SEO losses during a CMS migration requires meticulous planning and execution. Based on our experience managing migrations for growth-focused startups, these are the critical steps:

1. Comprehensive URL mapping: Create a detailed mapping of all old URLs to their new counterparts. This is absolutely non-negotiable – every single URL needs proper redirection.

2. Preserve metadata integrity: Ensure all title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and structured data are correctly transferred to the new platform.

3. Implement proper 301 redirects: Set up permanent 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones – avoid redirect chains that can dilute link equity.

4. Maintain content quality: Verify that all content migrates correctly, particularly paying attention to formatting, images, and embedded media.

5. Update internal linking: Revise all internal links to point to the new URL structure.

6. Preserve link equity: Ensure high-value backlinks are redirected properly to maintain domain authority.

We’ve found that using the right migration tools for crawling, redirect mapping, and post-migration verification dramatically reduces the risk of traffic losses. Most SEO ranking drops occur because teams skip crucial verification steps or rush through the testing phase.

What’s the difference between a CMS migration and a website redesign?

While often conflated, CMS migrations and website redesigns are distinct processes with different focuses and requirements:

CMS Migration:

• Primary focus: Moving content and functionality from one platform to another
• Core challenge: Maintaining technical continuity and content integrity
• Key concern: Preserving SEO value and marketing data
• May involve minimal visual changes if desired

Website Redesign:

• Primary focus: Updating the visual appearance and user experience
• Core challenge: Improving conversion paths and user engagement
• Key concern: Enhancing brand perception and conversion rates
• Can occur within the same CMS platform

Many organizations combine both processes, performing a redesign simultaneously with a CMS migration. While this approach can be efficient, it adds complexity and risk. Our experience with startups shows that separating these projects or at least phasing them carefully produces better results for maintaining marketing performance.

If you’re considering both, we recommend consulting our website redesign checklist alongside the CMS migration checklist to ensure you’re covering all bases.

Should I update my content during a CMS migration?

While a CMS migration presents an opportunity to refresh your content, we recommend a strategic approach rather than attempting comprehensive content updates during the migration itself. Based on our work with growth-stage companies, here’s the most effective approach:

Phase 1: Clean Migration

• Focus on migrating existing content accurately
• Make only critical SEO metadata improvements
• Fix obvious content errors or formatting issues

Phase 2: Strategic Content Enhancement (post-migration)

• Conduct a proper content audit once the site is stable
• Prioritize updates for high-traffic and high-conversion pages
• Implement a systematic content improvement plan

This phased approach minimizes variables during migration, making it easier to identify and address technical issues. It also prevents the common scenario where content updates delay the migration timeline, leading to rushed implementation and technical errors.

For content-heavy sites, consider setting up a content freeze period (typically 2-3 weeks before migration) to establish a clear cut-off point for what content should be included in the initial migration. This helps prevent the constantly moving target problem that plagues many migration projects.

Need more personalized guidance on managing your specific CMS migration? Contact our team for a tailored approach that protects your traffic and leads throughout the process.