Where to start with a content migration plan

In this article I will share some tips on how to start with content migration.

I previously wrote about where to start with data migrations. These are different to content migrations as they generally rely less on user data and more on pure content like web or app pages with static or CMS driven content. Nonetheless, it is easy to under or overestimate how much work is required which is where a content migration strategy is crucial. Here are Cyber-Duck’s top tips to ensure your content migration plan is succesful:

A Cyber-Duck workshop

1. Import migration plan — Identify the scope of items and pages to export/import early on and ensure you assess the export challenges.
2. Governance — When you move to a new CMS, are the user permissions the same?
3. Redirects — If any old content is being moved or removed, ensure there are provisions in place.
4. Template model gap — Recognise what templates are changing and what edits need to be made. Your new template may require some manual or automated rework to extra things like dates, authors or other data into new fields within your templates. This could be time consuming to fix if you have a lot of data.
5. Brand — Recognise any changes needed to the tone of voice or graphical style. Sometimes even image sizes or styles might be off-brand if you are going through a radical redesign.
6. Content relationship — If the prior content had links to other content, ensure you recognise this and make the relevant provisions.
7. Audit ‘asset integrity’ — Do any images or downloadable documents need to be updated to match new templates?
8. Optimisation of assets — Once you audit your assets, is this an opportunity to do mass optimisation?
9. Meta data changes — Identify meta changes in folksomonies and search indexing so they’re updated on your new project.
10. CMS parsing — If you are importing content from one CMS to another (e.g. From WordPress to Silverstripe) each has its own parsing and formatting libraries. Some use Markdown, while others use WYSIWYG with full HTML or even a combination of both. Make sure you identify and ammend any content parsing issues.
11. Repurpose content — Based on all of the above, someone will undoubtely have to repurpose some of the content and then test it accordingly.

Finally, from my experience its very easy to underestimate the amount of work that goes into a succesful content migration that is fully tested and validated.

It does take weeks and not days but this will depend on how much content you have and how you’re changing it (within the new system).

A content migration plan should not be confused with a content or marketing strategy, although part of the content marketing strategy might contain a content migration plan! If you want to ensure you have a really well conceived content strategy including micro moments, this article will be very useful.