CMS Migrations
Moving to a new content management system can solve long-standing limitations, but the migration itself needs careful planning.
Content, URLs, metadata, redirects, assets, integrations and publishing workflows all need to be accounted for. For larger websites, even small gaps in the migration process can create problems for users, internal teams or organic search performance after launch.
At Bright Labs, CMS migrations form part of our broader websites capability. We help organisations move from legacy or unsuitable platforms to a CMS that better supports their current needs and future plans.
Plan what needs to move
A migration should begin with a clear understanding of the existing website. That means looking beyond page count and identifying the different types of content, how they are structured and where important dependencies exist.
We may review:
- page and content types
- URLs and site structure
- metadata
- images and documents
- forms
- redirects
- search functionality
- user accounts
- integrations
- analytics
- tracking
- multilingual content
- permissions and workflows
- structured data
- custom functionality
The migration is also an opportunity to decide what should not move.
Large websites often contain outdated, duplicated or low-value content accumulated over many years. Moving everything into the new CMS can reproduce the same problems in a different platform.
Where appropriate, we work with teams to identify what should be retained, consolidated, rewritten, redirected or removed before migration begins.
For larger organisations, this may connect with website strategy or information architecture to make sure the new site structure reflects current priorities rather than simply replicating the old one.
Protect SEO and existing performance
Changing CMS can affect more than the way content is managed. URL structures may change, templates can produce different technical markup and existing metadata or structured data can be lost if they are not mapped properly.
For established websites, migration planning needs to protect the organic visibility and authority the site has already built.
This can include:
- mapping existing URLs
- planning redirects
- preserving important metadata
- reviewing canonical tags
- maintaining internal links
- carrying across structured data
- checking indexation settings
- reviewing XML sitemaps
- preserving analytics and tracking
- identifying high-value landing pages
- checking technical SEO requirements in new templates
Redirect planning is particularly important where content is being consolidated or the site structure is changing.
Rather than redirecting large numbers of old URLs to a homepage or broad category, we map them to the most relevant destination wherever possible.
After launch, we can also monitor crawl errors, indexation and search performance to identify issues that may not have been visible before the new platform went live.
Move content without losing structure
Content migration can be manual, automated or a combination of both. The right approach depends on the volume of content, the quality of the existing data and how closely the old content model matches the new one.
For smaller sites, manual migration may provide greater control. For large or highly structured sites, scripts and import tools can move significant volumes of content more efficiently.
The work may involve mapping:
- old content fields to new fields
- categories and taxonomies
- authors and ownership
- dates
- assets and media
- relationships between content
- metadata
- custom fields
- legacy formatting
Automated migration still requires validation.
Content can technically import successfully while appearing incorrectly in the new templates, losing relationships or carrying across formatting that no longer makes sense.
We test migrated content within the new website and check both the data and how it is presented to users.
For complex corporate websites and enterprise websites, this may also involve coordinating migration with multiple teams, business units or content owners.
Make the new CMS easier to manage
A successful CMS migration should improve the experience for the people responsible for the website after launch. We consider how editors create, update and manage content and where the existing system is making routine work unnecessarily difficult.
The new setup may include:
- reusable content components
- structured content fields
- clearer page templates
- publishing workflows
- user roles and permissions
- asset management
- SEO controls
- redirects
- scheduled publishing
- preview functionality
- multisite management
- integrations with other systems
The choice of platform depends on the organisation's requirements.
Bright Labs works across platforms including Craft CMS, WordPress and headless architectures, with the CMS selected around the content, integration, governance and technical needs of the project.
Where the change involves a broader shift in architecture, functionality or digital platform strategy, the work may be better approached as a website replatforming project rather than a straightforward CMS migration.
For organisations moving towards decoupled architecture or multiple front ends, a headless website approach may also be considered.
The objective is to move the website safely while leaving the organisation with a platform that is easier to operate and better suited to what comes next.