Redesigning your website? Here's how to handle your old content.

A website redesign is an exciting process, and an opportunity to show a new version of your organization to the world. Along with this opportunity is an often-overlooked process: the challenge of content migration.

Here are our top tips for doing content migration right.

Create a Content Inventory

Before you begin the migration process, you’ve got to audit your existing website’s content. A thorough content inventory will help you identify what’s on your current site, what needs to be transferred, and what can be ditched.

Steps to creating a content inventory:

Audit all pages and assets: Use an automated tool like Screaming Frog to list every page, blog post, image, video, and downloadable file on your current site.
Assess content performance: To the best of your ability, take a look at the performance of each piece of content. Which pages get the most traffic? Which content has the highest conversion rates?
Identify gaps: As you review your content, look for gaps that the new website could address. Is there outdated content that needs to be updated, or new content opportunities based on evolving user needs?

A content inventory ensures that nothing important gets lost during migration and allows you to prioritize high-value content for the new site.

Consider Manual vs. Automated Migration

Keep in mind that depending on how your site is coded as compared to your new site, some content can be automatically migrated, and some must be handled manually. A good web development partner can help provide insight on this. It’s a question we recommend addressing early in the process, since the answer can have a significant impact on the project scope, budget, and timeline.

Preserve SEO Value

If not handled correctly, content migration can lead to broken links, loss of backlinks, and a significant drop in search engine rankings. For website managers and marketers, preserving SEO should be a top priority from the beginning of the project and throughout the migration process.

Best practices for preserving SEO:

Set up 301 redirects: If any URLs are changing during the redesign, make sure to set up 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones.
Retain high-performing content: Identify pages that drive a significant amount of organic traffic and ensure they’re transferred accurately, without changes that could harm their SEO performance.
Maintain metadata: Ensure all important on-page SEO elements, such as titles, meta descriptions, alt text, and headers are transferred correctly to the new site.

Test and Validate Migrated Content

Content migration is a complex process that can sometimes result in errors. It’s crucial to test and validate that all content has been transferred correctly. You can do that by:

Checking for broken links: Use tools like Google Search Console or Dead Link Checker to identify and fix broken internal and external links caused by migration.
Testing redirects: Ensure that all 301 redirects are working properly and that users are directed to the correct pages on the new site.
Review formatting: Double-check that all content, images, and media look great with the new design — including on mobile devices.

Communicate with Your Audience

Content migration can sometimes result in temporary issues such as broken links, missing content, or redirects that need fine-tuning. If you have a site with a lot of traffic or repeat visitors, consider letting your audience know about the redesign and any significant changes to the user experience. This could mean an email or blog post about the redesign, which might also include a way for users to provide feedback.