"The day I moved my site to a new CMS… was the day I almost lost everything."
That’s how Sarah, a lifestyle blogger with over 100K monthly readers, described her migration nightmare. She made the leap from WordPress to Squarespace — thinking it would be a weekend job. What she didn’t anticipate was a flurry of broken links, misaligned images, and vanishing SEO rankings. Her bounce rate soared and organic traffic plummeted.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone.
Content migration can be like moving house in a hurricane — crazy, insane, and with so many chances to lose something vital. But this is the truth: it doesn't have to be that terrible. Done correctly, content migration is not merely a technical headache — it's a strategic action that can optimize your content, improve performance, and future-proof your brand.
Let's go through moving your content between CMS sites — without breaking your site.
- Start with a site-wide audit Before you box up your digital stuff, get a list. Which blog posts are still selling? Which product pages are ancient? Whose content has been meeting your near-term objectives?
Tip: Use tools like Google Analytics and Screaming Frog to identify the highest-performing pages and zombies.
- Backup Your Entire Site (Double Time) Before you touch anything, back up your current site — databases, media, content, and settings.
Most CMS systems have plugins or export functions to make this possible. For WordPress, plugins like UpdraftPlus or All-in-One WP Migration are a godsend.
- Choose the Right CMS for Your Needs Migrating from WordPress to Webflow? Or Joomla to Ghost? Your destination platform needs to align with your business goals, not the trend.
Ask yourself:
Do I need flexibility or convenience?
Will my new CMS support future functionality I might need?
Is it developer-centric or no-code focused?
- Preserve Your SEO Juice The worst mistake during migration is losing SEO juice. When URLs change or metadata gets deleted, you stand to fall off the SERPs.
SEO must-do actions:
Set up 301 redirects for all past URLs.
Use the same URL structure whenever possible.
Transfer all title tags, meta descriptions, and alt texts.
Update internal links to the new structure.
Scan for broken links and duplicate content with tools such as Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, or SEMRush.
- Rebuild, Don't Just Copy-Paste Now the fun part. When changing to a new CMS, do not just copy and paste the content.
Instead, take the migration as an opportunity to:
Refresh stale content.
Optimize pages for mobile and accessibility.
Compress images and optimize load time.
Reformat to adapt to the new CMS's style and design.
- Test Everything Before Going Live Preview and test your new site thoroughly before going live:
Are images loading correctly?
Do forms, buttons, and links work?
Is site speed fast?
Are mobile and tablet views responsive?
You can also create a staging environment to look over updates before publishing.
- Monitor Performance Post-Migration When you go live, the job is not over. Monitor the initial weeks of analytics:
Are bounce rates stable?
Are individuals finding content?
Are traffic declines happening suddenly?
Monitor crawl errors, indexing, and keyword changes with tools like Google Search Console.
Final Thoughts: Migration Isn't Just Movement — It's a Strategy
Migration of your content is a great time to reconsider your brand, simplify your strategy, and amplify your digital presence.
Don't let fear hold you back from migrating to improved platforms. With a clear plan, you won't lose sleep — or SEO.
Did you ever transition your site to a new CMS? What were some of your pain points? Share your tips or questions below — let's support one another avoid digital disasters!
