The editorial migration procedure for a website
Un projet de migration de contenu peut être définie comme le fait de transférer des données d’un site vers un autre. Plusieurs causes sont à l’origine de cette migration comme celui de la modification d’un CMS ou du nom…
A content migration project can be defined as transferring data from one site to another. Several causes lie behind this migration, such as a change of CMS or of domain name. There are several types of website migration, but the most common are restructuring a site's URLs, upgrading the content management system or simply changing technology. But how do you migrate a site's content after a website redesign? What is the procedure?
Content migration: the editorial migration procedure
Migrating a site's content is also known as editorial migration. It consists of using a set of methods whose purpose is to transfer data from an existing platform to a new one. To do this, you need to proceed step by step and draw up a list if necessary.
The first step of a content migration is to determine whether the transfer concerns all the content or only part of it. In this SEO migration situation, the URL plays an important role, because it defines the SEO attributes of your web page. It influences traffic, direct access to the site and advertising. It is therefore essential to keep the original URL in order to preserve the SEO legacy of the old site. Where the source URL is not the same as the target URL, you will have to use a redirect system.
Editorial or content migration raises the question of redirects. Indeed, it is imperative to set up 301 redirect links: a plan that permanently connects all the old pages in order to ease the transfer of the content structure. A 302 redirect, on the other hand, is only temporary. Note that editorial or data migration can be automated by relying on specific scripts.
Defining SEO objectives is also important in a content migration. The goal is to rank as well as possible in search engines such as Google. It is therefore imperative to carry out a content analysis or an in-depth content audit . Indeed, on the editorial side, the content migration must identify the pages and their source system. To migrate your website's content, use an Excel spreadsheet as a steering tool when transferring media, text or visual files. This tip, like rewriting the old files, will allow you to add new content.
The steering tool for the content migration must then take into account the date of the survey, the URL of the source page, the target URL and the inventory of media on every page of the site.
As for carrying out the content migration to the new CMS, it is the backed-up database that will be transferred. To make this operation easier, you can use a script or a specific tool available on the web.
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Website migration: migrating the content
When you redesign a website, it is essential to transfer the content. To do this, the first reflex is to collect and back up the data. The risk of losing data is limited by backing up the whole site. In such cases, a file transfer manager such as FTP is needed to migrate the scripts or images on every page of the site. To avoid getting lost along the way, you need to keep a list of each page or each step to complete.
Content migration also involves setting up a new hosting space. In this situation, it is advisable to configure the new host identically to that of the original site. The migration process is made easier by using, for example, Google Cloud or Google Drive, free tools made available by Google.
To guarantee a successful content transfer, updating the robots.txt files is mandatory. To do this, you need to go to the old site and remove all the robots.txt files. This is how Googlebot takes into account all the new redirects to the new site.
As for the new migrated site, check that its robots.txt will allow the files to be exported. If not, you will have to make some corrections before the content migration, in particular to fix 404 errors, for example.
If you change your site's domain name, it is important to reconfigure your Google Analytics account so that you can use it after migrating the content or blog posts. Creating a new view will help you collect the data using the new domain name.
Website or content migration also requires efficient management of the sitemap, in particular by using applications such as Google Search Console. It allows you to run comparative analyses while making sure the URLs are up to date for redirection. Search Console will also detect 404 errors during the content migration.
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As for analysing the site's performance, it takes place after the data migration. It covers SEO and loading speed. This analysis is done by comparing the new and old content, in particular on the main pages of the website or in the blog. Allow a certain amount of time for your site to regain an acceptable position in search engines such as Google.
Finally, to complete the content migration, the old site must be deleted. You can check that the operation was successful by using the IP address of the new content management platform directly.
Once the operation is successful, you should consider establishing a good marketing strategy and defining an editorial line suited to the theme of your WordPress site. Note that you can also merge several sites during these migration processes. The goal is always to give users a good experience on the platform.
