Switching content management systems (CMS) isn’t a decision most ecommerce sites make lightly. But when your existing CMS starts to feel clunky or insecure, or can’t keep up with your evolving business needs, migrating to a new CMS becomes essential.
A successful migration process can revitalize your digital presence, boost site speed, resolve performance issues, and improve your SEO. But the complex process is not without risks: broken links, missing images, formatting issues, and even data loss could affect the move.
Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you plan, prepare, and pull off a smooth transition to a new CMS platform.
What is CMS migration?
A content management system (CMS) is software that lets you create, manage, and publish digital content, usually for websites, without having to code it from scratch.
Think of it like a theater: the building already has a stage, lighting systems, seating, and backstage areas. When a theater company arrives, they don't need to construct the venue—they can focus entirely on their performance. Similarly, a CMS provides the technical foundation (hosting, databases, user interfaces) so you can concentrate on creating and organizing your content rather than building the underlying website infrastructure.
A CMS migration is when you transfer all your website data—including text, media files, metadata, user accounts, and any custom code—from one content management system to another. Think of it like moving your play, cast, and set to a new theater: the production stays the same, but the stage is new and, ideally, better equipped to support the show.
Types of CMS migrations
There are four types of CMS migrations. The right approach depends on your current setup and what you might need next.
Platform-to-platform
Switching from one platform to another—or platform-to-platform migration process—is perhaps the most typical scenario. You might move from, say, WordPress to Shopify, or from Wix to Storyblock. Put simply, you’re moving your content to a new platform because your current one no longer meets your needs and the new one offers better capabilities.
Traditional-to-headless
Traditional-to-headless CMS migrations involve moving from a platform like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal—where content and presentation are tightly linked through themes—to a headless CMS provider. This new CMS separates content from the front-end display, allowing greater flexibility in how and where your content is delivered.
Hybrid
You can also migrate to a hybrid CMS, which offers the best of both worlds: the flexibility of headless delivery combined with built-in tools like page builders or templates. This allows users to easily publish and manage content, while enabling delivery across websites, apps, and smart devices—all without giving up the editing experience of a traditional CMS.
Cloud-based
A migration process from an on-premise CMS to a cloud-based CMS is another option. If your CMS is hosted on your own servers, moving to a cloud-hosted platform can improve performance and reduce maintenance. Cloud providers typically offer best-in-class infrastructure and support to stay competitive.
Benefits of migrating to a new CMS
- Access more advanced features
- Improve site speed and overall performance
- Reduce workflow delays and content bottlenecks
- Enhance security and lower risk
- Strengthen SEO and fix technical issues
Switching to a new content management system offers several key benefits, including:
Access more advanced features
Moving to a new CMS can unlock tools your old CMS lacked, like visual editors, multilingual support, and better media management. These tools can make publishing content more efficient and reduce reliance on custom code, making content creation easier and speeding up workflows.
Improve site speed and overall performance
Slow load times or other performance issues are frustrating for users. If your old CMS has bloated themes, outdated plug-ins, or a rigid structure, moving to a faster, leaner CMS improves the user experience and makes it easier for search engine bots to index your pages.
Reduce workflow delays and content bottlenecks
Delivering content quickly and consistently can make or break customer trust—migrating to a new CMS with more streamlined workflows can help. For example, a CMS with a more efficient and intuitive publishing back end can help content creators publish on your site easier and quicker, while making it simpler to manage the content over time, even at scale.
Enhance security and lower risk
You might want to migrate to a new CMS to deal with security concerns. Outdated software, unsupported plug-ins, and self-hosted setups can increase risk—especially if your team is already stretched thin managing updates, patches, and backups.
Strengthen SEO and fix technical issues
If you struggle with search engine optimization (SEO), a well-executed CMS migration can be the best time to clean up all those little SEO-sabotaging issues. Issues like broken links, duplicated content, missing images, or poor mobile formatting are common culprits that hurt your search engine results pages (SERP) ranking. With a new content management system, you can build SEO best practices into your new platform from day one.
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CMS migration checklist
- Choose the right CMS for your needs
- Back up your entire system
- Run a thorough content audit
- Set up a staging environment
- Migrate website data
- Mitigate migration risks
- Conduct post-migration testing and final
Moving your entire website’s content from one CMS to another isn’t for the faint of heart, but with a solid plan, you can minimize the complexity and potential for error. You don’t need to wait for your system to fail—if it’s already slowing you down or misaligned with your goals, it may be time to make a move.
Here are the key planning, execution, and follow-up steps to successfully migrate your website from one CMS to another.
1. Choose the right CMS for your needs
The first step is to identify the CMS that best fits your website and business needs. Evaluate your current site to understand what’s lacking and what core features or improvements you need.
Is something keeping your team from fully optimizing its content workflow? Do you need support for multiple languages? Are there performance issues?
Talk to all stakeholders—from marketers to developers and content editors—to choose a CMS that supports your specific workflows and plans.
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2. Back up your entire system
Back up all your website data—your media files, custom code, databases, and server configurations. Keep a full copy of your current CMS environment in case something breaks during migration, and store your backups in the cloud and locally for extra security.
Before migrating, make sure to back up any custom plug-ins, extensions, or theme files, especially if you’re using a traditional CMS where these elements play a key role.
3. Run a thorough content audit
Conduct a detailed content audit (a review of all your site’s pages and assets), looking out for:
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Formatting issues
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Irrelevant or outdated web pages
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SEO problems like missing metadata or duplicate titles
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Large, unoptimized media files
All of these are great candidates for fixing or purging before the migration process.
4. Set up a staging environment
Never migrate your content to a live site. A staging environment (a non-public copy of your site) lets you test the migration and the new CMS and iron out the kinks before making it available to customers.
Use this environment to rebuild your templates, test new and old plug-ins and third-party tools, and fine-tune all your design elements.
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5. Migrate website data
Even if your CMS migration steps differ slightly depending on your platform choices, the core tasks remain the same:
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Export and reformat existing content. Pull your current content and adjust it to match the new CMS’s structure.
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Import media files with intact image paths. Make sure all images and files transfer over with the correct links so nothing breaks.
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Rebuild any custom code or modules. Recreate any unique features or functions your old site relied on.
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Map SEO metadata and redirects. Carry over titles and descriptions, and set up redirects so your rankings and links don’t take a hit.
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Preserve your URL structure. To avoid confusing search engines during reindexing.
6. Mitigate migration risks
To avoid common CMS content migration issues like broken links, missing content, or SEO drops, assign each step of the CMS migration plan to a specific team member. For example, you might ask your SEO lead to handle URL mapping and 301 redirects. A content editor may review and reformat blog posts for the new structure. Meanwhile, a developer takes charge of migrating media files and fixing broken image paths.
Set up real-time monitoring tools like Google Search Console for SEO tracking, uptime tools like Pingdom, and error log alerts through your hosting provider or CMS platform.
7. Conduct post-migration testing and final review
Before going live, thoroughly test every part of your site—ideally with team members with expertise in specific areas of the site, like product listings, landing pages, and menus.
Check for broken links and missing images, and make sure forms, login features, and search functions work correctly. Finally, test site speed, responsiveness, and performance across desktop and mobile platforms.
CMS migration FAQ
What is a CMS migration?
A CMS migration is when you move your website content from one content management system platform to another—often for better site speed, enhanced security, visual editing tools, or easier content updates. While there are risks, careful planning and a CMS migration checklist can help ensure a smooth, successful migration process.
What is an MDM migration?
MDM stands for master data management, which handles structured business data like customer profiles, product catalogs, and internal records. An MDM migration moves this data to a new system to improve accuracy, consistency, or integration with other tools. It’s not the same thing as content management system migration, but the process can follow similar steps—just with a different focus and data type.
What are the four types of data migration?
Data migration falls into four main categories:
- Storage migration. Moving data from one storage system to another, like upgrading to a new hard drive or cloud server.
- Database migration. Transferring data between databases, often involving structure or format changes.
- Application migration. Switching from one app or platform (such as a CMS) to another, possibly requiring data reconfiguration.
- Cloud migration. Moving existing data, applications, or services from local servers to a cloud-based platform.
CMS migrations often involve some combination of these, especially when you go from a self-hosted system to a more flexible cloud-based solution.
How do I get a CMS?
To get a CMS, choose a platform that fits your needs (Shopify, for example), then sign up through its website or install it on your server. Many offer free trials, and some are open source, so you can start testing before you commit.
