Move a site to another platform - an action plan, how to change a CMS or engine without losses

09.11.18 IT / Misc 6205

You may need to create a website at any time and for any needs. Someone seriously approaches this issue and immediately thinks over all the details, including on which CMS to make the site. But it may be that the site is created spontaneously, and after a while it becomes popular and the owner thinks about its further development. It may well turn out that the site's engine no longer suits the current needs and it is not convenient to work with it. Therefore, it becomes necessary to transfer the site to another platform.

Moving a site to another platform

So how do you migrate your site to another platform? The easiest way is to entrust this work to a specialist who has experience with all popular CMS and knows how to transfer a site without losing traffic and positions . For self-migration, you must first prepare an action plan.

First of all, you need to decide if the site really needs to be migrated. In most cases, if the site owner reads such articles, then the transfer is really necessary. After all, it often happens that the owner at an early stage did not understand the variety of engines and CMS, he just ordered a site in the first company he came across or from a developer on a "random" CMS. With the maintenance and development of the site, the owner notices that there is a CMS much more convenient, more powerful and safer - so he decides to move the site to another platform .

When the decision is made, you need to choose a new CMS to transfer to. It is best to use popular or unique CMS and frameworks .

Action plan for moving the site to another CMS

In general, we can single out a generalized action plan for moving the site to a new platform. It can be roughly divided into two stages. The first stage is working with the site on the old platform, which consists in analyzing the old site and preparing the site for migration :

• creating backup copies of site files and its database;
• collecting old platform settings and page rules;
• drawing up the project structure - sitemap with all addresses;
• compiling a list of site entities that need to be migrated - content, users, etc .;
• compiling a list of software used - modules, plugins, themes, as well as self-written solutions;
• data collection about the services used and their settings;
• export all data from the database and other repositories to a public format;

When the first stage is completed, you can proceed to the second - the main stage of site transfer to another engine . Let's take a quick look at it too:

• basic preparatory work - installing new CMS, modules and themes, as well as their initial configuration;
• detailed configuration of the site and all components;
• creating the required entities on the new site;
• data migration (import) and their adaptation. Typically, this requires writing code to import data that takes into account any differences in the data storage structure;
• transfer of rules for processing addresses and redirects;
• verifies that the transfer is correct and that there are no errors;
• miscellaneous tweaks and fixes in order to ensure maximum similarity with the project on the old platform;
• if necessary, make adjustments to the settings in the services in which the site is registered.

Dangers of site migration

As you can see, the list of jobs is quite extensive and it is important to site transfer correctly . You should not do this on your own without experience or entrust such work to inexperienced specialists at a low cost. Otherwise, the consequences of poor-quality or incomplete site transfer may appear in the future - there can be many of them:

• errors in the site and database;
• loss of positions in search;
• decrease in website traffic;
• high hosting loads;
• vulnerabilities and security problems ;
• inconvenience of working with the new CMS;
• loss of time, money, etc.

Thus, transferring a site to another platform is a rather responsible process that must be carried out in accordance with the action plan. This work should be done by experienced users or trained professionals.