Your Content Management System (CMS) is a vital customer touchpoint for your business. It shapes user experiences, powers your site’s functionality, and manages the data that drives your digital presence. Your CMS should be able to keep up with business expansion or evolution. If your current system is outdated or unable to scale, it might be time to consider an upgrade. Upgrading to a new system can make all the difference in positioning your brand for the next stage of growth. Let’s break down what a CMS migration includes and why it’s a smart move for growing businesses.
What is a CMS Migration?
A CMS migration is the activity of transferring a website's content, data, and functionalities from one Content Management System to another, to improve performance, scalability, user experience, or to leverage more advanced features and integrations.
The actual process of migrating your website to a new (CMS) can be overwhelming, but with the right preparation, tools, and expertise, the process can be streamlined to save time and reduce errors. Whether you're upgrading or completely overhauling your existing website, CMS migration can be an opportunity to optimize your site's functionality, content, and user experience.
At ZenSource, we specialize in transforming your digital presence with ZenCMS, our Drupal-based platform. Our ZenSource tools simplify the technical challenges of migration and empower your team with the skills and resources needed to succeed in the long run. Here's how we make it happen:
- Expertise Across CMS Platforms: We specialize in migrations from Sitecore, Ingeniux, Kentico, WordPress, and other platforms, ensuring a smooth and efficient transition.
- Customizable Solutions: ZenCMS can be tailored to your organization's unique goals and integrated seamlessly with your existing tech stack.
- Migration Acceleration Tools: We leverage automation tools to save time, reduce errors, and maximize efficiency.
How CMS Migration Impacts SEO
Positive SEO Outcomes
- More mobile-friendy
- Page speed improvements
- Better navigation/ internal structure
- Structured data integration
Potential SEO Risks
While a CMS migration can positively affect your website’s SEO, there are some risks that come with this process.
- URL Structure Changes
- If your URL structure changes—whether due to subfolder adjustments or general restructuring—search engines will treat these as new pages. This requires setting up redirects to ensure users land on the correct content. However, too many redirects can impact site performance and user experience.
- Broken Links
- With URL structure changes comes a higher risk of broken links. Internal and external links pointing to old URLs may no longer work, leading to 404 errors that hurt both user experience and SEO. A thorough audit helps identify and fix these issues.
- Loss of Rankings
- Search engines need to process new site technologies and changes, which can temporarily disrupt rankings. Ensuring proper redirects, metadata retention, and structured data implementation can help minimize ranking fluctuations.
- Duplicate Content
- Certain changes (like switching from a www to a non-www domain) can accidentally create duplicate versions of your pages. Search engines may penalize sites for duplicate content, so implementing proper canonical tags is essential.
- Crawling & Indexing Issues
- Key SEO elements like robots.txt, noindex tags, canonical tags, and XML sitemaps are often overlooked during a migration. These settings control how search engines crawl and index your site. If they're not carried over properly, important pages may be deindexed, and crawl traps could emerge, leading to ranking losses.
How to Ensure Minimal SEO Disruption
- Create a migration plan before making changes.
- Crawl your site before and after migration to track changes.
- Use 301 redirects for all URL changes.
- Retain metadata.
- Test for broken links and fix them.
- Monitor Google Search Console for indexing issues.
- Check page speed after migration.
Common Challenges in CMS Migration
Even the best-planned CMS migrations come with a few hurdles. Here are some of the biggest challenges we anticipate—and how to navigate them.
1. Content Migration Cleanup
Automated scripts can handle most of the heavy lifting, but some manual cleanup is always needed—especially on high-visibility pages (like your homepage or main service pages) and those with complex visuals. Formatting inconsistencies, broken layouts, or misplaced media elements are common, so plan extra time for final adjustments.
2. Hidden Functionality Gaps
It’s easy for small but critical features to slip through the cracks during migration. Things like third-party data feeds, automated processes, or niche site functions may not be top-of-mind for stakeholders during planning. That’s why we always recommend building in extra time and budget to uncover and address any surprises before launch.
3. URL Structure and Redirects
A new CMS often means a different URL structure, which can break existing links and hurt SEO if not handled correctly. Setting up 301 redirects is crucial to ensure old URLs still point to the right content and maintain search rankings.
4. User Training and Adoption
Even with a well-built CMS, your content team needs time to get comfortable with new workflows, tools, and processes. Without adequate training, teams may struggle with updates, leading to inefficiencies or formatting inconsistencies. A structured onboarding program helps smooth the transition.
Steps for a Successful CMS Migration
1. Choose the Right CMS
The first step is arguably the most important step. Should you go with an open-source or proprietary platform? Each comes with their own benefits and drawbacks, but understanding your business's specific needs will help identify the right choice for you. Consider the following:
- Will the CMS grow with your business and support long-term goals?
- Does the platform offer the flexibility to align with your specific use cases?
- Will you be locked into one vendor for development, maintenance, or hosting?
For many organizations, open-source CMS platforms, like Drupal, offer a clear advantage. Open-source solutions are cost-effective (no licensing fees), highly customizable, and supported by global developer communities. These communities allow for constant innovation with ongoing updates, bug fixes, and feature improvements. Open-source eliminates vendor lock-in, giving you the freedom to work with your choice of partners or even build internal expertise.
Open-source is especially beneficial for businesses seeking scalability, flexibility, and control over their technology stack. For smaller organizations without the in-house resources to manage updates or support, proprietary solutions might occasionally make more sense. However, for enterprises looking for long-term growth, adaptability, and cost savings, open-source is often considered the more future-proof choice.
2. Conduct a Content Audit
Before the migration, you should take stock of your current content—what’s working, what’s outdated, and what needs restructuring. A content audit will help you make informed decisions about what to keep, revise, or delete.
Screaming Frog is one of the best tools for auditing content, especially when technical SEO is a factor. It can crawl your site, identify broken links, duplicate content, and gather metadata insights. Integrating Google Analytics with your audit can also help measure page performance, user engagement, and traffic trends.
Each page should be assessed through two key lenses:
- Universal UX Best Practices – Does the page serve a clear purpose? Is the design intuitive? Is the content engaging and well-structured? Are analytics indicating strong performance?
- Category-Specific Performance – Pages should also be analyzed within their content clusters. For instance, academic program pages may perform differently than "About Us" pages. Comparing similar pages helps ensure meaningful takeaways rather than misleading insights from unrelated content.
Once the audit is complete, the findings shape your new site architecture. Pages may need to be:
- Embellished – Strengthening high-performing pages with additional content or better UX.
- Merged – Consolidating redundant or overlapping pages to streamline navigation.
- Split – Creating separate pages when too much information is crammed into one.
- Deprecated or Archived – Removing outdated or underperforming content that no longer serves a purpose.
3. Integrate Third Party Data Connectors
Integrating external data sources into your website can elevate the user experience and improve operational efficiency. ZenCMS supports importing data in XML or JSON formats from proprietary systems or third-party services like Activity Insight or Ellucian. Imported data, such as faculty bios or course details, can coexist with author-updated content. Data updates occur automatically, which maintains accuracy without manual input.
4. Migrate Your Data with Auto-Migration Tools
Manual content migration is time-consuming and error-prone. ZenSource's foundational tools significantly reduce this workload by automating most of the process.
- Existing site content is cleanly imported into Drupal, minimizing the need for manual intervention.
- Features like automatic media de-duplication and auto-conversion of freeform images simplify the process.
- ZenSource's standardized templates streamline content inventory and starter scripts, ensuring consistency and accuracy during the migration process.
5. Test and Perform Quality Assurance
Before launching your new CMS, you must test everything from browsers and devices to user roles. Your site should look and function as expected. Think of this as the final checkpoint before going live.
The site should work smoothly on all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) and across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. A true 1:1 migration should function exactly like the current site—or better. This is the time to fix any lingering issues from your old platform.
Get all key stakeholders involved in reviewing the site. Content managers, designers, developers, and leadership should all click through, test functionality, and confirm everything meets expectations. The more eyes on it, the better!
A smooth migration isn’t just about looks—it also needs to maintain (or improve) your SEO. We configure Drupal’s Metatag and Schema modules to automatically generate meta descriptions, OpenGraph tags (for social sharing), and structured data, ensuring search engines interpret your content correctly. Additionally, a fresh sitemap.xml file is created to guide search engines through your new site’s structure, so that all pages are properly indexed.
6. Onboard Your Authors for Long-Term Success
It’s not over after the technical transition. A comprehensive CMS migration should also include setting your content team up to thrive in the new system. Proper author onboarding ensures that your team can manage and update your website post-migration, keeping your digital presence consistent.
ZenSource’s author onboarding includes the following components:
- Hands-on, instructor-led training tailored to your CMS implementation helps authors understand the nuances of your new platform.
- After completing training, team members can receive certifications, such as the ZenSource Advanced Drupal Author certificate, showcasing their proficiency.
- Whether your team consists of experienced content managers or first-time authors, our trainers guide them to full independence within a week, ensuring your site is always in capable hands.
Security Risks for a CMS Migration
A CMS migration doesn’t simply deal with moving content over from one CMS to another. It’s a perfect opportunity to review and strengthen security, particularly for websites operating in highly regulated industries like healthcare, education, and financial services. Conversely, a poorly executed migration can introduce new vulnerabilities, expose sensitive data, or cause issues with compliance. We recommend keeping the following in mind to mitigate these security risks:
- Preserve Access Controls and User Permissions: If your existing CMS has carefully configured roles and permissions, you’ll need to ensure those settings transfer correctly. Before launch, double-check user roles to prevent accidental over-permissioning.
- Maintain Secure Authentication and Encryption: If your current CMS uses multi-factor authentication (MFA) or single sign-on (SSO), ensure these protocols are properly reconfigured on the new platform. SSL/TLS encryption should also remain intact.
- Validate Code Transparency and Security: If you’re moving to an open-source CMS, take advantage of the transparency it offers. Open-source platforms allow you to inspect the code for vulnerabilities. This visibility means faster detection and resolution of security issues, often backed by a large community of developers actively monitoring for threats.
- Check for Vulnerable Plugins and Third-Party Integrations: Often, security breaches will arise from outdated third-party plugins. Before the migration, audit all plugins and integrations to verify they are actively supported and free of vulnerabilities.
- Protect Against Data Leaks During Migration: Data transfers offer a window for exposure, so encryption should be used during the migration process. When handling personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive business data, make sure backup copies are securely stored, and remove temporary files after the migration.
- Review Robots.txt, Noindex Tags, and Firewalls: Some security measures, like firewalls, IP restrictions, or robots.txt rules, may not transfer automatically. Before launching, verify that your site still blocks unwanted crawlers, protects admin areas, and prevents indexing of staging environments or confidential content.
- Conduct a Security Audit Post-Migration: Once the migration is complete, run a full security audit to catch any overlooked vulnerabilities.
A successful CMS migration can transform your website. If you're considering a move, our team can help make the process as painless as possible. Reach out today to learn how our CMS migration services can set your business up for future success.