Knowledgebase

The Typical Migration Process

The typical conversion process from a different platform to WordPress looks like this:

1. Evaluate your current website. This will tell you what special features you need in your new WordPress website. This includes all of your content types – pages, posts, galleries, links, etc.
2. Set up your WordPress installation. You don’t need anything fancy yet – just WordPress installed on your domain.
3. Import your content into your WordPress website. Simple enough, right?
4. Set up your WordPress design. This includes your theme, colors, logo, menu structure, links, and so forth.
5. Test and debug as needed. It’s important that your site is ready for public use before going live. This includes all links, images, media, content, menus, plugins, widgets, etc., both internal and external. I recommend using a maintenance mode plugin while the site is being tested.
6. Go Live. This involves either moving your domain to your new host or pointing your URL to your new site.
7. Revise as needed. Don’t assume everything will be perfect when your site goes live. It is okay to makes changes.

Evaluate Your Current Website

Knowing what you have will help you figure out what you need.

Start with a Plan

Converting a website is a big project and you want to do it right the first time. I know it sounds cliché, but you need a plan to keep this train on the right tracks. You need to know exactly what your WordPress website should look like and how it should act. You need to know what you have, what you want to keep, what you want to change, and how you want it changed.

You need to know the specifics of what kind of site it is and what it should do. For example, are you moving a forum, paid membership, auction, school, or online store? Obviously, each these require different features. You’ll need to know all the details so you can find the right solution for your site once it’s on WordPress.

To do this go through your old site and take an inventory of its features. Look at and make notes for items such as:

• Menu structure
• Forms
• Ads
• Content types
• Backups
• Security
• Layout
• Branding (logo and colors)
• Special icons
• Slider
• Links
• Images
• Attachments
• SEO
• Multilanguage
• E-commerce
• Social media sharing
• CSS

What Needs to be Converted?

Answering this question will help you determine how to perform the conversion. Go through your site and ask questions then down your answers. This will allow you to build a checklist of items that will help you design your WordPress site. Here are a few more questions you can ask:

Do you have a large site? Will all of your pages and posts be migrated into your new WordPress site? If so, then you’ll need some good tools. If you’re only migrating a few posts and pages you can migrate them by hand.

Do you need a post type other than a post or page? If so then you’ll need to create custom post types.

Are you keeping the URL and link structure? If so, will you have to customize your permalinks? If not, you’ll need to use redirects to point to your new URL’s.

Are you using tools such as stat-counters, contact forms, email and newsletter forms, and maps? Will you need to keep them? Can you keep your current tools, or will you need to find equivalent tools?

Does your site have comments? Do you want to transfer them all over to your new site?

Do you have restricted content for members-only? How do you currently implement this?

Do you have an e-commerce site?

Will you have to migrate to a new e-commerce solution?

Depending on your current e-commerce package, you might have to upload products, choose new shipping methods, and choose a new shopping cart that’s compatible with WordPress.

Does your site have multiple users? Many different authors, administrators, or contributors? If so, you’ll need their information in order to set up user accounts.

Your New Design

You’ll use this information to design and set up your new website. It might end up looking the same (or similar), but you have to know what you need in order to keep it the same. This information will help you create your project’s to-do list.

You’ll need:

• Hosting
• Domain
• Settings
• Theme
• Plugins
• Widgets
• Menu Structure

I don’t recommend trying to make your new site a carbon-copy of your old site. I mean seriously… Why would you bother? Now’s your chance to make something better. Branding it so that it has a similar look and feel is a good idea. That lets your visitors know that it’s you (which is a good thing), but if you’re going to take the time to move it, you might as well improve it, too.

Set Up Your WordPress Installation

Next you’ll need to install WordPress on your domain or on an offline server. If you’re using the same domain you can use a new sub-directory to install WordPress to and then move the site to the original directory or point the domain that the sub-directory once the site is ready. This way your old site can remain active while you work on your new site.

WordPress Settings

Set up your permalinks, navigation structure, and user accounts.

Theme

Choose your theme and then choose your settings for your logo, favicon, and CSS styles. Some themes have lots settings built-in for menus, styles, and ad placement.

Plugins and Widgets

You’ll need new plugins for SEO, security, contact forms, maps, backups, maintenance mode, multiple languages, social sharing buttons, shortcodes, and stats. Specialized plugins, such as auctions, courses, e-commerce, real estate, and events, will require extra setup. If your old versions have export functions, such as exporting via CSV, then you can import your data into the new versions. You might not be able to port all of your content over, so this step might require extra time for setup and debugging.

Import Your Content into Your WordPress Website

Now it’s time to import your content from your old site to your WordPress site. This process takes the content from your articles and imports them into WordPress as posts.

To do the importing, you can use a script or a plugin. It’s possible that the WordPress Codex will have an importing script for your site. In your WordPress dashboard go to Tools and select Import. Here you’ll find the 8 most popular CMSs to import into WordPress. If your CMS is not here you can check the plugin directory. If a plugin is available, install the plugin and follow the instructions to import your old site into your new WordPress installation.

Importers are available for all of the major platforms including CMS and HTML coded platforms. There are also importers for WooCommerce, attachments, comments, users, media, and more.

If your platform is not on the list of plugins then you might have to upload your pages manually. For this you would create pages and posts one at a time by copying and pasting in your content. Make sure to retain your URLs and post titles. I recommend using a spreadsheet to help you keep track of titles and URLs. If you have too many articles to move manually you might consider hiring a developer to move the content for you.

NOTE: Be careful not to run the import process twice. This can cause duplicated or missing data or errors in your new database.

Plugins for Specific Platforms

If a plugin is available for your specific platform then it’s a good idea to use it. Here’s a quick look at some of the plugins that I recommend for the most popular platforms.