Inventory what exists
List content types, URLs, owners, templates, integrations, and known quality issues before choosing a migration method. A count of pages alone misses duplicated resources, stale claims, broken attachments, and content that no one can confidently approve.
Classify items as migrate, merge, rewrite, archive, or retire, and give each decision an owner. This turns cleanup into an explicit editorial choice instead of silently carrying every inherited problem into a new interface.
Protect journeys and meaning
Map old URLs to intended destinations and test redirects, internal links, canonical references, and navigation. A technically successful import can still strand readers if popular pathways point to deleted pages or unrelated replacements.
Preserve meaning as well as fields. Review formatting, metadata, images, accessibility text, author information, and embedded media after conversion; automated migration often reproduces structure without confirming that the rendered content remains understandable.
Rehearse before the final move
Run a sample migration, compare records, and have editors test the resulting workflow before processing the full library. Record exceptions and define how corrections return to the source of truth during the transition.
Custom CMS Creation should establish redirect ownership, rollback expectations, and post-launch checks in the plan. A migration is complete when content is usable in its new context and critical reader paths still work, not simply when import logs say success.
From perspective to practice.
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