February 26, 2025
We frequently receive questions about how to determine the time required for website migration, where to begin and how to effectively plan for the process. As this is one of our areas of expertise, we have developed a straightforward framework to help clarify the migration process.
We hope you joined our recent session during Optimizely’s Content and Beyond virtual event, where Janaka Fernando — Valtech’s VP, Practice Principal, Optimizely — discussed how to prepare for your website migration effectively, without losing sleep over it!
The four-question framework
When contemplating how your current site will migrate to a new solution, we follow the four-question framework to provide a guide to understanding the migration process.
To remove some of the technical jargon and make it even simpler, let’s imagine that your website migration is akin to moving home.
Question 1: Where are you going to live?
We cannot begin without knowing what your new home will look like (the size, layout, etc.) There are significant differences between a two-bed apartment and three-bedroom house.
These are structural questions to help understand the blueprints and designs for your new website. In the case of most re-platform projects, this is like having a developer build your new home from a plan. You’re not going to know everything until it’s built, but you will work from architectural plans and designs to make decisions.
Question 2: What do you need to take with you?
You’re moving to a new place. Will all your old stuff fit? Will it look out of place? Maybe, it’s a good time to decide what you need to take with you and what can be discarded.
You cannot get rid of grandma’s heirlooms, but that wardrobe you’ve dragged around three homes with missing pieces should be replaced with something better.
This is an editorial decision. We live with content for a long time on our websites, but sometimes that content no longer serves a purpose for our present needs. The best migration identifies content that can be removed and doesn’t tag along, cluttering things up.
Question 3: Will your old furniture look good in your new home?
You have items you’ve identified that you are keeping. Now you need to ensure that they fit and work in their new surroundings. This might mean adapting them, giving them a fresh coat of paint and upcycling them.
At this stage, you need to ask the functional questions. When you map content and functionality from your existing site, you need to understand if it will need additional tweaks, meta-data or other enhancements to work with the templates you’re defining for the future site.
Question 4: Who is going to move your stuff?
The house is built, you’ve planned everything that’s coming and now you need to actually move it! You could do it yourself in the back of your SUV, which is going to take a long time, or you could hire movers to come over, wrap everything, load it and do it for you. Whatever way, it has to wind up unpacked and in the right place.
Finally, these are the procedural questions. As the building of the new website nears completion, you can start to migrate across your content. This can be either automated, manual or a hybrid of the two. You can also get AI assistance with filling in gaps and automating some of the grunt work. It’s likely to be longer than you first expect, so give yourself plenty of time to perform this step.
Let’s talk about your migration
If you are interested in discussing your specific situation and want to converse with an expert like Janaka Fernando about your migration, we are ready to advise you.