How to Move Your Site to Sitecore

Sitecore is one of the most dynamic, flexible web content management systems available today, which is why so many companies are looking for ways to migrate into this platform. With an advanced Digital Marketing System (DMS) and a scalable platform that easily grows with your business, it’s an easy choice for top brands, but how can you make the move to this CMS?

Prepare your current site

When preparing your site to move to Sitecore (or any CMS for that matter), you should ALWAYS start with a content inventory. This will give you a better idea of what is actually on your site, what content you’ll keep in your new site, what content you’ll repurpose / rewrite, and what content you can toss. You’ll also make notes on where the content will live and how it will be migrated in your content inventory. For a more detailed explanation on how to create a content inventory for your migration project, see our content inventory post.

One part of your site that you will also want to take note of is the critical functionalities. You should have your site’s functionalities listed out and why they are critical, you’ll most likely be migrating these items first.

Filling your empty Sitecore site

Now that you have Sitecore implemented, you’ll have to fill it up (like when you move into a new house, it doesn’t come pre-filled with furniture). This is another reason why a complete and detailed content inventory is key to a migration project, it will help you decide what you will put where.

A majority of companies choose to do a website redesign at the same time they move to a new CMS, so you’ll want to implement your newly designed templates into your Sitecore site before you start moving your content into your new Sitecore implementation.

Migrate your content

Now comes the actual action of moving your site into Sitecore. You’ll need to decide how you’ll be migrating your content - will it be manual or automated? If you’re moving into Sitecore, there’s a good chance you’ll be using an automated tool or automating with scripts for most of your site’s content.

And while automated tools are great, there will always be some content that needs to be migrated manually. You should make a note of this type of content in your content inventory (yet another reason you’ll want to put the time and effort into creating this document in the beginning of your project!).

Like any web development project, moving your site to Sitecore is not as easy as flipping a switch, but by doing the right preparation and / or working with a trusted Sitecore partner on your migration, you can drastically reduce your migration time and be up and running on Sitecore even faster.